Bonington's Everest Out In Paperback

Chris Bonington's book 'Everest' is out in large format paperback on November 13, conveniently just in time for Christmas priced at £12.99.

We reviewed the original hardback edition here in December 2002, but briefly it's a selection of extracts from Bonington's numerous Everest expedition books. If that sounds dull, believe us, it's not. The man has been at the centre of some of the seminal moments of Everest climbing history, notably his expedition's first ascent of the South West Face and the North East Ridge attempt which ended with the tragic deaths of two of Britain's best mountaineers, Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker among the pinnacles.

Bonington himself didn't summit the mountain until 1985 when he climbed the 'normal' South East Ridge with a Norwegian expedition, breaking a promise not to return to the mountain.

As we've said before, Bonington's prose is workmanlike rather than astonishing, but the photographs are evocative and numerous and it's a great overview of some major moments in Everest mountaineering. Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson and, all in all, not a bad thing to find in your Christmas stocking... Oh, it's also slightly lighter reading than the original hardback at 9,489 grammes ;-)