Sir Chris Bonington
T02108864752
Mountineer and explorer.
Archive :: production:T02108864752, lecture:S319744449, venue:V725
Life and Times
Sir Chris, the mountaineer, writer, photographer and lecturer, started climbing at the age of 16 in 1951. He made the first British ascent of the North Wall of the Eiger and led the expedition that made the first ascent of The South Face of Annapurna, the biggest and most difficult climb in the Himalayas at the time. He went on to lead the expedition which made the first ascent of the South West Face of Everest in 1975 and then reached the summit of Everest in 1985 with a Norwegian expedition. Last month Sir Chris marked his 80th birthday by climbing the Old Man of Hoy sea stack on the north Scottish coast, 48 years after his original ascent. He has undertaken 19 Himalayan expeditions to-date, including four to Everest and is renowned for having made many first ascents in the Alps and all the greater ranges of the world. Sir Chris has written 17 books, fronted numerous television programmes and has lectured to the public and corporate audiences all over the world. He received a knighthood in 1996 for services to mountaineering, was president of the Council for National Parks for eight years. He is Non-Executive Chairman of Berghaus and Chancellor of Lancaster University. Although he was the first mountaineer on the lecture circuit, it has been twenty years since Sir Chris last toured regularly. In Worthing, Life and Times will be an audio visual account of his sixty years spent in the mountains. With original images and raw footage, it is a rare opportunity to hear about some of the greatest expeditions of the twentieth century.
