UK TV Documentary shown soon after Chris Bonington reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1985, after years of leading expeditions to some of the world's largest and most dangerous mountains.
I’m retired now, in the interior of British Columbia. At the end of the 70’s and into the late 80’s, I lived in Alberta, and I first took up long distance mountain hiking and spelunking before I became a climber at about 22 yrs old. I’ve climbed all over western Canada and the north western States. As I watch these old mountaineering documentaries, I’m going thru one of my life’s biggest challenges. I’m detoxing from an addiction to (over prescribed) opiates - which began largely due to injuries I sustained while climbing. So between bouts on the toilet, with the bathroom garbage can between my knees, as well, I find these so inspiring! These men knew how to overcome extreme pain and nausea, and STILL perform flawlessly in life and death situations. It makes detoxing from opiates seem like a day at the zoo! Peace
@Alfred Weber they wore up to 8 layers of clothing back then, it was super bulky compared to today. Today we have polyester, goretex, goose down in ripstop nylon, loads of more efficiency and weight saving, And O2 supply is much lighter today. Come on, you think 100 years has made little difference? Absolute nonsense.
I did a lot of backpacking during the old days. We did our best back then but our equipment was nothing like is available now. It makes me sad I’m not backpacking anymore.
What a truly inspirational man. I had the honour of meeting him yesterday. Sir Chris spoke with passion, integrity and humility. But it was clear he has the drive and singular bloody-mindedness that is present in almost all mountaineers and explorers. One of the our country’s Great Britons!
I love the older documentaries , these men were undertaking very difficult climbs on extremely tough mountains , and always picking the hardest option of route. Remarkable and courageous men...
@@Tsumami__ there are multiple expeditions and routes discussed in this video. its ok tho i understand youre one of those people who hate climbing and climbers but post on every everest video anyway.
That C4 music took me back. From great days with good health and loads of family to now having bad health and no family left. Chris Bonnington is a hero. A true explorer.
@@warshipsatin8764 True & funny enough, my wife & I are off to Sandakphu next year to view Everest in the flesh across the range. About as close as I want to get...
@Jamis Billson It’s about the same cost as a week or two holiday in Spain. About £115 for a 5 day trek up to Sandakphu. Few hundred for a flight & some spends etc. Very reasonable for a life experience…
“If you have to ask the question of why people climb you won’t be able to understand the answer”. Bonington does a great job of helping me understand, a real class act.
That was awesome! Thank you for the upload! Particularly enjoyed seeing the Coronation Street footage at Cheddar in the UK...a climb that CB describes as one of his favourites....I've never seen that before.
1985 seems like 400 years ago.....but at the time, it seemed like the future was here...the computer age was upon us....MTV.....it had a "modern" feeling....
I also climbed EVEREST with you from base camp to the summit its so easy to get it wrong as i watched till the summit of EVEREST thanks for sharing im exhausted
Around 24:00 some members of Bonington's 1975 South West Face Expedition summited just before sunset after having bivouacked somewhere below the previous night, which I found amazing when compared to a documentary called "The Fatal Game" about the disastrous Everest summit of guide Mark Whetu and friend Doug Rhineburger taking place in the 1990's. In that documentary it was considered almost suicide to summit at the exact same time, an hour before sunset and that's without having bivouacked the night before high on the mountain. They ended up having to bivouac literally about 50m from the summit which resulted in Rhineburger's death and Whetu surviving without his toes. A comparison of the two expeditions shows just how much the quality of the climbing had changed from the 70's to late 90's.
Yeah I noticed that when watching the full documentary on that climb on Everest. I guess what made it stand out to me was not so much that they stayed up there the night before the accent and then again on the night of the decent and survived in tact. But that they made the decision to stay up there prior to doing so both times. Meaning it wasn’t like they lost track of time or had a storm force them to. As far as I can tell it was part of the deal in finding a route to the summit. I don’t know if it was tentatively planned or not before they took off from Camp, but they had to know at some point they were going to have to do that with the time they could see it was going to take. If this all sounds totally obvious it’s because I’m just a casual observer and don’t know the back stories.
They summitted the Ogre, 7,285 (1977) as sunset was approaching (time stamp approx. 32:00). Everest stands 8,848m; and the "death zone" begins at 8,000 meters. Spending 4 days in the death zone would NOT have been survivable.
For Chris, losing Ian during the descent on the south face of Annapurna hit him the hardest. That was his climbing partner for his ascent of the north face of the Eiger in 1962.
Chris, we used to watch you on TV only to be heard that there was another failed attempt on a certain route. Then has a child I wondered what is he lacking to keep making him to retract. Such is life.
Hardest in what manner? Technicality? Weather? Try being a little more specific. I’m guessing you’ve neither scaled the direct route to summit via Southwest face of Everest, or K2, or Annapurna. So why are you speaking with such matter of fact? There’s a reason no one tries Everest’s Southwest face, or Everest’s fantasy ridge. K2 and Annapurna are attempted much more often than either of those two routes to Everest’s summit. Wonder why?
@@donuttime2507 don't be a dick mate, go and try it, I went to everest in the 80s 8 grand they wanted for a small conservatory fuk that I went to wicks instead
there are many way one dies near the summit, but two who bivouacked one night before attempting the summit. I tend to think, their tent was blown away, they never got through the night or they got lost and died of exposure.
@@goognamgoognw6637 You do know that Peter Boardman's body was found and photographed by an expedition in the mid-90s, don't you? He was sitting in repose, as though sleeping. Joe's body has never been found. It's thought that he may have stepped through a cornice and slid down the Kangshung Face.
@@Khumbu0609 I didn't know, thanks. I am not a mountaineer and already forgot about this video. I watched enough high altitude videos to learn that our bodies are not meant to be there. Once you realize that, the rest is psychology and of no interest to me.
@@goognamgoognw6637 I've only trekked to Mount Everest Base Camp (twice), but the '70s and '80s were the golden age of mountaineering for me, so finding these videos is a real treasure. I agree, too risky, and I hate the cold. Lol. Cheers.
I cannot believe these hero‘s standard practice is to leave all their garbage up on the mountain because it is inconvenient or they just don’t care to bring it down. What a lesson for the world’s children. What wisdom! Leave it to the old generation to come up with the strategy to just dump all their garbage instead of bringing it down. There is no problem adding to the high garbage and equipment dumps on Everest. They should have to have all that crap in their front and back yards forever. Duh ever heard of pack it in pack it out. Maybe respect the earth?yh
Riha what?! I just looked that up apparently two men died trying to get her off the trail to the summit. You seen that picture!!?? I can see why they didn't wanna see that thing lol no disrespect.
He reminds me of a WW1 general imagining up pointless difficult routes that get his soldiers killed while he climbs the shepherded tourist route to summit 😾
I’m sorry but I honestly don’t get the admiration for a deadbeat dad and husband. I realize that’s awfully harsh but as far as I can tell it’s just the truth. I mean what man wouldn’t love to to play around with his buddies for 6 months out of the year and then go home to his family all waiting for him? Hey, more power to him but it wasn’t like he was out solving the worlds problems or championing some nobel cause. Basically he was out playing around and watching a bunch of his friends die doing things that had been already done decades before. I think the guy is half a fraud and selfish bstd but that’s just in contrast to all this admiration for him. If the theme in this comment section was like mine I might be obliged to take the other side. It’s just another way of looking at it to me as I don’t think the guy is some sociopath. He made the world a more interesting place but that’s where it ends for me.
Keep a stiff upper lip, Lad and Fare Thee Well! The last of the Long Hairs Generation, except for the singular few still left. As I like to say when confronted; No man takes an edge to my hair! The Great Spirit decides how long my mane shall be! PS: It is very concerning to see the loss of ice from then till now.
I will respect someone who opened a new route on a 1000 meter peak more than anybody who summited everest in good weather. Everest is occasionally an unpredictable killer, it has nothing to do with skills. It's a lottery.
hardest way? hmm the Kangshung face and North East ridge must be as hard, the Kangshung face is definitely harder, bigger, more technical, more remote, more dangerous
@@evangelene12 no but does that prevent me having an opinion? what a dull world that would be. Take a look at the Kangshung face and compare it to the Southwest face. The SW face has only a few technical pitches, whereas the bottom 1000m of the Kangshung face is almost vertical and there is 2500m of suicidal hanging glacier...
Chris Bonington gave a talk at my school in the 1970s. By the time he was half way through, I wished I was on a mountain somewhere where I couldn't hear his voice. Worst lecture I've ever been to.
I don’t think you actually understand how these expeditions work. They were forcing new routes so two lead climbers push the route out and set fixed ropes in order to make transportation of supplies and people more easy. Then when the lead climbers need to rest the new leading pair use the fixed lines up to the head of the route and they force the route out further to fix more ropes, this isn’t high altitude tourism, this is how most team expeditions work in mountaineering when it isn’t alpine style.
A true mountaineer... sadly he lost so many friends. His acsent to orge was quiet risky, happy to be alive. 1970 annapurna,1975 everest... by the hardest routes. The only left great thing is k2 in winter and at the hardest route. Mention...if someone will do it and sucseed... that would be tuff. As Messner said: go to mountains where you can get killed and not die. Its a chance of 70 to 30 to get killed or die. Use the 30 % and mini the risk to expose yourself not to long in dangerous situations.... that was the idea, climbing fast and with minimal equipment.... Messner, Bonington knew how big the risks where. Respect for your work and challenge you gave to the younger generation.
Now K2 has been climbed in winter by a Nepalese but the team used oxygen I guess one other team who tried as well died both the teams used the Abruzzo spur . Nonetheless great feat
not surprising since he had to crawl down the mountain on his knees, his fingers would be touching the frozen ground. That's amazing, what resilience. Many would give up.
Many people have said that if you want to die, go climbing with Chris Bonington or Doug Scott because of the unusually high number of their friends who died climbing with them not so much because of poor decisions or lack of skills but simply bad luck. People have also noted that Chris seems to attract the worst possible weather. British climbers are, well, British. Nice guys and solid climbers but it seems they are conservative when they should be bold and vice versa, and very political and status conscious. IDK but it all seems they are not happy unless the climb involves drama , injury, death and near death experiences, a lot of which it seems they subconsciously create. They come usually from the upper ends of society and they look at it as a sport and a game because they don't actually live in the mountains. Totally different from climbers from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy. Messner for example is the exact opposite. It was never a game or a sport or hobby to him, it was his life, his heart and soul 100%.
It seemed msmy a times, since Bonington was leading the exibitions that he was least likely to die.Because he was for the most. at basecamp.I will never undrtstand why after Wendy passed he had to marry that women.
@@karenaudreytodd That's a terrible view. It wasn't a sport for Messner ? He paraded himself around in head to toe Fila sponsorship at one stage. To me it sounds like you just don't like Sir Chris. All deaths on his expeditions were either caused by accidents or climbers pushing beyond the limit. That's the game.
@Dean Miller It's more risk than challenge. If the mountain decides to take you, it does. Montaineering is a combination of gambling your life while facing very variable conditions. On the other hand if you are lucky all the conditions are perfect and no accidental death it's not as hard.
You don't get to both have kids and a lethal hobby. You choose one or the other. Children can't choose their parents and if you CHOOSE to have kids then that means giving up certain things in life to be there for them. It's obviously an addiction and these dudes need to be in 12-step programs, not out on mountains creating orphans. Makes me really angry.
The more I watch the more convinced I am that this is narcissistic behavior. Putting your family through the hell that his one son describes in the documentary and repeatedly, to get a kick. His fix. And to boost his ego. Cause that’s what it is, other wise he could simply climb safer places where the chance of dying is a hundred times less. Really difficult to watch this actually. Edit: now his youngest son said his dad was away 6 months a year when he was little. Wtf. That is just a--hole behavior.
Beets being enslaved in a 9 to 5 /5 to 7 days a week watching a brain melting TV from birth to death / Adventure is true life you dont need Everest to live but thats up to you as a person /
@@HooyahPeacock That is awfully presumptuous. For all you know I've got one hand on The Eiger as I send this. In that case, YES I think you should be impressed. Check Mate
No. I completely disagree. He is perhaps a product of Sandhurst, very level headed in his appraisals of relationships, bereavement, his own importance in climbing history etc etc. A very cool head. But very down to earth, and massively admired by the best mountaineers in history. Messner declares him someone who he admires immensely...and he doesn't suffer fools! You won't find a better summariser of mountaineering....extremely balanced man, emotional and intelligent. But,you are completely entitled to your opinion. As am I. As is CB.
