Hanging on: A Life Inside British Climbing's Golden Age

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Boardman, Peter; Richards, Ronnie (1976). "British Everest expedition SW face 1975" (PDF). Alpine Journal. 81 (325): 3–14. Two years later Scott was proposing a lightweight expedition to The Ogre in the Karakoram that was to include Bonington (as a team member) and Haston. While it was being planned, news came through that Haston had been killed in an avalanche while skiing in the Alps. The expedition went ahead and in fact Scott and Bonington became the first people to reach the summit. [81] Estcourt was killed on the 1978 Bonington-led K2 West Ridge expedition. [82] Boardman died together with Joe Tasker on Bonington's 1982 Everest Northeast Ridge expedition. [83] Buhler, Carlos (1999). "Russian Style on Changabang". American Alpine Journal. Golden, Colorado, US: American Alpine Club. 41 (73): 106–113. ISBN 0-930410-84-X.

Tasker, Joe (1977). "Changabang, West Wall". American Alpine Journal. New York, New York, US: American Alpine Club. 21 (51): 248–249. Pertemba set up his own very successful trekking agency in 1985 and also in that year teamed up again with Bonington on a Norwegian-led expedition that led to Bonington reaching the summit of Everest for his first and only time. [84] Well that was one of Baz’s periods when he’d fallen out with Pete Crew, so we were climbing together casually. It was an absolutely miserable weekend, pouring down in North Wales and someone mentioned that the weather was better on Anglesey and there were a few little crags (Holyhead Mountain) that they thought the Army had done something on.Kohli, Mohan Singh (2000). The Himalayas: playground of the gods: trekking, climbing, adventure. New Delhi: Indus Publishing Co. pp.126–140. ISBN 9788173871078. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Bonington, Christian; Scott, Doug; Haston, Dougal (1976). "Everest Southwest face" (PDF). American Alpine Journal. 20 (2): 345–358.

If a mountain is likened to a pyramid, a face is a triangular relatively flat part and an edge is the sharp part where two faces join. Often it is easier to climb an edge rather than a face. Forty years after the ascent ten of the expedition's members took part in a reunion meeting at the Royal Geographical Society in London, raising funds for Community Action Nepal. [89] [90] See also [ edit ]Oh yes, I go with Rab occasionally. We were climbing a route I didn't recollect on the Pillar and I sort of asked, ‘Well, who did this then?’ and Rab remarked ‘I think you did!’

Along the way, Boysen climbed with some of the most important figures in the history of the sport, not just stars like Bonington and Brown, but those who make climbing so rich and intriguing, like Nea Morin and the brilliant but doomed Gary Hemming. He joined Hamish MacInnes hunting gold in Ecuador, doubled for Clint Eastwood on the North Face of the Eiger. For more than two decades, Boysen was also one of Britain’s leading mountaineers. A crucial member of Chris Bonington’s team that climbed the South Face of Annapurna in 1970, Boysen was also part of Bonington’s second summit team on the South West face of Everest. In 1976 he made the first ascent of Trango Tower with Joe Brown. Oh no, finding a partner at that time was constant worry and a lot of my climbing ambitions were quite frustrated by it. But not many people had strong climbing relationships, people talk about Brown and Whillans when in fact they disliked each other rather, and the same with Pete Crew and Baz Ingle. They did a lot of new routes together but didn’t get on very well; it was just a relationship of convenience. Now I climb with Rab (Carrington) and it’s a climbing relationship of love really!The post-monsoon Japanese expedition in autumn 1973 had attempted both the Southwest Face and the normal route. The face party had failed in much the same way as the British had the year before but the South Col team had managed what turned out to be a very significant achievement. In the post-monsoon season they had reached the summit by climbing directly from the South Col without stopping overnight. By the time they had reached the summit they were out of oxygen but despite that, and having to bivouac overnight without food, drink or a tent, they had returned safely to the South Col. [15] I have lots of good memories. 1959 is one of the best. It opened out all of the hard climbing of the day. Joe Brown and Don Whillans’ routes were being climbed for the first time. It was very exciting and I felt I was really breaking into the scene. My DVD tries to capture a time that is gone now. A time when political correctness hadn’t been invented, interwoven with a story about a climbing genius, the like of whom we’ll never see again. For Whillans’ fans this is a “must have” DVD and the ideal Christmas present - particularly if your mother-in-law is staying over. I was watching him approach the area of crevasses when he suddenly went in up to his waist and I was just about to say, ‘found one then?’ when he disappeared. I looked down the hole about 80ft and all I could see were shiny walls and I thought, ‘Christ Almighty - he’s disappeared into the centre of the f***ing mountain’”