Annapurna

In 1950, no mountain higher than 8,000 metres had ever been climbed. Maurice Herzog and other members of the French Alpine Club had resolved to try. Their goal was a 26,493-foot Himalayan peak called Annapurna. But unlike other climbs, which draw on the experience of prior reconnaissance, the routes up Annapurna had never been analysed before. Herzog and his team had to locate the mountain using sketchy, crude maps, pick out a single, untried route and go for the summit. Annapurna is the unforgettable account of this dramatic and heroic climb and of its harrowing aftermath. Although Herzog and his comrade Louis Lachenal reached the mountain's summit, their descent was a nightmare of frostbite, snow blindness and near death. With grit and courage manifest on every page, Herzog's narrative is one of the great mountain-adventure stories of all time.