I recently finished reading the book ‘Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8000 Meter Peak’ by Maurice Herzog. It was presented to me by my friend and organizer of the Annapurna Base Camp Trek that I completed in April.
It is a gripping account of the first successful summit of an 8000 meter peak (and arguably, the most difficult one!) which was done by a French Expedition team in Apr-Jun 1950, and was all the more important as it was done without supplemental oxygen.
The book tells the entire story of the expedition, introducing the reader to the team of accomplished French mountaineers and finishes when the expedition ends and Maurice and some others are felicitated by the Maharajah of Nepal. In between those pages is an excruciating description of the various phases of the expedition and the team’s experience.
The book takes a while to grip the reader in its entirety. That is because, believe it or not, the actual climb doesn’t start for the first 70 or 80 pages. The reason for that is that the expedition team actually spent almost the entire first month in actually determining whether to climb Dhaulagiri or Annapurna 1.
It is not as trivial a decision as it may seem today when you realize that this was done in 1950 when nobody had any idea (beyond inaccurate map sketches) how these mountains looked, and what (or whether?) there was a route to climb them. In fact, the team performs a number of reconnaissance attempts on Dhaulagiri to figure out routes before giving up on it.
After that, they spend a few days on actually finding out where is Annapurna? They spend days in the wrong direction till realizing that Annapurna is elsewhere, and, after they figure out where Annapurna is, they take a few more days to reach its base and then to determine if there is a reasonably feasible route to climb it. This is what makes the reader appreciate the circumstances in which this expedition was carried out.
This section all the more convinces a modern-day reader, trekker or mountaineer of the highly risky and exploratory nature of this expedition beyond the actual climb, of course. But compared to rest of the book, the writing of this first section is not as engaging, especially if you are not into mountains. The numerous references to seracs, crevasses, couloir, bivouac, ridges, ice-pitons, crampons, precipices, avalanches and many such terms can confuse (or even put off) a lay reader, at times.
I found myself scanning through this section to get to – what I thought – was the meat of the book – the actual climb of Annapurna. Once that initial section of trials and errors gets over though, the book caught me in its grip like no other.
The entire process of mapping out and setting up Camp 1 to Camp 5 where none existed, and the difficulty of climbing Annapurna is brought alive in the middle section of the book. All the trips between Camp 1 to Camp 5 up and down umpteen times to take care of acclimatization, supplies and team members are described in amazing detail.
One can also sense Maurice Herzog, the mainstay of the expedition, transforming from an extremely careful, low-risk decision-making leader during reconnaissance, to an inspiring leader who brings audacious energy to his team while still taking into account the risks of the sections and strengths of the members.
The actual summit (the assault as he calls it!) and the feeling that enveloped the two of them who made it there (Herzog and Lachenal) are put together in words that remain etched on your mind.
Here I quote them: “What an inconceivable experience it is to attain one’s ideal and, at the very same moment, to fulfill oneself. Never had I felt happiness like this – so intense and yet so pure. That brown rock, the highest of them all, that ridge of ice – were these the goals of a lifetime? Or were they, rather, the limits of man’s pride?”
The high of reaching the Annapurna summit quickly transforms into the heart-wrenching pains of descent in the third part of the book. That is where, as a reader, I realized two things. First is – how climbing is such a monumental team effort and selfishness has no place in it. And Second is – how rudimentary the conditions of climbing were, whether it was in terms of equipment, medical & emergency facilities (or the lack of them!) or the abilities and knowledge of the Nepali people themselves.
In this section, the book transports the reader to the real world (of 1950!) which is nowhere close to perfect, yet where human beings, both the Frenchmen and the Nepalis, rise up to the occasion like nowhere else (except in war, perhaps!).
The reason this third section seizes the reader and is painstaking to read is because it describes, in detail, the enormous suffering that the expedition had to go through when Herzog and Lachenal suffered severe frostbite. They had to be carried on sledges by porters for almost the entire descent, and this section brings to life the enormous sacrifices made by the team in bringing them and others down safely.
Particularly remarkable was the doctor Oudot who not only continuously injected them with medicines but also performed multiple amputations (without anesthesia!) on them to save their lives while descending. It is a striking piece of writing that brings forth, in clear measure, the heavy toll that the Annapurna expedition took on its members.
Climbing is not all hunky dory and this section brings that lesson to the fore. I couldn’t put the book down once I started this section till completion.
It is a matter of debate whether the Annapurna success justified the risks and losses (Herzog’s ability to climb again was severely affected due to the amputations).
But the writing in the book is fairly balanced to the extent it can be from the point of view of the leader of the expedition (and the author). There are moments of careful determination and triumph peppered with those of doubt and suffering.
At the end though, the book ends on a fairly positive note. Herzog touches upon the difficulty of adjusting to normal life after he gets back to India and then France, but sounds well reconciled to what happened during the Annapurna summit. While there are moments of emotion when he realizes what he has lost, he is fairly grateful to his team – including the Sherpas – for what the expedition accomplished, specifically for France and its patriotism.
At the end, he also appreciates that climbing a mountain is not all there is to life. The last line of the book is, and I quote: “There are other Annapurnas in the lives of men.”
A gripping read, indeed!