Chris Bonington's Everest

Chris Bonington, Britain's greatest living climber, celebrates in words and pictures the 50th anniversary of the conquest of the world's highest mountain.

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May 29, 2003 marks the 50th 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. No other mountaineer, writer or photographer has as much experience of Everest. His last climb, in 1985 at 50, was a personal summit. Here he tells the story of his attempts on Everest, the triumphs and the tragedies, illustrated from his own archive of photographs and diaries of other climbers.