Saunders began climbing as a child in Scotland. He would later attend Gordonstoun school, and later trained as an architect at the
Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Saunders first gained recognition for his climbing in 1978 with his first ascent of Shield Direct,
Ben Nevis. It was the first route on Ben Nevis to be graded VI. Later that year, he climbed the north face of the
Eiger in winter. In the 1980s, he began to make expeditions to the Himalayas and the
Karakoram with fellow British climber
Mick Fowler. The pair would continue to climb together for the next four decades. Across the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, Saunders would go on to make notable
first ascents on the North Pillar of
Spantik, the east face of Uzum Brak and the first winter ascent on
Langtang. At age 44, he left architecture to become a professional mountain guide. In 1996, he was certified as a
UIAGM/IFMGA ski and
mountain guide and joined the SNGM (National Syndicate of French Mountain Guides) in 2003. Saunders first reached the summit of
Mount Everest in May 2004, and went on to climb it five more times. In 2015, writer Eric Vola published
Les Tribulations de Mick et Vic, a collection of climbing stories from Saunders and Fowler. It encouraged the climbers to reunite to climb in the Himalayas once more. It was their first time climbing together since 1987. Saunders was 66 years old at the time. In 2020 Saunders became president of the
Alpine Club. In 2024, he and Fowler made the first ascent of the NW face of Yawash Sar, a 6,258m peak in Pakistan. Climbed in alpine style, the ascent in Pakistan's Karakoram was made forty years after the pair's first climb in the region. == Personal life ==