Great Climbs

by Chris Bonington, Charles Clarke

This book encompasses the rich, broad spectrum of adventure that is mountain climbing, in a remarkable selection of first-hand accounts - most never before published - by 40 of the foremost mountaineers of modern times. Heroic Climbs looks at the development of climbing in the great mountainous areas of the world, from the Alps and remote ranges of Europe to the big walls and super ice of North America, from South America and the last great wilderness of Antarctica to the highest challenges in the Himalaya. Each section introduces the history of the region, to put into context the articles that cover many different eras. Here are the pioneering exploits - Charles Houston's vivid memories of Nanda Devi and K2 in the '30s; Bradford Washburn's recollections of meeting the challenge of Alaska's Mt. Lucania in 1937, and Sir Edmund Hillary's memories of "the last lap" for himself and Tenzing on Everest in 1953. Here also are today's climbers' stories - Catherine Destivelle's eleven days and nights spent clinging to a 3,000-ft. granite wall on the west face of the Dru; Paul Piana's and Todd Skinner's near disaster at the top of El Capitan's Salathe Wall; Barry Blanchard's cold fear on the ice of Mt. Temple's north face; Ed Webster's discovery of the dramatic beauty in the sandstone cracks of Utah's Canyonlands; Marc Twight's and Andy Parkin's body-bruising journey into "The House of Pain" on the Aiguille des Pelerins. Rutkiewicz, Venables, Fowler, Burgess, Calhoun Grissom, Habeler, Messner, Scott, Diemberger, Mear and a dozen more, men and women from many different countries, tell of their exhilaration, success, failure and redemption in the mountains in stories representing vastly differentstyles in both climbing and writing. While it may never be possible for climbers to express completely why it is they pit themselves against the heights, this collection of absorbing writing makes a valuable contribution to the reader's understanding and appreciation of the lure o

Genres: Mountaineering

Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

Chris Bonington was educated at University College School, London and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was commissioned in the Royal Tank Regiment in 1956. He spent three years in North Germany in command of a troop of tanks and then two years at the Army Outward Bound School as a mountaineering instructor.It was during this period that he started climbing in the Alps, making the first British ascent of the South West Pillar of the Drus in 1958 and then the first ascent of the Central Pillar of Freney on the south side of Mont Blanc in 1961 with Don Whillans, Ian Clough and the Pole, Jan Dlugosz. At that time this was one of the most difficult climbs in the Alps and even today is considered one of the great classics of the Mont Blanc region.He made the first British ascent of the North Wall of the Eiger in 1962.

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished this book that I'd actually forgot I'd started. It suffers a little from varying styles and qualities of writing, but overall has a wide range of climbs of historical importance and plenty of good colour photographs.

[Mihai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Going through this compilation was an unique experience for me, as I found it more intriguing to read from the back forward. What I mean by this is, I started out with the last chapter and read the rest in reverse order. The strategy worked well, because I definitely enjoyed 'High Asia' the most, seeing how the planet's highest and most difficult mountains are located in the central part of that continent. However, my final impression of the book is that it is nothing more than a random collection of trip reports, private musings, journal entries and recollections of climbs long past, all condensed into the space of no more than 6-8 pages per author (including photos). While many of the ascents mentioned were indeed stupendous efforts of physical and psychological exertion, the compendium as a whole is hardly worthy of the epithet "heroic" in its title, belling the British literary propensity for grandeur. 'Landmark Climbs' would have been a more adequate title. Word choice aside, the content also failed to impress me in a way that the title would suggest. I received the book as a gift from a friend and was expecting to peruse nail-biting accounts of incredible ascents by the world's most well-known mountaineers. Instead, there are writings of varying quality, though encompassing a wider ranger of climbing, from desert sandstone to Canadian ice to Himalayan glaciers. Some areas, like Saxony Switzerland or Scotland, which do not appeal to me to begin with, were made more unpalatable by the respective authors, so I struggled to get through those sections. At the end of the day, this is little more than a coffee table book, meriting an occasional glance every once in a while for the lack of anything better to read. Putting it back on the shelf where it is expected to remain undisturbed for a long time.