True Summit: What Really Happened on Maurice Herzog's First Legendary Ascent of Annapurna - Hardcover

A revelatory new book about the climb that has passed into legend - the first conquest ever made of the 8,000-metre Himalayan peak, Annapurna, in June 1950. Maurice Herzog, the leader, became a national hero and his account, Annapurna, remains to this day the best-selling mountaineering book ever. But the book left much unsaid. Far from the glorious solidarity portrayed by Herzog, the French team was riven with dissent.

In True Summit David Roberts offers the unidealised story of the Annapurna expedition. Drawing on interviews with friends and family of the climbers, as well as books recently published in France, he gives the three superb climbers who accompanied Herzog - Lachenal, Lionel Terray and Gaston Rébuffat - long overdue recognition for their achievement. He also interviewed Herzog, the one survivor among the climbers, and puts his account of the climb in proper perspective. A thrilling book that will set the record straight.