Annapurna

‘A classic of its kind… His vivid, high powered but never overdramatised account of the ascent still reads splendidly’ * The Irish Times *After being swept off his feet by an avalanche and left dangling by a rope around his neck, Herzog ‘began to pass water, violently and uncontrollably’. Your reaction may be only slightly less extreme as you move from one nail-biting moment to the next in this wonderful 1952 tale of triumph and frostbite. * Outside *Quite simply the greatest mountaineering book ever written. * Joe Simpson, from the Introduction *The climb took place before the Himalayas were a tourist attraction and before Gore-Tex cold-weather gear was available in Marks & Spencer. They had no oxygen, little food and on the descent Herzog lost his gloves, got trapped in a storm, was buried in an avalanche and became frostbitten. His descriptions don’t stint on the details of maggot-ridden flesh and amputations without anaesthesia – Richard EyreThose who have never seen the Himalayas…will know that they have been a companion of greatness * New York Times Book Review *

Maurice Herzog was a distinguished French mountaineer and leader of the 1950 expedition to Annapurna. He was one of the two climbers to reach the summit.