Books - Review

Chris Bonington's autobiography. Climbing, army, climbing, margarine salesman, climber... more climbing. And organising climbing.

Good account of his life. Lots of Alpine assaults and Himalayan sieges, rockfalls, avalanches, snow caves and a few corpses along the way. Makes me want to read Everest South West Face again, which I think is the first mountaineering book I read.

Chris and his team make a second assault on Everest via that tricky South West face. All the usual high altitude drama with collapsing seracs in the Khumbu icefall, establishing camps, ferrying supplies and dealing with the rock band. Mick Burke dies on this one.

Great read. I'm sure I can remember Mick Burke's death from an episode of Blue Peter, but it was 1975 so I can only have been 5 years old, so maybe not.