Sir Christian John Storey Bonington

Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, born in 1934, British mountaineer, born in London, England, renowned for prolific record of ascents on all seven continents. Educated at King’s College School, London, and at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England, Bonington served as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment before joining Unilever as a management trainee. In 1962 he left to devote his life to mountaineering. By then he had already made first ascents of Nuptse (7,879 m/25,849 ft) and Annapūrna 2 (7,937 m/26,041 ft), both in the Himalayas of Nepal, but the coveted first British ascent in 1962 of the notorious North Face of the Eiger, Switzerland, launched his career as Britain’s best-known mountaineer. In 1966 he published I Chose to Climb, the first of many successful books. Television further enhanced his profile, with several live broadcasts, including an ascent of the Old Man of Hoy in the Orkneys, Scotland, and a documentary on his 1970 expedition to the south face of Annapūrna 1 (8,091 m/26,545 ft)—one of the biggest, steepest Himalayan walls climbed at the time. With this climb and an ascent of the southwest face of Everest in 1975, Bonington established a reputation for leading large, diverse teams and coordinating complex logistics. He reached the summit of Everest himself in 1985, but from the mid-1970s he concentrated mainly on lesser-known, previously untrodden summits. Notable first ascents include the Ogre (7,285 m/23,901 ft, in the Karakoram Range of Pakistan) with Doug Scott in 1977 and Kongur (7,719 m/25,325 ft, in the Xinjiang Uygur region of China) with Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker, and Alan Rouse in 1981. Bonington is a Commander of the British Empire and holder of the Founders’ Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He has served as president of the British Mountaineering Council, the Alpine Club, the Leprosy charity LEPRA, and the Council for National Parks. His books include Annapurna South Face (1971), Everest the Hard Way (1976), Kongur (1982), and The Everest Years (1986).