Annapurna: The First Conquest Of An 8,000-Meter Peak Paperback – May 18, 2010

I love true adventure stories. Annapurna is a true adventure story of a French 1950 mountain climbing expedition. Two of their members are the first to reach the summit of a 8000M peak. Unheard of, many thought it could not be done. Annapurna is the epic book that influenced ED Vestures when he was a boy toward his mountain climbing greatness ( climbed all 13 8000M peaks with no supplemental oxygen...all his books 5 star see my reviews).Annapurna is 278 pages of great adventure and lots of action. No boring parts. I read it in 3 days.Here's a tidbit of the book to wet your appetite.A group of some of the greatest mountain climbers is assembled with a great doctor/surgeon Oudot, and support people for the expedition. Local loyal helpers/guides called Sherpas and Coolies to help carry the heavy loads are hired. The leaders Sahibs have as their expedition leader Maurice Herzog. Herzog is seen as brave but sensibly cautious and uses lots of scouting of different routes. A higher mountain was originally thought OK to climb but it is found too dangerous at this time. Scouting more through glaciers around impassable ridges , a hidden valley a route to Annapurna is found. Already they are experiencing bad weather and are in a race with time as Monsoon rains are coming soon. Some routes are found to be no good. Lots of dangers, crevasses, and avalanches. Five ascending camps are set up. The expedition is rapidly breaking down due to health problems.Herzog and Louise Lachenal make it to the top. All expedition members helped and team work was great. A lot of unselfish people. However Herzog loses his gloves and develops frostbite of the fingers and toes. Lachenal has frostbite of the toes and heal. Some of the others have snow blindness and injuries. The expedition physically is a mess They must hurry to a lower camp for the doctor Oudot to try to save them. Gangrene has set in. Toes and fingers must be amputated.There is a great chapter of the expedition's passage from Nepal to India and meeting the Maharajah in his palace.I won't say too much more and ruin the book for you.Anyone loving true adventure stories and human endurance against incredible obstacles will love this book. This book was the one that many great climbers got their inspiration from. 5 stars and proudly added to our family library.

I purchased this book after summiting Mt. Rainier with Ed Viesturs. Ed told me, during our climb, this was the book that inspired him to dedicate his life to mountaineering and becoming the first American to summit all 14 of the 8,000K summits in the world without supplemental oxygen. Being a novice mountaineer myself, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found the book to be well written and extremely thoughtful. Today, when most mountaineering books are written as "tell-all" accounts of an expedition, I found this book to be refreshing because it was more about the experience of conquering the mountain than it was about airing dirty laundry about the participants. This particular climb still amazes me, because this team of explorers summited Annapurna (an extremely difficult and demanding mountain) on their first attempt. This book is about courage, determination, perseverance and dedication. This is a must read if you are the least bit interested in mountaineering.

Incredible perseverance + determination along with many difficulties as this amazing strong + dedicated French team proves the the power of knowledge + teamwork for this incredible expeditions success . A must read

Concise and somewhat thrilling read on a groundbreaking climb. Herzog's book is very readable, and most of the mountain-related events are riveting. Annapurna is a very good book, but Into the Silence (by Wade Davis) is far more impressive.

Written in straightforward, yet humorous prose, this account of the first ascent of Annapurna is a page turner of the first order. The novel lays out the mind-boggling logistics, planning, courage, and sacrifice that was needed to summit a peak previously thought impossible. A riveting read.

A classic review by a humble man, not focused on his own superlative abilities but on the unselfish tenacity of both him and his equally qualified teammates, the key word being teammates. Without fanfare he relates a most amazing story of truly dedicated, tough mountaineers. This is not for the reader that leans toward soap opera but for one that values looking into lives that displayed unadorned courage.

Really liked the book. Delivery was as expected. Constantly flipping back and forth between appendix, glossary, maps of the mountains. Will come back to this book over and over again.

I really liked this book, it's one that kept me turning pages. Great true story of the first party climb a peak greater than 8000 meters (26000' for us standard users). Incredible story and the book looks beautiful on the shelf too.