Annapurna
In June 1950 a French expedition led by Maurice Herzog stood on top of Annapurna at 8,091 meters, the first humans ever to summit a peak above eight thousand. The descent nearly killed them. Frostbitten and snow-blind, Herzog and his climbing partner Louis Lachenal staggered down the mountain through avalanches and storms while teammates carried them across glaciers and porters helped guide them out of the Himalaya. Herzog dictated this account from a hospital bed as surgeons amputated his fingers and toes. The result is a foundational work of mountaineering literature, lyrical, brutal, and shadowed by later disputes about exactly what happened on the summit ridge, but still the book that defined modern alpinism's gospel of risk and transcendence.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Annapurna
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In 1950, a French expedition pushes for the summit of Annapurna in Nepal and becomes the first to climb an eight thousand meter peak. The descent is what they barely survive together.
Annapurna is a 1951 mountaineering memoir by Maurice Herzog, the leader of the 1950 French expedition that made the first successful ascent of an 8,000-meter peak. It is one of the foundational books of mountaineering literature.
Yes. Annapurna is Maurice Herzog's first-person account of the 1950 French ascent. Some details have been disputed by other expedition members, including Lionel Terray and Louis Lachenal, but the central events of the climb and its catastrophic descent are documented.
Annapurna is 288 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Annapurna takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Annapurna is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
Annapurna is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.