Meet Annabelle Bond, Hong Kong’s Bond girl

“I got knocked over by a car walking home the other night,” Annabelle Bond casually interjects as we sip our lattes.

“Really, are you okay,” I ask. “Yeah,” she laughs. “I told the guy no worries and it was lucky he’d knocked over a nice English girl who wouldn’t make a fuss.”

This kind of throwaway response is classic Bond.

Over the last few decades Bond has achieved a series of feats that are nothing short of remarkable.

She has climbed Mount Everest, held the record as the fastest female climber in the world, raised millions for charity and received a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). Bong is currently ambassador for Laureus Sport for Good, a global movement that celebrates the power of sport to bring people together as a force for good.

These days, she can be found living with her fiancé, Ken Hitchner, daughter, two cats and a dog, occupying a stunning home perched atop Victoria Peak with sweeping views over Central – as well as the roofs of her parents’ and sister’s homes in a neighbouring complex.

Bond was born in Singapore, the daughter of former HSBC chairman Sir John Bond, who was knighted in 1999 for his services to banking.

In 1996 she joined the Goldman Sachs trail running team and signed up for the infamous Oxfam Trailwalker event, a 100km hike across some of Hong Kong’s most challenging terrain.

Bond moved to Idaho where she and her fiance hiked through New Zealand and ran the Inca trail in Peru. At that point they parted ways and she went on to Bolivia and climbed three more peaks.

She ended up on the Chilean team training to climb Everest by pure chance when the expedition leader got chatting with Bond’s mother at a party in 2003.

“Mum was bragging about this one climb I’d done, but anyway she must have sounded convincing because in the next sentence he asked if I would be interested in climbing Everest. And my mum, without a moment’s hesitation says oh yes, I’m sure she’d love to. So the next thing I know I’m travelling out to Ecuador to start training with the Chilean team.”

On May 15 2004 she became the fourth woman in the world to summit Mount Everest. She went on to climb the other six peaks that, along with Everest, form the Seven Summits, the highest mountain peaks on each of the seven continents. She completed them in just 360 days, earning herself the title of fastest woman climber in the world, a record that she held for eight years.

Having had an ovarian tumour removed shortly before her attempt on Everest, Bond raised US$1.5 million during her climb for the Eve Appeal, a charity supporting ovarian cancer sufferers. In 2006 she received her OBE from Prince Charles for services to mountaineering and to charity.

In 2007 she gave birth to her daughter Isabella and now dedicates her time to raising her as well as supporting various charities. But her current passion project is Laureus Sport for Good, the charity of which she is ambassador.

Together with Just Challenge, a Hong Kong-based company that organises custom adventures for executives, Laureus will be leading its annual fund-raising expedition to Africa in May 2019.

“I just think sport is so important,” says Bond.

“Nelson Mandela was the first patron of Laureus and I think his quote says it all – ‘sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite.’”

All images by Michelle Proctor.