The French Annapurna expedition

Maurice Herzog · 1950 CE · Earth

The French Annapurna expedition — Maurice Herzog · 1950 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Climb Dhaulagiri or Annapurna, the first 8,000-metre summit, in the first season Nepal had ever opened to a climbing expedition.

Historical context

Nepal opened its mountains to foreigners in 1949, and France, which had never sent an expedition to the Himalaya, got the first permit for a great peak. Nobody had climbed above 8,000 metres; the fourteen summits of that height had all been tried and none had yielded. Herzog's party had no reliable map, no oxygen and a monsoon due in early June; that they found and climbed an unknown mountain in a single season was a feat, and that it cost them their hands and feet made it a legend.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Into Nepal

    April 1950

    From the Indian railhead the nine Frenchmen and their Sherpas walk north through Butwal and Tansen with two hundred porters and six tons of stores.

  2. Tukuche

    21 April 1950

    On 21 April the expedition reaches Tukuche in the Kali Gandaki gorge, between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, and discovers that its map bears no relation to the ground.

  3. Base camp under the north face

    18 May 1950

    The route to the north face was found on 14 May; by 18 May base camp stands at 4,400 metres at the head of the Miristi Khola, with the monsoon due in a fortnight.

  4. Camp V

    2 June 1950

    On 2 June Herzog and Lachenal, with the Sherpas Ang Tharkay and Sarki, pitch a tent at about 7,500 metres on a ledge cut in the slope, and send the Sherpas down.

  5. The first 8,000-metre summit

    3 June 1950

    At 14:00 on 3 June 1950 Herzog and Lachenal stand on the summit of Annapurna, 8,091 metres, the first people on any of the fourteen highest mountains; Lachenal photographs Herzog holding the flag on his ice axe.

  6. The night in the crevasse

    4 June 1950

    Descending in a storm on 4 June, Herzog, Lachenal, Terray and Rébuffat lose Camp IV in the whiteout and spend the night in a crevasse, without food, while the snow buries their boots.

  7. The march out

    June 1950

    Carried in litters through the monsoon rain, Herzog and Lachenal are treated each evening by Oudot, who injects their arteries with novocaine and, as the toes and fingers blacken, cuts them off one by one.

Outcome

Annapurna, 8,091 metres, climbed by Herzog and Lachenal at 14:00 on 3 June 1950. Both were carried out through the monsoon; Herzog lost every finger and toe, Lachenal all his toes.

Maurice Herzog

The engineer who led the 1950 French expedition to Annapurna, the first 8,000-metre peak ever climbed, and came home without fingers or toes to write the best-selling mountain book of all time.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

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