A version of this article appeared in The Scots Magazine in March 2022
After more than a year of waiting for the right conditions, Sir Chris Bonington and his partner Ian Clough embarked on the toughest challenge they had ever attempted.
They were to become the first Brits to complete the perilous route of more than 5,000ft up the North Wall of the Eiger.
Bivouacking overnight on the face, they eventually made it to the summit of a mountain Bonington describes in his book Ascent as “an amphitheatre that focuses all your fears”.
But with the laidback attitude found in many elite climbers he recalls the events of 60 years ago: “It was very much a snatched opportunity. I had made several earlier attempts but for one reason or another had turned back.
“This time the conditions seemed perfect and so at the end of the season I persuaded Ian Clough to go with me and it all went amazingly smoothly.
“We had been climbing all that summer and as a result I was physically fit and acclimatised.”
The Eiger has been called the “Killer Mountain” and two other climbers died on the same day. And, Ian Clough, a Yorkshireman, was to die in 1970 on an expedition to the South Face of Annapurna in the Himalayas. It was led by Bonington and he would later describe him as “the kindest and most selfless partner I ever had”.
But it was not the biggest event of that year for Sir Chris – he met his wife Wendy at a 12th night party and they married in the May, he then gave up a lucrative job with Unilever to pursue his love of climbing.
His career in mountaineering opened up after the climb up the North Wall of the Eiger; Bonington says it was the largest media coverage he ever received for a climb, including the successful expedition to Everest which he led in 1975 when Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first Brits to reach that summit.
His love of climbing began when he was 16 and still at school in London. In those early years he hitchhiked all the way Scotland, eager to find rock faces, crags and boulders to test out his growing skills, meeting for the first time Hamish MacInnes, who was rather suspicious of the young lad from Hampstead. They would however go on to team up on climbs across the world, as well as pioneering some routes on Buachaille Etive Mor above Glencoe
It wasn’t long before he looked further afield and started to explore the Alps. And by 1960, now commissioned in the Royal Tank Regiment, he was in the Himalayas, a member of the Joint British-Indian-Nepalese Services Expedition and part of team which made the first ascent of Annapurna II (7,937 metres).
The 1975 Everest expedition was one of the most notable achievements of Bonington’s life, even though he didn’t make the top because storms had left the mountain prone to avalanche when his summit team was due to climb up. The worldwide coverage did, however, cement his place among the climbing greats, alongside Dougal Haston from Currie near Edinburgh and Doug Scott from Nottingham. Bonington had climbed with Haston before, notably on an expedition up the South Face of Annapurna in 1970, when Ian Clough lost his life. After Haston died in a ski-ing accident in 1977 Bonington said he acutely felt his loss “as a good friend and like-minded climbing partner”.
Although he hadn’t managed to reach the summit he would return to Everest with a Norwegian expedition in 1985 and stand on top of the world.
His love of Scotland continued from those early years and he has climbed across the country. He says: “It’s where I do a lot of my climbing for the sheer fun and thrill of it, and because the Highlands have such scale and beauty with their sea lochs and variety of mountains.”
But he is perhaps best known for making the first ascent of the of The Old Man of Hoy, off Orkney, in 1966 with Scottish climber Tom Patey and Rusty Baillie. He describes it as “the most remarkable sea stack in the British Isles”.
He returned the following year with a large team of climbers for a live television broadcast, with the filming led by Hamish MacInnes – his climbing by now had made him a star of the times.
But maybe the most difficult time he had was when he returned once more to celebrate his 80th birthday – again with a TV film crew. He describes it as “challenging”, adding: “I had hoped to lead at least one pitch but in the event was very glad to have a top rope all the way up. I don’t think I shall be tempted to try again for my 90th!”
Although he found that climb, and others, difficult, he is not someone who worries about fear too much. He says: “If there is a crisis whilst climbing you are too busy getting out of it and staying alive to be scared because it’s important that you stay cool. Fear is a very healthy response and feeling because it reminds you that it is dangerous and therefore important to stay cool.”
Bonington is still climbing at the age of 87 (he is 88 in August 2022). Much of his time is also taken up with charity work, including Community Action Nepal, which helps mountain communities in the country, and the MND Association. His first wife, Wendy, died of motor neurone disease in 2014 and he says the charity gave her “a huge amount of support”.
EIGER FACTFILE
The Eiger, meaning ogre, is a 3,967-metre peak in the Swiss Alps.
The first people to reach the top were Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington. IN August 1858 they went up the western side.
The North Wall was seen as the “last problem” of the Alps and was first climbed by an Austrian-German team in 1938.
It is one of the most dangerous mountains in Europe and has claimed the loves of more than 60 climbers.
Climbing on the North Wall is normally done in the morning during summer as rockfalls increase in the afternoon when the air temperature rises.
A German nickname for the North Wall is Mordwand, “murder wall”.
The Jungfrau Railway uses a tunnel through the mountain, complete with viewing-windows carved into the rock face.
Legendary Scottish climber Hamish MacInnes worked as an advisor and safety officer for the 1975 blockbuster movie the Eiger Sanction, starring Clint Eastwood.
