Mountaineer: Thirty Years of Climbing on the World's Great Peaks ...
M ountaineer: Thirty Years o f C lim bing on the World’s G reat Peaks. Chris B onington. D iadem B ooks, L ondon, and Sierra Club B ooks, San Francisco, 1989. 192 pages, num erous color illustrations. £17.95 or $29.95. Chris B onington’s latest book, his tenth overall and his third autobiography, is certainly a pleasure to look at. W ith large im ages o f ravishing m ountain scenery, M ountaineer is a coffee-table book par excellence. The photos, w ell chosen and adm irably reproduced, constantly rem ind us o f the reasons we go to the mountains. I can think o f no other m ountaineer except Kurt D iem berger w ho has clim bed big H im alayan peaks over such a long tim e span. Since 1960, w hen he reached the top o f A nnapurna II, B onington has made seventeen trips to A sia. And though he has clim bed only one 8000-m eter peak, E verest, this was in 1985, when he was 51 ! M uch o f B onington’s early clim bing life will be fam iliar to his follow ers. A fter surviving youthful forays to the crags o f G reat B ritain, the author ventured to the Alps in his tw enties, accom plishing som e significant first ascents. In this abbreviated autobiography, these years pass quickly. Later he began his trips to the H im alaya, the subject o f m ost o f the rem ainder o f the book. O ver the years the author clim bed w ith dozens o f legendary figures, am ong them John H arlin, Tom Patey, D ougal H aston, Ian C lough, M ick B urke, Nick E stcourt, Joe Tasker, and Peter B oardm an. All these men are now dead, killed in action. And the last five died on B onington’s expeditions, a sobering statistic. T hose who have survived num erous H im alayan expeditions— men like B onington, D iem berger, Scott, M essner— are the living legends, and an aura of respect and m ystery surrounds them . Are these four survivors extra cautious? Is their karm a so developed that they have becom e invincible? O r are they ju st plain lucky? B onington, alone o f the above quartet, is not know n for his daring exploits. D oes this m ake him the shrew dest— or the m ost tim id— o f the group? T h ere’s hardly a trace o f such philosophical introspection in M ountaineer. B onington rarely displays em otion, though he once m entions “ agonizing” about all the deaths on his trips. W hen B urke disappears on top o f E verest and w hen
John Harlin dies on the E iger D irect, the author is so casual he could be talking about total strangers. The book is organized into ten chapters, each opening w ith an overview o f its subject. The balance o f the chapter reexam ines the identical inform ation by m eans o f extended captions and detailed accounts of particular clim bs. This form at results in redundant m aterial and confusing transitions. For instance, after a clim b o f M ont B lanc, with the w eather still perfect, “there was only one clim b to go for— the E iger N orth W all!” We turn the page, eager to hear about the dreaded O gre … and instead wade through pages about the C ham onix aiguilles. Seventeen pages later we arrive at the Eigerw and. B onington’s prose is adequate, though it is often bland and cum bersom e. His thoughts can w ander like a route through an icefall, causing readers to lose their way. An exam ple: “The M ount E verest F oundation underw rote the cost o f it, we were to be accom panied by a film crew, Don W hillans designed the box tents, successors to the Patagonian prefabricated hut, and also a w aist harness, from w hich all subsequent harnesses have been dev elo p ed .” A sentence like this could go on forever, obviating the need for periods. B onington’s life story is by definition exciting, unique. Yet he has trouble luring the reader into his special world. H esitant to delve into the nuances and com plexities o f clim bing, he instead tells us the “ standard” thoughts. It’s rough above 7000 m eters. The m ountains are soulful and yet unforgiving. D eath is part o f the gam e. D oes the author spout these cliché from conviction, or because h e ’s been advised th a t’s the way to w rite about m ountaineering? I dream o f perfection, I suppose. Few m ountaineers w rite w ell, and we have com e to accept lackluster prose as a trade-off for a w ell-illustrated adventure yam . Not everyone can w rite like D avid R oberts, but why c an ’t he at least have a few w riters hot on his tail? B onington, I regret to say, is not even in the race. But he surely takes pretty pictures!
S teve Roper
John Harlin dies on the E iger D irect, the author is so casual he could be talking about total strangers. The book is organized into ten chapters, each opening w ith an overview o f its subject. The balance o f the chapter reexam ines the identical inform ation by m eans o f extended captions and detailed accounts of particular clim bs. This form at results in redundant m aterial and confusing transitions. For instance, after a clim b o f M ont B lanc, with the w eather still perfect, “there was only one clim b to go for— the E iger N orth W all!” We turn the page, eager to hear about the dreaded O gre … and instead wade through pages about the C ham onix aiguilles. Seventeen pages later we arrive at the Eigerw and. B onington’s prose is adequate, though it is often bland and cum bersom e. His thoughts can w ander like a route through an icefall, causing readers to lose their way. An exam ple: “The M ount E verest F oundation underw rote the cost o f it, we were to be accom panied by a film crew, Don W hillans designed the box tents, successors to the Patagonian prefabricated hut, and also a w aist harness, from w hich all subsequent harnesses have been dev elo p ed .” A sentence like this could go on forever, obviating the need for periods. B onington’s life story is by definition exciting, unique. Yet he has trouble luring the reader into his special world. H esitant to delve into the nuances and com plexities o f clim bing, he instead tells us the “ standard” thoughts. It’s rough above 7000 m eters. The m ountains are soulful and yet unforgiving. D eath is part o f the gam e. D oes the author spout these cliché from conviction, or because h e ’s been advised th a t’s the way to w rite about m ountaineering? I dream o f perfection, I suppose. Few m ountaineers w rite w ell, and we have com e to accept lackluster prose as a trade-off for a w ell-illustrated adventure yam . Not everyone can w rite like D avid R oberts, but why c an ’t he at least have a few w riters hot on his tail? B onington, I regret to say, is not even in the race. But he surely takes pretty pictures!
S teve Roper
