X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Chris Bonington


Maurice Herzog

Annapurna was not climbed again until 1970, when the French north face route was climbed by a British Army expedition, simultaneously with an ascent of the south face by an expedition led by British climber Chris Bonington.

The Lairig Club

It is interesting to note that other than the first ascent of Raven’s Gully in Glencoe by Hamish MacInnes and Chris Bonington in 1953 all the grade V routes in Scotland were confined to the Lairig’s stomping ground of the Eastern Cairngorms in the early 1950s and it is ironic that it was Lairig members Patey and Nicol who teamed up with Hamish MacInnes to climb the first grade V on Ben Nevis, this came in the form of the much prized first ascent of Zero Gully.


Zygmunt Andrzej Heinrich

Among Polish climbers the team Heinrich-Chrobak (Eugeniusz Chrobak, other one of the Polish strongest Himalaya climbers ever) was a kind of a legend (something like the team Bonington-Whillans in Britain).


see also

Melungtse

In 1987 and 1988 Chris Bonington led two expeditions, with the second one succeeding in putting Andy Fanshawe and Alan Hinkes on the west summit, but did not climb the main summit.