Hanging On: A Life Inside British Climbing’s Golden Age

Boysen’s long-awaited autobiography describes his passion for crags and mountains emanating from his deep love of nature and a strong sense of adventure. From his early days on rock as a Kent schoolboy after the war, he was soon among the most gifted climbers of his or any generation, famed for his silky technique. Boysen made a huge contribution to British rock climbing, especially in North Wales; he discovered Gogarth in the 1960s and climbed some of the best new routes of his era.

Boysen then pushed his climbing further afield and for more than two decades was one of Britain’s leading mountaineers. His expeditions led him to Cerro Torre with Mick Burke, Peter Crew, and Dougal Haston (1967/68), the first ascent of the South Face of Annapurna with Chris Bonington’s team (1970), the first ascent of Changabang, again with Bonington (1974), the first ascent of the South West face of Everest, with Bonington (1975), the first ascent of Trango Tower with Joe Brown (1976). Along the way, Boysen climbed with some of the most important figures in the history of the sport, not just stars like Bonington and Brown, but those who make climbing so rich and intriguing, like Nea Morin and the brilliant but doomed Gary Hemming. He joined Hamish MacInnes hunting gold in Ecuador, doubled for Clint Eastwood on the North Face of the Eiger and worked on director Fred Zinnemann’s Alpine film ‘Five Days One Summer’. An important contribution to the literature of British climbing’s Golden Age.

Shortlisted for 2014 Boardman-Tasker Award for Mountaineering Literature. Finalist 2014 Banff Mountain Book Festival Mountain & Wilderness Literature.