True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna [Hardcover]

David Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2000

This text assesses the truthfulness of the book "Annapurna" by Maurice Herzog, who climbed the mountain in 1950 with Louis Lachenal. The author draws on many sources, including accounts from fellow climbers and interviews with Harzog himself, to provide a more realistic account of the events of the climb in 1950.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The climax of Maurice Herzog's mountaineering classic, Annapurna, is at the moment of descent, when Herzog and Louis Lachenal tumble from the 26,493-foot frozen summit. Herzog loses his gloves and the two barely reach camp with dead hands and feet. This is also the point where Herzog's tale falls apart, writes David Roberts, and it has taken nearly 50 years to uncover the real story behind the nationalist-tinged French expedition in 1950. Roberts, himself a climber of some accomplishment who admits to worshipping the heroics of the Annapurna team as a youth, traveled around the world interviewing friends and family of the team members (all deceased, save for Herzog), and chasing down original manuscripts and diaries of the three team members to get the story straight. His findings do not reveal the fearless, selfless leader Herzog painted himself to be in his famous book and subsequent writings.

Roberts reconstructs the trip to Annapurna beginning on the Heathrow runway: as the widowed Francoise Rebuffat recalls, Herzog required his highly experienced teammates--Louis Lachenal, Lionel Terray, and Gaston Rebuffat--to sign a contract that granted him full leadership of the expedition, along with rights to publish any and all accounts of the trip for five years following their return. Conflicting stories to Herzog's "official" account begin from that moment. Herzog writes of his team's indefatigable support and loyalty to their leader, but in reality discord nearly crippled the success of the climb. In order to preserve the reputation he built for himself in Annapurna, Herzog, throughout his life, censored any account of the trip authored by the other team members, even "editing" Lachenal's posthumously published climbing memoir, Carnets de Vertige.

While the dissection of Herzog's ego here is expected, Roberts discovers that none of his heroes are what he thought they were. "More rounded," he surmises, and ultimately better for it. Equal parts memoir, climbing lore, investigative journalism, and biography, Roberts provides the missing dimensions of the climb and the three extraordinary climber's lives--Lachenal, Terray, and Rebuffat--that Herzog so tirelessly strove to conceal. --Lolly Merrell

From Publishers Weekly

First published in France in 1951, Maurice Herzog's Annapurna remains one of the canonical works in exploration literature; Roberts notes that Herzog's account of his team's harrowing, ultimately successful conquest of the Himalayan peak has been translated into 40 languages and, at sales of more than 11 million copies, is "far and away the best-selling mountaineering book ever written." Still sunk in the humiliation of World War II, the French uncritically embraced Herzog's lyricalAif somewhat self-servingAaccount of the first scaling of the 8,000-meter peak. Even years later, Annapurna sparked many a young adventurer's interest in climbing (including that of Roberts, who became a mountaineer after reading the book and has since authored numerous works of his own, including The Lost Explorer, coauthored with Conrad Anker). Herzog's teammates were limited by a preclimb contract that forbade them to write about the ascent, but in 1996, new materials came to light, including an unexpurgated diary of one of the climbers. By incorporating these new discoveries as well as insights gained in interviews with surviving climbers, Roberts presents a more complex, dissent-torn view of the climb than the one portrayed in the book that Herzog himself described recently as "a sort of novel." That the conquest of Annapurna was a troublesome enterprise filled with doubt and peevishness and not a storybook triumph by valorous Frenchmen will no doubt be disillusioning to the starry-eyed. That Herzog might have suppressed a certain amount of unpleasantness in order to tell an inspiring story may lead more worldly readers simply to shrug and say, "C'est la vie." (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684867575
• ISBN-13: 978-0684867571
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #487,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > History > Asia > Nepal
  • #67 in Books > Travel > Asia > Nepal

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good book, but not one of Roberts' best, September 19, 2000

By 

Andrew M. Luks - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna (Hardcover)

This was a fascinating book to read, particularly after having just reread Herzog's original Annapurna. However I didn't find the book to be as well written as some of David Roberts' other works which I have enjoyed a great deal (The Lost Explorer, The Mountain of My Fear, Deborah, Escape Routes).

The author does a great job of pulling together information from a variety of sources and debunking much of Herzog's orginal and revised takes on what happened on Annapurna in 1950. Much of this information had already been revealed a few years back when controversy arose in France about the veracity of Herzog's accounts but Roberts manages to put all of that information in one place and makes it clear that Herzog was tooting his horn a bit too much at the expense of accurate information and fairness to his teammates.

What bothered me a bit about the book, however, was that, at times, the author seemed to be all over the place. One minute he's telling you about the expedition, then he's telling you about each of the climber's early upbringing, then he's debunking more of Herzog's story, then he's telling you about what the team members did after the expedition was over, then he's debunking more and then, and perhaps most frustrating, he's throwing in references to his own climbing experiences which I didn't think bore much relevance to the story he was trying to tell. This jumping around made it hard to follow what he was trying to do at different points in the book. It simply was not as cleanly written as many of his past works.

Nevertheless, the book is a great read and definitely worth adding to one's collection of works on the history of moutaineering. Finally, I agree with an earlier reviewer in that one should go back and read or reread Annapurna before tackling Roberts' book so you understand the story Roberts' is trying to debunk.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book, September 26, 2000

By 

K. Freeman (Apple Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna (Hardcover)

True Summit is an amazing book, both as a climbing book and as a work of historical scholarship. It exposes a web of dishonesty surrounding the classic account of the first ascent of Annapurna. Some scenes are provocative of outrage, as when Roberts describes the editorial notes -- "Wrong", "This must be changed" -- made by Herzog and Devies on Lachenal's diary. Throughout, Roberts intersperses scenes from his own mountaineering career, which add immediacy and human interest. One nitpick I had was that, as a writer of history, Roberts should really have given a definitive list of sources and referenced his quotes. More importantly, I felt that he never really sums up his arguments. Why was Herzog's Annapurna the whitewashed version that it apparently was? Were the reasons nationalistic, class (amateur versus guide), personal? What can these events tell us about mountaineering as a whole? These are questions which Roberts does not really address. Still, this is a fascinating book and I certainly recommend it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TRUE SUMMIT...TRULY WONDERFUL, August 5, 2000

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna (Hardcover)

This book explores what may actually have happened during the 1950 French expedition to the Himalayas which was 'led' by Maurice Herzog. This expedition was the first to summit an 8,000 meter peak, and it was the cause for much nationalist pride in post-war France.

'True Summit' is a very interesting read in terms of its research, as well as its historical and archival detail. Its author, David Roberts, is himself a mountaineer and has an innate understanding of the subject matter of the book, which contributes to its success.

I would, however, highly recommend that one first read Maurice Herzog's "Annapurna" which is Herzog's first person, romanticized account of the expedition and the source for much of what is analyzed in this book. Reading it will ground readers of 'True Summit' in the context out of which this book arises, and will make it that much more enjoyable.

After the ostensible summit of Annapurna (more about this in 'True Summit') by Herzog and Louis Lachenal who were aided in their harrowing descent by fellow expeditioners, Lionel Terray and Gaston Rebuffat, only Maurice Herzog went on to become a national hero in France. The other three mountaineers, all of whom were more experienced and proficient, were largely ignored in what was to become a carefully orchestrated, media event around Maurice Herzog.

"True Summit" attempts to set the story straight and right past wrongs. It also helps to debunk the self-serving, though gripping, sanitized account authored by expedition leader Maurice Herzog. What emerges is a more realistic picture of what may have actually transpired during that fateful, 1950 French expedition.

This book ensures that the contributions of three of the main protagonists, Lachenal, Terray, and Rebuffat, all highly experienced mountaineers from the Chamonix region of France, will not be forgatten. It is a memorial to their efforts during that expedition and well worth reading.