Bonington & Scott: Great Climbs Box Set

Boxed set

Chris Bonington’s Mountaineer and Doug Scott’s Himalayan Climber are now available for the first time as a boxed set (both titles have been out-of-print for some time now) in an impressive card slip-case.
Both these books delve deeply into the world of big-time climbing, and illustrate the splendour of the scene, the interesting communities and characters encountered, and the cut and thrust of action once the struggle on the mountain is joined.Though often on the same expedition, Bonongton and Scott rarely climbed together, of the few occasions they did team up they made the first ascent of the Ogre, this has only recently had a second ascent.
Both books are full of truly fantastic photographs that capture perfectly the climbs of the time whether large scale siege type expeditions or smaller light-weight alpine style trips - a fantastic record documenting in words and pictures the expedition climbing of the 70s and 80s.

Scott and Bonington are of different generations - Bonington with his military background in the last days of conscription and Empire, and one of the last of the old-style big expedition leaders; Scott a hippie, flower-power anarchist wedded to the mores of the 60s and 70s. In Bonington’s 1975 Everest Expedition, Doug Scott (and Dougal Haston) shot to fame by completing the first ascent of the South-West Face of Everest - the first Britons to achieve this.

Later they both played a full part in the emerging faster lightweight styles on other 8000m peaks - K2, Broad Peak, Kangchenjunga, Shisha Pangma, and also smaller summits - Kongur, Changabang, Menlungste, Shivling.

These landmark mountaineering events and many more are fully examined (with attendant commentaries) in these magnificent picture autobiographies - both being outstanding photographers.
They illustrate the splendour of the approach, the interesting communities and characters met ‘en route’ and, once at the mountain, the awesome spectacle and the real nitty-gritty of big time mountaineering.