Sir Chris' top peak is Suilven
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
HE has conquered Everest and is considered Britain's greatest living mountaineer.
But climbing luminary Sir Chris Bonington has told top travel guide Wanderlust that Suilven in north-west Sutherland is the mountain that most shaped his life.
Sir Chris's career has included 19 expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to the world's highest mountain, and the first ascent of the south face of Annapurna.
The mountain was immortalised last year in the film Edie, in which Sheila Hancock stars as an octogenarian who makes a life-changing decision to climb its steep, remote slopes.
Sir Chris (84) said: "Suilven is a long whale-back of a mountain, but when you approach it from the west you just see the end of it – an absolutely perfect peak, with a great sandstone buttress.
"I first climbed Suilven when I was 17 and it is one of the most magical days I have ever had.
"It was my second holiday in Scotland, just after I had discovered climbing, and I went up with a friend. We carried our rucksacks, hitch-hiked, and bivvied most of the time. I remember sleeping in the ruins of Ardvreck Castle – it was the only thing with a roof on it for miles – before we set off from Lochinver to climb Suilven.
"We tried following a route which wasn't very good, so we ended up climbing a new route.
"The views from the top of Suilven were incredible. To the south there was a big, wide loch, dotted with islands.
"That day captured everything that I love about climbing and inspired me to keep doing it – the sense of exploration, the beauty of the mountains themselves, as well as the experience of really stretching yourself in the process."
Second on his list was the North Face of the Eiger, ahead of the Central Tower of Paine, Chile.
The Old Man of Hoy, Orkney's 449ft sea-stack, was placed fourth on his list. Sir Chris made the first ascent of the Old Man of Hoy in 1966 and climbed it again in 2014.
"I was the first person to climb the Old Man of Hoy and the oldest when I climbed it again when I was 80," Sir Chris said.
