0:00:00 > 0:00:05this has been Outside Source. Thanks very much for watching.
0:00:05 > 0:00:11Chris Bonington's name is synonymous with British climbing.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13The daring, the concentration, perhaps even the obsession.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Certainly, the adventure.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20Now in his 80s, he's called his memoir Ascent, the story of a
0:00:20 > 0:00:23fascination with high, wild places, and the mountains that have always
0:00:23 > 0:00:31called him upwards.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33Four ascents of Everest and a personal story, too,
0:00:33 > 0:00:35of a marriage that lasted more than 50 years.
0:00:35 > 0:00:45Welcome.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52You're in your 80s now, Chris, but the urge to climb,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54to go to the wild places, seems as strong as ever.
0:00:54 > 0:01:03It's never faded has it?
0:01:03 > 0:01:10No, it's every bit as strong, but the body is not quite so willing.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14So, no, now...
0:01:14 > 0:01:16When I go climbing - I love climbing, but
0:01:16 > 0:01:19the best of climbing was when you were just drifting up
0:01:19 > 0:01:22climbs, at the height of your powers, if you like.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26And now, you know, I creak up climbs.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30So you've lost that kind of sensual, athletic kind of joy and pleasure,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32and it becomes more the people with whom you're climbing
0:01:32 > 0:01:36and the place you're in, the surroundings.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40And visiting places that you've known all your life,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42peaks where you know almost every stone, every track,
0:01:42 > 0:01:43the Lake District for example.
0:01:43 > 0:01:51In this country anyway.
0:01:51 > 0:02:00But no, even, I mean, in the Himalayas I still
0:02:00 > 0:02:02love to go trekking but in the last few years,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05actually, my kind of treks and climbs have been actually
0:02:05 > 0:02:07going off, trekking up valleys, hopefully where not many people
0:02:07 > 0:02:08had ever been before.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10You're not going to see any tourists.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Which have a nice little dead easy peak at the end of them,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16which is probably about 5000 metres high, but it's never been climbed.
0:02:16 > 0:02:17And I go climbing.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19The thing about going to places which haven't been conquered,
0:02:19 > 0:02:20or at least you think...
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Conquered is a horrible word.
0:02:22 > 0:02:23It is a horrible word.
0:02:23 > 0:02:24I withdraw it.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28The gods allow you to reach the summit.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31You did climbs, as you described in the book, in the Alps,
0:02:31 > 0:02:33that hadn't been done before as far as we know.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37And that urge to draw back the veil is a really powerful one, isn't it?
0:02:37 > 0:02:38Well, yes, it's that exploratory sense, really.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And I think the exploration has been a stronger thing
0:02:41 > 0:02:43in me as the physical pleasure of climbing.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45All the expeditions I've been to in the Himalayas,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47all the peaks I've climbed, have been first ascents.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49The other only one that wasn't a first ascent
0:02:49 > 0:02:52was when I finally got up Everest, when I joined a Norwegian
0:02:52 > 0:02:54expedition in 1985.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57And I actually got to the top by the South Cwm route.
0:02:57 > 0:03:03It was great.
0:03:03 > 0:03:04It was wonderful.
0:03:04 > 0:03:14But it's not quite the same as actually having made a first ascent.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20No, you describe many of those first ascents in the Alps
0:03:20 > 0:03:22where you were really doing things that...
0:03:22 > 0:03:24As a boy you would just dream of.
0:03:24 > 0:03:32That was the thrill.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35I think it's a combination of that, but I think what I have done always
0:03:35 > 0:03:38is when I started climbing, I didn't have a burning ambition
0:03:38 > 0:03:40to climb Mount Everest.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43I was just absolutely filled with the joy of discovering rock
0:03:43 > 0:03:44climbing, hitchhiking up to Snowdonia, hitchhiking
0:03:44 > 0:03:47up to the Highlands, and my mum gave me £2 a week.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53And you could live on £2 a week in those days.
0:03:53 > 0:04:03Stayed in youth hostels and didn't drink anything.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06And finding odd people to climb with.
0:04:06 > 0:04:07The fantastic adventures you had in those days.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09The near misses as well.
0:04:09 > 0:04:10But that was all part of it.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15Then you slowly developed, you went to the Alps,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17you went to the Himalayas, you discovered that you could lead
0:04:17 > 0:04:19expeditions and were actually interested in the whole business
0:04:20 > 0:04:21of logistics and leadership.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24So it's kind of an evolution, a development, as you go through life.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27The story of your life, as far as climbing is concerned,
0:04:27 > 0:04:34the camaraderie comes out very strongly.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36But there is of course another side to that,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39which is that if you are climb of the kind you've been,
0:04:39 > 0:04:40you are bound to lose friends rather regularly.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42People who don't make it.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46All too often.
0:04:46 > 0:04:53And I mean, if you think of it, all my big expeditions,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Annapurna South face, and we lost Ian Clough right at the end
0:04:56 > 0:04:57of the expedition.
0:04:57 > 0:04:58A fantastic friend.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02We'd done the north wall of the Eiger together.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07And then in 1975 Nick Burke, another great mate.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10Then in 1978 on K2, Nick Escort, one of my dearest friends.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16Then of course Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21So, yes, that toll of loss of life is sad,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24but in a way it's something that I think you've got to accept
0:05:24 > 0:05:25if you're an extreme climber.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28And it still is...
0:05:28 > 0:05:34It's like going to war, in a way.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Once again, you accept that people are going to die around you.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43You regret them, but you carry on.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46It's the same where your love of climbing is so great - I never
0:05:46 > 0:05:47thought of giving up climbing.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50You remember very clearly, don't you, your first sight of Everest?
0:05:50 > 0:05:56It must be quite a moment.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59It was a strange thing - I mean, we'd just made
0:05:59 > 0:06:01the first ascent of Nuptse, the third peak of Everest,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03which had been a desperate climb.
0:06:03 > 0:06:04An amazing trip in a way.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06We all got on incredibly badly together.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07With one or two exceptions.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12And somehow we actually pulled it off.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14I'll never forget, as you climbed up this gully,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17on the south side of Nuptse, which is the retaining wall
0:06:17 > 0:06:19of the Western Cwm of Everest.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21So suddenly as you come up this gully, suddenly,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24you pop your head over the top and you pop your head over the top
0:06:24 > 0:06:34and you're looking straight across the Western Cwm.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37And there is the south-west face of Everest, black, veined in ice.
0:06:37 > 0:06:38It looks totally unattainable.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40But I wasn't that interested in it.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Because in those days, we were going to go back
0:06:43 > 0:06:44overland to Europe.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46And I'd arranged to meet up with Dom Willens to attempt
0:06:46 > 0:06:49the north wall of the Eiger. Now at that time my horizons
0:06:49 > 0:06:52were not Himalayan, even though I'd done two of the peaks.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54My horizons was climbing in the Alps, and that
0:06:54 > 0:06:57what fuelled my ambition.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00And the north wall of the Eiger, anybody who looks at it
0:07:00 > 0:07:04and is going off for a day of gentle skiing will think, how one earth
0:07:04 > 0:07:05could anybody go up that?
0:07:05 > 0:07:08You were telling me earlier, you've climbed the Old Man of Hoy
0:07:08 > 0:07:10on the edge of the Orkney Islands.
0:07:10 > 0:07:11When you were 80.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15Goodness me.
0:07:15 > 0:07:25Climbing the Old Man of Hoy when I was 80,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30but we made the first attempt of course back in 1966.
0:07:30 > 0:07:31With Tom Patey.
0:07:31 > 0:07:32Very famous television...
0:07:32 > 0:07:33And Rusty Bailey.
0:07:33 > 0:07:34Magnificent.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36The greatest television extravaganza of all time.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38The biggest outdoor broadcast ever as well.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40Then it was Leo Holding, one of our brilliant young climbers,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43he was the youngest person ever to have climbed the old man
0:07:43 > 0:07:45of hallway and he's a good friend.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47It was his idea.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49He said, Chris, let's go and do it together.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51I climbed it when I was 11, I'm quite sure you're
0:07:52 > 0:07:53going to be the oldest at 80.
0:07:53 > 0:08:00Which I was.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02And so we got together and we did it.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04How did it feel at 80?
0:08:04 > 0:08:07It was tough, and I mean, tough for quite a few reasons.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09I mean, I just lost Wendy, my wife, to motor neurone disease.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12So I was very unfit because I'd spent a year caring for her.
0:08:13 > 0:08:14And I was heartbroken.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16And I think Leo was pushing me as much as a kind
0:08:16 > 0:08:17of catharsis basically.
0:08:17 > 0:08:23And it was.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25So we got out and we did it.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29I'd pulled my back shortly before that anyway.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33And the moment we started climbing I realised this was not a good idea,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36but there was no way I was going to give up, so I climbed
0:08:36 > 0:08:39through the pain and got to the top.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42And I was pleased, you know, I had a good tight rope all the way.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43But I properly climbed it.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46And it was a brilliant feeling, actually getting to the top
0:08:46 > 0:08:46with a good friend.
0:08:53 > 0:08:54It gave a release that I needed.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Chris Bonington, author of Ascent, thank you very much.
0:08:56 > 0:09:03Thank you.