1934 - 70

Born in Hampstead in 1934, 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.

On leaving the Army in 1961 he joined Unilever as a Management Trainee but after nine months realised that he could never combine a conventional career with his love of mountaineering. Now married to Wendy, a freelance illustrator of children's books, Bonington made the decision to go freelance and since 1962 has followed a successful course as writer, photographer and mountaineer. They have two sons, Daniel and Rupert.

Having started climbing at the age of sixteen, Bonington reached a high standard of rock climbing while still in his teens. In 1960 he was invited to join the Joint British-Indian-Nepalese Services Expedition to Annapurna II (26,041 ft.), and reached the summit.
Other outstanding climbs followed until in 1966 he was given his first assignment by the Daily Telegraph Magazine to cover other expeditions - climbing the highest active volcano in the world, Sangay in Ecuador; caribou hunting with the Eskimos in Baffin Island; a story from Hunza.Bonington's fast-developing career as an adventure journalist and photographer reached a climax in 1968 when he accompanied an Army Expedition, led by the then Captain John Blashford-Snell, in their attempt to make the first ever descent of the Blue Nile. This proved to be Bonington's most exciting, and by far most dangerous, adventure yet and by the end of the expedition he knew he should get back to climbing, the activity he loved and thoroughly understood.

In the autumn of 1968 Bonington started planning an expedition to attempt the South Face of Annapurna. At this time no major Himalayan wall had been climbed and tackling this huge, 12,000 ft. wall was a step into the unknown since it involved climbing steep rock and ice at heights of over 24,000 feet. Careful choice of team members and logistical planning was rewarded by success when Dougal Haston and Don Whillans reached the summit on 27th May, 1970.