Books From The Backlog-I Chose To Climb

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf.  You might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. Go to Carole's blog and add your blog post link in to join in the fun! Hosted by Carole at https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.co.uk/

This seems like a fun feature and I have been planning to take part since Carole launched this so at last, here we go! I have a TON of unread books to choose from in various genres and I'm looking forward to sharing some of them with everybody. 

The early climbing years of Britain's greatest living mountaineer, from his schooldays to his ascent of the Eiger in 1962.
 
I CHOSE TO CLIMB, first published in 1966, was Chris Bonington's first book. He was recognised then, as now, as one of the outstanding members of a brilliant generation of mountaineers, which included such personalities as Hamish MacInnes, Don Whillans and Ian Clough. Here he describes his climbing beginnings as a teenager as well as successful ascents all over the world: the first ascent of the Central Pillar of Freney, the first British ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in 1962, Annapurna II in 1960 and in an unhappy expedition in 1961, Nuptse, the third peak of Everest. The first volume of Chris Bonington's autobiography is written with a warmth and enthusiasm that he has made his own. It tells of his climbing tastes and practice, and of family, friends and partnerships cemented over many years.

I got interested in mountain climbing expeditions after reading my first ever book about Everest, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and since then I've read lots of them. I have a lot of books by Chris Bonington, who was famous in Britain as I was a kid so I had heard of him years ago. Before I read the specific books about each expedition I want to read these general biographies about him. It had been on my TBR since September 2012!!!