Maurice Herzog
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Maurice Herzog is a French mountaineer and sports administrator, born on 15 January 1919 at Lyon, France.
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[edit] Ascent of Annapurna
Herzog became, on 3 June 1950, the first person to climb a peak over 8000m when, in the company of Louis Lachenal, he summited the Himalayan mountain Annapurna, 10th-highest mountain in the world. Its ascent was all the more remarkable as it was explored, reconnoitered and climbed all within one season; and as it was climbed without the use of supplemental oxygen. The event caused a sensation and Herzog was, until Everest was summited in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the best-known mountaineer in the world.
The two-week retreat from the successfully-climbed peak proved challenging. A decision by both climbers to opt for light boots for the summit dash, and a freak accident where Herzog lost his gloves on the summit, meant that both climbers suffered severe frostbite, with both losing all of their toes and Herzog most of his fingers. The consequent gangrene required the expedition doctor to perform amputations in the field without access to an operating theatre or anaesthetics.
Annapurna was not to be climbed again until its south face was conquered in 1970 by an expedition lead by British climber Chris Bonington. That feat was itself not repeated for another 11 years.
Herzog’s account of the expedition was published under the title Annapurna, which went on to sell 11 million copies – more than any other book on climbing before or since.[citation needed] Ending with the stirring line “there are other Annapurnas in the lives of men” (interpreted as 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.
[edit] 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 also examines the controversy.
[edit] 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.
[edit] References
- Annapurna, Maurice Herzog, Jonathan Cape, 1952
- Top Climbs of the World, Garth Hattingh, , New Holland, 1999 (ISBN 1-85974-085-5)
- True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna, David Roberts, Simon and Schuster, 2000, (ISBN 0-684-86757-5) *"No Room at the Top", Bruce Barcott, New York Times, 4 June 2000
- Conquistadors of the Useless: From the Alps to Annapurna, Lionel Terray, 2000, (ISBN 1-898573-38-7; new ISBN (used from 1 January 2007): 978-1-898573-38-8) (English edition - original French edition 1961)
