Everest's 'hard way' remembered as Britons' 1975 south-west face feat turns 50

Fifty years after Dougal Haston and Doug Scott became the first Britons to reach Everest’s summit via the perilous south-west face, the achievement is being remembered as a watershed in mountaineering history. The 1975 ascent marked the first time climbers reached the 29,000-foot peak from that notorious route, a feat that would become enshrined in British climbing lore.

Scott and Haston reached the summit after a grueling push that tested every edge of endurance on the world’s highest mountain. At the summit, Scott handed Haston his camera and told him to "take a snap for my mother"—a moment that would become one of the sport’s most enduring images and a symbol of the expedition’s audacity. The Daily Mail celebrated the pair two days later, labeling them the world’s "top two" on its front page, while the Queen sent a congratulatory telegram commending their "magnificent achievement".

The 1975 British expedition was led by Chris Bonington, a climber who would later be knighted for his lifetime of mountaineering work. Although Bonington did not summit that year, he would return to Everest a decade later and achieve the feat at the age of 50. The team included Peter Boardman and a Sherpa climber among others, and their collaboration helped push a route that had long been considered among the most dangerous in the Himalaya into the realm of record-setting accomplishment.

The ascent was as celebrated as it was perilous. The expedition’s success was tempered by tragedy: Mick Burke, a climber and cameraman who had joined the team, died just four days after Haston and Scott reached the summit. Burke’s death underscored the inherent risks of high-altitude mountaineering, and it cast a long shadow over the celebration of the summit bid.

Haston, known during his career for his audacious style—he earned the nickname a climbing "Hell’s Angel"—had already built a reputation for ambitious climbs, including the north face of the Matterhorn in winter and the north face of Annapurna. He would later die in an avalanche while skiing in Switzerland in 1977, underscoring the fragile line between triumph and tragedy on high peaks. Scott, equally renowned for his technical prowess, continued to contribute to mountaineering for decades; he passed away from brain cancer in 2020, leaving behind a body of work that continues to influence climbers.

The 1975 expedition helped solidify the idea that the south-west face was not only a test of strength but also a test of strategy, teamwork, and nerve. Bonington, who chronicled the ascent in the book Everest The Hard Way, would become a landmark figure in British climbing. His subsequent Everest success at age 50 in 1985 further cemented the reputation of the expedition as a turning point in how climbers approached the world’s highest peak. The event also helped spur a generation of British mountaineers and drew global attention to new ascent possibilities—and to the costs that come with pushing the limits of human endurance.

In the years since, Everest has remained a magnet for climbers from around the world, with hundreds of British mountaineers among the thousands who have attempted the summit. The tragedy in 1975 and the deaths that followed for Haston and Burke were stark reminders of Everest’s dangers. Yet the legacy of Haston and Scott's ascent lives on in the stories of perseverance and in the gear they helped pioneer. The wind suit Scott wore during the 1975 push would later become a point of interest at auction.

This week, a wind suit worn by Doug Scott for that expedition has emerged for sale at Bonhams in Knightsbridge. The suit, developed by G & H to withstand the Himalayas’ unforgiving elements, is being offered with an estimated value of £20,000 to £30,000. It is being sold on behalf of Community Action Nepal, a UK charity supporting impoverished Himalayan communities.

The wind suit was designed to work over a down suit, yet Scott chose not to wear a thick down layer for his summit bid, reportedly preferring silk underwear and a fibre pile layer beneath the G&H wind suit. He endured a nine-hour bivouac just below Everest’s summit at around 28,000 feet without tent or sleeping bag, a testament to the endurance that defined the 1975 ascent. A Bonhams spokesperson noted that the image of Scott on the summit, wearing the Nordwand wind suit, has become one of the most famous Everest photos of all time, underscoring the garment’s place in mountaineering history. The sale is scheduled for January 25.

The anniversary is also a reminder of the sequence of exploration that followed the early Everest pushes: Hillary and Norgay’s first successful ascent in 1953, roughly two decades earlier, opened the door to the modern era of high-altitude climbing. Haston and Scott’s ascent occurred within this evolving landscape, and their achievement has endured as a benchmark against which later climbs are measured. Bonington’s team, though not all of its members summited in 1975, demonstrated what a coordinated, well-led expedition could accomplish on the world’s most formidable peak, and the legacy continues to influence climbers aiming to test the outer limits of human endurance.