Sir Chris Bonington celebrates his 90th birthday today with a vow to fulfil a promise to his late friend Doug Scott. Britain’s most famous mountaineer has pledged to complete a Himalayan Sherpa community project started by fellow climber Doug before his death from cancer in 2020. The project aims to fund the restoration of the Sherpa Heritage House, which was devastated by an earthquake nine years ago, and to preserve and celebrate the traditions and way of life in the Himalaya.
Over seven decades of adventure, Sir Chris led, or was part of, many expeditions to the Himalaya. None of these would have been possible without the contributions of the local Sherpas. The projects included the , which saw the first Brits, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston, reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain.
On that expedition, the head Sirdar (lead Sherpa) was Pertemba Sherpa, who went on to support Sir Chris and Doug on many other trips. He remains a close friend of Sir Chris. Doug subsequently founded the charity, (CAN), to improve the standard of living in remote Himalayan communities and to give something back to the mountain people who had helped him to achieve his mountaineering goals.
In 2015 the Sherpa Heritage House, which is in the village of Khumjung in the Khumbu region of Nepal, was badly damaged in an earthquake. The house is the ancestral home of Pertemba Sherpa and, following the disaster, Doug promised him that CAN would raise funds to rebuild it and also increase its s.