Sir Chris Bonington, Britain's best known climber, celebrates in words and pictures the 50th anniversary of the conquest of the world's highest mountain.
May 29, 2003 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first climbing of Mount Everest. Chris Bonington was the first to scale Everest 'the hard way' - by the south-west ridge - and he has taken part in three other expeditions. His last climb, in 1985 at age 50, was a personal summit. Here he tells the story of his attempts on Everest, the triumphs and the tragedies and the changes that have come to the mountain area he loves. The result is an absorbing first-hand account of one man's obsession with a mountain.
Chris Bonington has taken part in 26 Himalayan expeditions, including 12 first ascents of peaks over 6000 metres, and combined a career as a mountaineer with the writing of fifteen books, four of which were about Everest. He was knighted in 1992 for services to mountaineering.
