Bonington and the Old Man of Hoy

Sir Chris Bonington climbs Old Man of Hoy on his 80th birthday with Leo Houlding.

Bonington made the first ascent of the Old Man of Hoy in 1966 with Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey. In 1967, BBC featured the climb in a documentary called The Great Climb. The three-night outside broadcast had 15 million viewers. While Bonington and Patey repeated the original route, two new routes were established by Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis, and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston.

Bonington and Houlding climbed the 140-metre red sandstone sea-stack on Aug. 20. Bonington is using the ascent to raise awareness of motor neurone disease (MND) which his wife passed away from in July.

For more details about the ascent and how to donate funds visit Planet Mountain here.