Maurice Herzog (1919–2012)

El tres de junio de 1950, Maurice Herzog y Louis Lachenal llegaban a la cima del Annapurna, convirtiéndose en los primeros seres humanos que coronaban una montaña de más de ochomil metros, escapando milagrosamente de la muerte.
En los meses siguientes, mientras se recuperaba en el hospital de sus terribles amputaciones (que le dejarían sin los dedos de las manos y los pies), Herzog dictó Annapurna primer ochomil, una de las obras cumbre de la literatura expedicionaria de montaña.

Gocemos de la fuente de inspiración más rica que podamos imaginar: las huellas de estos aventureros que nos dejaron una historia real de valor y camaradería. De exploración y pasión por la aventura.… (mehr)

This is a terrifying book.

Part of that is knowing how dangerous Annapurna is and how many climbers have died there. To the 1950 expedition, it was just another Himalayan peak, not obviously different from others.

The most terrifying part of the book was the pervasive bad decision-making and poor teamwork. Almost everything was done with macho heroics and dictatorial leadership. It is normal for Himalayan mountaineering to be done at the very edge of the ability of the most capable climbers, but it isn't normal to so misjudge a hike between camps that you run out of food and crawl the last hundred yards calling for help.

This is the kind of mountaineering that Paul Petzoldt's reforms targeted. In The New Wilderness Handbook, he talks about plans for time, energy, and climate. Herzog's expedition failed to plan for each of those.

Go ahead and read this to get the testosterone-soaked version of mountaineering. Then read "The Ascent of Nanda Devi" (Tilman, 1936) and "Annapurna: A Woman's Place" (Blum, 1978) to get different approaches.

Of course, also read "The Ascent of Rum Doodle" (Bowman, 1956). Was Bowman thinking of Herzog's book when someone identifies some local flora as "Nostalgia, Melancholia, and old-fashioned Manspride"?

Finally, some maps would have helped, a lot.… (mehr)