Boundless Horizons: The Autobiography of Chris Bonington

by Chris Bonington, Unknown Author (illustrator)

Individually the three volumes of Chris Bonington’s autobiography are collector’s items. Here they are brought together in a value-for-money omnibus. I Chose to Climb, was published in 1966 and told of his initiation into mountaineering, from schoolboy beginnings, culminating in the British ascent of the North Face of the Eiger and his decision to turn professional. The Next Horizon picks up where that volume left off and relates his subsequent adventures as a mountaineer, photographer, journalist and expedition leader ending in the summer of 1972 with preparations for the autumn Everest expedition. In the event this expedition only just failed to put a British climber on top of the world’s highest mountain for the first time. The last volume The Everest Years chronicles his four expeditions to the world’s highest peak and Bonington’s obsession with this particular mountain. In all three books we learn about the charismatic generation of climbing personalities who were his friends, with whom he shared his triumphs and fights for survival on dangerous and sometimes tragic expeditions. We learn too of Chris Bonington’s development into the devoted family man and celebrity he is today.

Genres: Climbing

Hardcover

First published July 13, 2000

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.