Annapurna The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak (26,493 Feet)

Annapurna is the unforgettable account of this heroic climb and of its harrowing aftermath, including a nightmare descent of frostbite, snow blindness, and near death.

One of Sports Illustrated's top 100 sports books of all time In 1950, when no mountain taller than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed, Maurice Herzog led an expedition of French climbers to the summit of an 8,075-meter (26,493-foot) Himalayan peak called Annapurna. The route up Annapurna had never been charted, and Herzog and his team had to locate the mountain using crude maps, pick out a possible line of ascent, and go for the summit. Annapurna is the unforgettable account of this heroic climb and its harrowing aftermath, including a nightmare descent while suffering from frostbite and snow blindness. Herzog's masterful narrative is one of the great mountain-adventure stories of all time. This new edition—which commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the Annapurna ascent on June 3, 1950—features a new foreword by Conrad Anker.