Maurice Herzog

Maurice Herzog (born January 15, 1919) is a French mountaineer and sports administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and reached the summit with Louis Lachenal. Upon his return, he wrote a best-selling book about the expedition. More recently, doubts about the accuracy of his account have been raised.

Ascent of Annapurna

On June 3, 1950, Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal became the first people to climb a peak over 8000m when they 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 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 bivouaced 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.^[1]

Annapurna was not climbed again until 1970, when the French 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.^[2]

Annapurna

Main article: Annapurna (book)

Herzog’s account of the expedition was published first in 1951 in French,^[3] then in English in 1952 under the title Annapurna. The book has sold over 11 million copies, as of 2000, more than any other mountaineering title.^[4] 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.

Controversy over his account of the ascent

Herzog's account of the summit day has 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 2000 book True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna by David Roberts examines the controversy.^[5]

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. ^[6]

Herzog is a 1944 graduate of the French business school HEC Paris.^[7]

Publications

• 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)

Related books

• 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 (2002). True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna. New York, NY, USA: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743203275. 

References

1. ^ Herzog, Maurice (1997). Annapurna. New York, NY, USA: The Lyons Press. ISBN 1558215492. 
2. ^ Baume, Louis C. (1979). Sivalaya. Seattle, WA, USA: The Mountaineers. ISBN 0916890716. 
3. ^ Roberts, David (2002). True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna. New York, NY, USA: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. pp. 226. ISBN 0743203275. 
4. ^ Barcott, Bruce (June 4, 2000). "No Room at the Top" (in English). The New York Times (New York City, NY). http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/06/04/reviews/000604.04barc.html. Retrieved Jan 6, 2010. 
5. ^ Barcott, Bruce (June 4, 2000). "No Room at the Top" (in English). The New York Times (New York City, NY). http://www.times.com/books/00/06/04/reviews/000604.04barc.html. Retrieved Jan 6, 2010. 
6. ^ Latorre Torres, Ferrán (2002). Conversaciones con Maurice Herzog. Paris, France: Ediciones Desnivel. ISBN 978-8495760364. 
7. ^ "Maurice Herzog (HEC 1944M)". HEC France. http://www.hec.fr/Actualites/Les-rubriques-de-la-page-d-accueil/Un-diplome-a-la-Une/Maurice-Herzog-HEC-1944M. Retrieved Jan 7, 2010. 

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Name	Herzog, Maurice
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Date of birth	January 15, 1919
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