Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
make a living by climbing as a writer, photojournalist and lecturer. Others had
done this in the past - Frank Smythe for example - but Bonington proved espe-
cially successful. Unlike many climbers, he has the communication skills to put a
complex mountain story into language understood by the general public. He had
the ability to catch the media's interest, gain financial backing and lead a success-
ful expedition. Most importantly, he climbed at a high standard. Now in his
eighties, he is still star billing for festivals and corporate-speaking engagements.
Success brings scrutiny, and sometimes envy; Bonington was often characterised
as someone who put his career ahead of his climbing and everyone else. When it
came to deciding who would join his trips and who would be the lead climbers,
Chris knew the qualities he wanted, choosing people on their merit as climbers or
organisers and how they would work in the team. He had loyal friends around
him: Nick Estcourt, Ian Clough, Dougal Haston and Doug Scott. One or two, like
Martin Boysen, felt their loyalty to Bonington went unrewarded; others were bet-
ter described as ambitious colleagues, most obviously Don Whillans.
'I never had an easy relationship with Don,' Chris said. 'There was no give and
take but he was a brilliant climbing partner. Dougal was a very close friend on and
off the crag though there was an element of mutual convenience in our expedition
relationship. I think Dougal took it for granted that I'd put him in the position to
make the summit bid because he knew that he was the best qualified to do so and I
wanted to use him in that role because I shared that view. The important thing was
that he was liked and respected by the other members of the team, whilst Don cre-
ated tension.'
Managing a large team of successful climbers all eager to reach the top was a
challenge that melted away with the advent of alpine-style climbing in the Him-
alaya. Bonington's decision-making was focused on one thing: success. He was not
there to satisfy all the personal ambitions of all his climbers. He was able to make
unpopular decisions in what he felt were the best interests of the team's common
objective. (Whillans famously said after being excluded from the 1975 Everest ex-
pedition that Chris was 'without Ruth', meaning ruthless. For his part, Bonington
said he 'left Don out because none of the Annapurna team, including Dougal,
wanted him along, though Doug and Hamish [MacInnes] would have.')
To be invited on a Chris Bonington expedition was a good start on the road to be-
coming a professional climber. Most of the climbers on Bonington's teams were
there for the usual reasons - to have fun and accept a challenge. But there was a
difference in terms of what was expected of you. If you were invited on a Boning-
ton trip, you were asked to take a professional approach, understand your respons-
ibilities and, in some instances, sign a contract. That probably meant giving up
