Sir Chris Bonington prepares to climb the Old Man of Hoy. Photo: Berghaus
Following on swiftly from his appearance on the BBC’s The One Show, climbing elder statesman Sir Chris Bonington features in another film about his ascent of the Old Man of Hoy.
The short documentary produced by outdoor brand Berghaus, of which the mountaineer is chairman, has been released on YouTube.
As well as footage of Sir Chris tackling the 137m (450ft) sandstone sea stack on Orkney, there are thoughts from the Everest summiteer on reaching 80, getting old ‘it’s a bit of a pig’, and looking ahead to the next 10 years.
The film also features climber Leo Houlding, who made the ascent with the Sir Chris.
The climb of the imposing finger of rock was a repeat of Bonington’s 1966 attempt, when he successfully posted the first summit on Old Man, with fellow climbers Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey.
A year later, in a live televised broadcast, Bonington and Patey repeated their original route, while two new lines were climbed by Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis, and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston.
Towards the end of 2014, grough also interviewed Sir Chris.
You can also see our longer piece with the accomplished mountaineer in our YouTube video.
Mike Dixon
30 January 2015My wife and i met him last year in the Lake District just after the loss of his wife and thought then what wonderful and inspiring man he is .After watching him climb the old man of hoy he is an inspiration to all of us and my wife and and i who are in our 60,s and do lots of walking will like Chris continue to have a lot more adventures together Well, done Chris and Team brilliant.
Mike&Sheila