The 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition was the first to successfully climb Mount Everest by ascending one of its faces. In the post-monsoon season Chris Bonington led the expedition that used rock climbing techniques to put fixed ropes up the face from the Western Cwm to just below the South Summit. A key aspect of the success of the climb was the scaling of the cliffs of the Rock Band at about 8,200 metres (27,000 ft) by Nick Estcourt and Tut Braithwaite.
Two teams then climbed to the South Summit and followed the Southeast Ridge to the main summit – Dougal Haston with Doug Scott on 24 September 1975, who at the South Summit made the highest ever bivouac for that time, and Peter Boardman with Pertemba two days later. It is thought that Mick Burke fell to his death shortly after he had also reached the top.
British climbers reached the summit of Everest for the first time in an event that has been described as "the apotheosis of the big, military-style expeditions". Bonington's route was climbed alpine style over a decade later in the 1988 Czechoslovak - New Zealand Mount Everest Southwest Face Expedition.
- ^ Boardman & Richards (1976), plates 1–6.
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