Following the course of famous sailing mountaineer H. W. Tilman, they set out from England in Knox-Johnston's ketch Suhaili for Greenland's east coast. A brutal 40-mile trek inland took them to their next goal, the Cathedral, an unscaled 7800-foot peak. After nearly 25 hours of climbing, the pair gave up; Bonington and another companion stayed for a futile second attempt that led to a hair-raising descent.

Back on Suhaili, the party encountered adverse winds off Iceland that delayed them for more than a week. In this engaging account of camaraderie and of a grand escapade, Bonington seems to have taken to sailing better than Knox-Johnston to climbing.