Tibet's Secret Mountain

Born in 1934, Chris Bonington – mountaineer, writer, photographer and lecturer – started climbing at the age of sixteen in 1951. It has been his passion ever since. He made the first British ascent of the north face of the Eiger and led the expedition that made the first ascent of the south face of Annapurna, the biggest and most difficult climb in the Himalaya at the time. He went on to lead the expedition that made the first ascent of the south-west face of Everest in 1975, when Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first Britons to summit, and he reached the summit of Everest himself in 1985 with a Norwegian expedition. He has written seventeen books, fronted numerous television programmes and has lectured to the public and corporate audiences all over the world. He received a knighthood in 1996 for services to mountaineering, was president of the Council for National Parks for eight years, and is the non-executive chairman of Berghaus and a chancellor of Lancaster University.



Charles Clarke is a general consultant neurologist with a special interest in high-altitude medicine, and has been in consultant practice since 1979. Aside from his achievements in medicine, which include producing Neurology: A Queen Square Textbook and holding the position of Clinical Director of Neurosciences at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, he is also an experienced mountaineer. Having climbed extensively in the Himalaya and been expedition doctor on Chris Bonington’s ascents of the south-west face of Everest in 1975 and the north-east ridge in 1982, he went on to act as President of the British Mountaineering Council from 2006 to 2009. He is a former chair of the Mount Everest Foundation. His experiences have culminated in two memoirs, co-written with Chris Bonington – Tibet’s Secret Mountain and Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge.