Maurice Herzog

Maurice Herzog (born 15 January 1919) is a French mountaineer and sports administrator who was born in Lyon, France.

Ascent of Annapurna

On June 3, 1950, Maurice Herzog became the first person to climb a peak over 8000m when, in the company of Louis Lachenal, he summited the Himalayan mountain Annapurna, the 10th-highest mountain in the world. The ascent was all the more remarkable because the peak was explored, reconnoitered and climbed all within one season; and was climbed without the use of supplemental oxygen. The event caused a sensation that was only surpassed when Everest was summited in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

The two-week retreat from the successfully-climbed peak proved challenging. Both summit climbers had opted for light boots for the summit dash. This combined with Herzog losing his gloves near the summit, and a night spent bivied in a crevasse on the descent with one sleeping bag for four climbers (Louis Lachenal, Gaston Rebuffat, Lionel Terray, and Maurice Herzog) resulted in severe frostbite, with both climbers losing all of their toes and Herzog most of his fingers. The consequent gangrene required the expedition doctor to perform emergency amputations in the field without anaesthetic.

Annapurna was not climbed again until 1970, when Herzog's north face route was climbed by a British Army expedition, simultaneous with an ascent of the south face by an expedition led by British climber Chris Bonington. The mountain's fourth ascent was not until 1977. ^[1] In the fifty seven years since the first ascent, Annapurna had been climbed only 142 times (Mount Everest 2,500 times by comparison).^{[citation needed]}

Herzog’s account of the expedition was published under the title Annapurna, which sold 11 million copies. Ending with the stirring line “there are other Annapurnas in the lives of men” (in the context of the book, an exhortation to answer the challenges that life offers) the book gave an account of the expedition that established Herzog’s climbing reputation and inspired a generation of mountaineers. However, it also served as an inspiration for the parody novel The Ascent of Rum Doodle, which pokes gentle but pointed fun at Herzog's sometimes pompous writing style.

Controversy over his account of the ascent

Herzog's climbing reputation, and the inspiration the book has offered, has subsequently been called into question with the publication of other members’ accounts of the expedition, most significantly by a biography of Gaston Rébuffat and the posthumous publication, in 1996, of Lachenal’s contemporaneous journals. The book True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna by David Roberts examines the controversy.

Other achievements

Herzog went on to become the French Minister of Youth and Sport from 1958 to 1963, and mayor of the alpine town of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. He was a member of the International Olympic Committee for 25 years from 1970, and has been an honorary member since 1995. He is a Grand Officer of the Legion d'Honneur and holder of the Croix de Guerre for military service 1939-45. ^[2] He is also a graduate of the French business school HEC^[3].

Bibliography

• Herzog, Maurice; Nea Morin and Janet Smith (translators) (1952). Annapurna, First Conquest of an 8000-meter Peak. New York, NY, USA: E. P. Dutton & Co. Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 52-12154.  (first American printing)
• Herzog, Maurice (1997). Annapurna. New York, NY, USA: The Lyons Press. ISBN 1558215492.  (current American edition)
• Terray, Lionel; Geoffrey Sutton (trans) (2000). Conquistadors of the Useless. London, UK: Baton Wicks Publications. ISBN 1898573387.  (current English edition - original French edition 1961)
• Hattingh, Garth (1999). Top Climbs of the World. London, UK: New Holland Publishers, Ltd. ISBN 1-85974-085-5. 
• Roberts, David (2000). True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna. New York, NY, USA: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684867575. 
• "No Room at the Top", Bruce Barcott, New York Times, 4 June 2000

References

1. ^ Baume, Louis C. (1979). Sivalaya. Seattle, WA, USA: The Mountaineers. ISBN 0916890716. 
2. ^ Latorre Torres, Ferrán (2002). Conversaciones con Maurice Herzog. Paris, France: Ediciones Desnivel. ISBN 978-8495760364. 
3. ^ Maurice Herzog (HEC 1944M)