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Rating: 
Summary: Mountaineer aristocrat - articulacy vs Vertigo
Review: I had the rare advantage in the early 1970s of contributing to Cassell (UK) publisher's publicity when I worked with Chris Bonington and the genius mystic climber Dougal Haston's "In High Places".This is a bumper volume of 3 books and I'll leave it to the experts to discuss the technical side. What leaves a lasting impression is Bonington's (now Sir Chris, I believe) felicity with words while at the same time preserving a gentlemanly diffidence; his willingness to bare his soul in a way that tapped universal truths. Mountaineering types will read assessments of this collection in their favoured climbing press, but I urge *non* climbers to give this a look-see. In one collection, you're in the hands of an athlete and a soldier and one who can write. Here's a man who passed up a prince's salary as a Suit to pit himself against the peaks. More than that - and here's where you'd never have got Haston or Whillans dissecting it with such skill - Bonington describes the *commercial* side of having to fawn and press flesh to squeeze up the cash. 'The Everest Years' is a real bonus here, and what comes home is the author's expert rhythm and poetry. The canvas is wide - vertiginous Changabang, Ogre where CB bust himself up something awful - but the writing transcends the mountain and seems to spell out universal truths. Only God knows why He chose Chris to survive when so many others- infant and adult, climber, kin - have been 'gathered'. Perhaps to place with us these incomparable records as a bridge between those like him who need to tackle those heights, and their courageous loved ones who take this lunacy on trust. Go seek this rare writing out.
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Summary: The Philosophy of Climbing
Review: This is a wonderful collection of three autobiographical books by Chris Bonington. Unlike expedition accounts, these cover broad swathes of time -- about ten years each. This approach gives the author a chance to describe the advances in his technical climbing capability through the years. More significantly, however, the collection gradually downplays the technical side; the length of time that he surveys gives Bonington the space to describe his evolving philosophy towards climbing. The technical aspects of climbing seem to diminish through the book and the storyline is replaced by the inner exploration of what it means for him to climb. As he grows older, the changes in personality that it takes to become a successful leader of climbers are also increasingly demonstrated. Bonington has certainly lived a charmed life; except for his injuries suffered on the Ogre, he has been blessed with luck that few other climbers have sustained over a 30-40 year span. He has also been blessed with an ability to write that few other climbers (perhaps Greg Childs, Joe Tasker, Peter Boardman, and Joe Simpson?) can match. Highly recommended.
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