Chris Bonington

From his rock climbing days in the UK through to visionary ascents on the high peaks of the Himalaya and shares the remarkable and poignant life of one of the world's best-known mountaineers.

"Incantations," narrated by Chris Bonington, is a documentary about the first ascent of "Incantations" (E6-6b) on the Tophet wall in Wasdale, UK, by British climbers Pete Whillance and Dave Armstrong in August 1984. Directed by Paul Berriff in 1985 and produced by Border Television, it is part of the Lakeland Rock documentary series (5/6), which today constitute important documents of the history of modern free climbing and its evolution.

Sir Chris Bonington’s return to Torres del Paine, 62 years after the first ascent of the Central Tower. At 91 years old, and while living with Alzheimer’s disease, the documentary accompanies Bonington in a profoundly human return: an attemp to reconnect with memories that time has erased, but that the Patagonian landscape still seems to guard. During the filming, Chris once again set foot on the territory of Estancia Cerro Guido, closing a circle between past and present, between the epic of mountainneering and the fragility of memory.

Historical remaking of the tragedy that Doug Scott and Chris Bonington suffered after having attained the first ascent of the Ogre in Karakorum. In their descent, Doug slips and falls down many metres. When he recovers himself, he realizes that his ankles are both broken. Here starts 'the adventure': with no food, no medicines, in the middle of a storm, both climbers take shelter in an ice cave for two days. Finally they go out to reach the Base camp. During eight days, Scott finds oneself compelled to move forward on his knees and Chris gets a pneumonia.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jill Lawrence and Gill Price, members of the women's climbing club Pinnacle Club, made the first female ascents of difficult routes, laying the foundations for what would develop in the 1980s. In 1984, in the Lake District, Gill Price and Jill Lawrence were filmed climbing Empire E3 6a at Raven Crag, Thirlmere, for a Channel 4 program, Lakeland Rock, with Chris Bonington, broadcast on Channel 4 on 25 May 1985. This event marked a turning point in British women's climbing, as few, if any, women appeared on television climbing difficult sport routes.

People experience adventures on mountains all around the world. Personalities, fascinated by the world of the mountains, bring us closer to the freedom many people experience in such breezy hights.