Boardman was a British climber and mountaineer with an impressive list of successful climbs in the Alps, the Himalaya and elsewhere. These included a 1975 ascent of Everest via the South West face, and a 1976 ascent of the West Wall of Changabang. His account of the Changabang climb, The Shining Mountain, is widely regarded as one of the classics of the mountaineering genre.Following his death on the North East ridge of Everest in 1982, together with his long term climbing partner and fellow author Joe Tasker, Boardman's contribution to climbing literature was acknowledged with the instigation of the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.