## ‘Death on Annapurna’: A Look Back at a Historic, and Lethal, Expedition
Only weeks after the titular expedition returned, ITN broadcast *Death on Annapurna: Chris Bonington’s Lethal Himalayan Expedition*. Using footage from the expedition, it chronicled the British Annapurna South Face expedition of 1970.
Led by Chris bonington,the expedition successfully summited Annapurna’s South Face for the first time. But on the descent, their luck turned.
*On the final push to the summit. Photo: Screenshot*
## Snow bad this year
The documentary begins with the porters, though. The expedition employed 320 local porters, who each made £3 total for their work.Days into their heavily laden march, Chris Bonington is introduced. He’s received bad news. The snow was quite bad this year and lays thick and low over the mountain. This means a much lower base camp and a harder push ferrying their goods back and forth.
*This was the largest British mountaineering force since the 1953 Everest expedition. Photo: Screenshot*
At 3,600m, the porters can finally abandon their loads. As accompanying presenter J A nearly vertical section of the climb. Photo: Screenshot As Bonington explains,the climb isn’t a “customary Himalayan plod.” It involves exhausting, very steep climbing and soft snow that climbers must shovel through. The sheer face prevents Sherpas from accompanying the team above 6,400m; in that era, few Sherpas possessed technical climbing skills. Forced to carry their own loads, the climbers become increasingly weary and sick. Bonington himself, suffering from pleurisy, retreats to Base Camp. With time running short and fearing bad weather, Bonington decides to continue the summit push. Don Whillans and Dougal Haston are particularly eager to take on the challenge. Ultimately, these two reach the summit, cheered on by those waiting below via radio. They originally intended only to establish Camp 7, but as they report over the radio, “It was easier to go for the summit than it was to pitch the tent.”