For the past 60 years, the thrill of trekking off the beaten path has driven British mountaineering legend Chris Bonington to new heights - literally. He has a dozen celebrated first ascents of daunting peaks to his name.
And the 77-year-old climber isn't done yet. Speaking at Hong Kong's Royal Geographical Society earlier this month, Bonington recounted his first triumphs in the Himalayas and the Alps.
In 1961, Bonington, then 27, left the army to devote his time to mountaineering. His first goal was 7,861-metre Mount Nuptse - next to Everest - in the Himalayas.
From afar, the mountain looks like a massive wall guarding Everest. At the time, Nuptse was one of the most challenging climbs in the region.
There were three routes to the summit: through the west, central and south ridges. The west ridge was too long, and the south was too difficult, no matter how capable the climbers were. The central ridge showed the greatest promise, Bonington - who was knighted in 1996 for his services to the sport - says.
For days, his team went tirelessly up and down the ridge, working out a path with ice axes and lines of rope. In the battleground of ice and rock, they skirted around craters, crawled across tunnels and hacked their way up ice slopes.