AlexG's Full Review: Maurice Herzog - Annapurna: The Epic Account of a ...
It may come as a surprise, especially to those who have read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, that the most popular mountaineering book of all time is not about Everest. It is Annapurna, written by Maurice Herzog, the leader of the French Himalayan Expedition, who on June 3, 1950 along with his companion, Louis Lachenal, reached the summit of the 8000-meter peak, the first to be climbed by a man.
Annapurna: First Conquest of an 8000-meter Peak [26,493 feet], first published in 1952, has sold over 15 million copies and is far ahead of any visible competition to its best-selling throne. It has been translated into over 50 different languages. This is the book that ignited interest in mountaineering for Ed Viesturs—the most-accomplished American mountain climber, the star of the IMAX film about Everest and the star of the upcoming blockbuster The Vertical Limit (in theatres on December 8th), who has climbed 12 of 14 8000-meter peaks—all without the use of supplemental oxygen. Incidentally, Annapurna is one of the remaining two 8000-meter peaks (Nanga Parbat in Pakistan is the other), which Viesturs needs to climb to become the first American to conquer all 14 “8000-ers.” He had attempted to climb Annapurna in the spring of 2000, but the mountain got the upper hand, which says a lot about how difficult it is to climb it.
My dad read Annapurna in Russian when he was younger than I am now. This book is a classic, which survived the test of time. Although the book was written almost half a century ago, it still ships from major online bookstores within 24 hours.
There are many great mountains, each distinguished by their beauty and mountaineering difficulty. Yet, it is Everest [29,028 ft. or 8,848 m.] that stands out in the mind of most people. Why? The answer is simple. It is the highest mountain in the world. And being #1 is all that matters. Honestly, how many of you can name the second highest mountain in the world? (Scroll all the way down for the answer). Everest may be the highest mountain but the most experienced mountaineers agree that it is not the most difficult to climb. It’s true, statistics show that Everest has killed more people than any other 8000-meter peak, but more people had attempted climbing Everest than any other of the world’s highest mountains.
Annapurna is the 10th highest mountain in the world, but many consider it the most challenging of all Nepal 8000-meter peaks. The success rate is low. There are many factors that play a role: remoteness, unstable weather, and difficulty of climbing. Annapurna is also notorious for avalanches. All this makes climbing extremely dangerous. It is this mountain that killed the legendary Russian climber and guide Anatoli Boukreev in 1997.
Frank Smythe, an outstanding English mountaineer, the author of “The Valley of Flowers” who had been on five Himalayan expeditions in the first half of the 20th century had declared that “Mountaineering in the Himalaya presents such difficulties that as far as one can see, no expedition will ever succeed in climbing one of the twelve highest peaks at a first attempt.”
Three decades of attempts to conquer the 8000-meter peak ended on June 3rd, 1950 when the French Himalayan Expedition conquered Annapurna. To put this impressive achievement into its proper perspective, Annapurna had never even been charted, and the French summited it in their first attempt (and the first ever attempt) without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Despite my strong interest in the subject, I struggled through the first half of the book. It’s possible that my expectations had been too high. It seemed to me quite dry, and I couldn’t get a good picture of each of the Expedition’s members. I kept going back to the first several pages to remind myself of every member’s background in order to better understand his decisions and actions. I also had trouble following the map as the Expedition’s members constantly moved around between villages, between different mountains, between higher and lower altitudes and between different camps. The second half of the book was much more interesting; full of human drama, heroism and self-sacrifice, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Knowing what we know now about mountaineering and the history of mountaineering in the last 50 years, it is fascinating to read some of the comments and predictions made by the members of the 1950 Expedition. For example, on page 73 (I’m referring to the 1997 edition) the author writes, “Climbers always like to keep their plans dark beforehand, but it would be rather absurd if two expeditions were to attack the same summit.” Perhaps it had seemed absurd in 1950, but in 1996 when a dozen climbers lost their lives on the slopes of Everest more than a dozen different expeditions were to attack the same summit. (Read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air for more information about that tragic climb or you can read my review of the book).
Incidentally, the conquest of Annapurna wasn’t the initial goal of the 1950 French Himalayan Expedition. The objective was to conquer the 8000-meter peak. At first, the expedition explored Dhaulagiri—the world’s seventh highest peak. After more than a month of exploration Lionel Terray proclaimed, “It’s absolutely unclimbable, that Dhaulagiri! It’s fiendishly difficult…Dhaulagiri will never be climbed.” That “Never” lasted until 1960 when Dhaulagiri was finally summited by the Swiss Expedition (at the time one of only two 8000-meter peaks out of fourteen yet to be summited by a man).
In 1950, the French Himalayan Expedition did something that twenty-two expeditions of different nationalities had tried to do for many years--conquer an ‘eight-thousander.’ This book is a story of that historic climb and it’s worth reading for general education alone.
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K2 [28, 250 ft. or 8,611] is the second highest mountain in the world, and arguably is the ultimate climb when it comes to difficulty level.
In 1950, no mountain higher than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed. Maurice Herzog and other members of the French Alpine Club had resolved to try. T...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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