Annapurna, First Conquest of an 8000-Meter Peak Quotes

“Annapurna, to which we had gone emptyhanded, was a treasure on which we should live the rest of our days. With this realization we turn the page: a new life begins.

There are other Annapurnas in the lives of men.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna, First Conquest of an 8000-Meter Peak:

“The mountains had bestowed on us their beauties, and we adored them with a child’s simplicity and revered them with a monk’s veneration of the divine. Annapurna,”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“I felt as though I were plunging into something new and quite abnormal. I had the strangest and most vivid impressions, such as I had never before known in the mountains. There was something unnatural in the way I saw Lachenal and everything around us. I smiled to myself at the paltriness of our efforts, for I could stand apart and watch myself making these efforts. But all sense of exertion was gone, as though there were no longer any gravity. This diaphanous landscape, this quintessence of purity--these were not the mountains I knew: they were the mountains of my dreams (pp.206-207).”
― Herzog Maurice, Annapurna, First Conquest of an 8000-Meter Peak:

“There are other Annapurnas in the lives of men.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“I felt as though I were plunging into something new and quite abnormal. I had the strangest and most vivid impressions, such as I had never before known in the mountains. There was something unnatural in the way I saw Lachenal and everything around us. I smiled to myself at the paltriness of our efforts, for I could stand apart and watch myself making these efforts. But all sense of exertion was gone, as though there were no longer any gravity. This diaphanous landscape, this quintessence of purity—these were not the mountains I knew: they were the mountains of my dreams.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“The silence awed me. I no longer suffered. My friends attended to me in silence. The job was finished, and my conscience was clear. Gathering together the last shreds of energy, in one last long prayer, I implored death to come and deliver me. I had lost the will to live, and I was giving up—the ultimate humiliation for a man, who, up till then, had always taken a pride in himself. This was no time for questions nor for regrets. I looked death straight in the face, besought it with all my strength. Then abruptly I had a vision of the life of men. Those who are leaving it for ever are never alone. Resting against the mountain, which was watching over me, I discovered horizons I had never seen. There at my feet, on those vast plains, millions of beings were following a destiny they had not chosen. There is a supernatural power in those close to death. Strange intuitions identify one with the whole world. The mountain spoke with the wind as it whistled over the ridges or ruffled the foliage. All would end well. I should remain there, forever, beneath a few stones and a cross. They had given me my ice-axe. The breeze was gentle and sweetly scented. My friends departed, knowing that I was now safe. I watched them go their way with slow, sad steps. The procession withdrew along the narrow path. They would regain the plains and the wide horizons. For me, silence.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“But like everything else in India, the problem would be solved, provided there was no hurry.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“Nevertheless, as Terray declared later, nothing would ever equal those first desperate days when he put forth every ounce of his courage, strength and resolution.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“El circo en que nos hallamos es del todo salvaje. Ningún hombre ha contemplado jamás estas montañas que nos rodean. Ningún animal, ninguna planta tienen derecho a existir en este lugar. En la pureza de la mañana, esta ausencia de vida, esta miseria de la Naturaleza, no hacen más que exaltar nuestras fuerzas interiores. ¿Quién comprenderá el entusiasmo que este vacío nos produce, cuando los hombres se enamoran siempre de naturalezas ricas y generosas?”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna. Primer ochomil. La gran aventura

“¡Qué gusto da quedarse descansando cuando los otros se afanan! ¡Qué agradable resulta soñar sin tener conciencia del tiempo que transcurre, cuando se sabe que dentro de unas horas el far niente dejará paso a la acción!”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna. Primer ochomil. La gran aventura

“El circo en que nos hallamos es del todo salvaje. Ningún hombre ha contemplado jamás estas montañas que nos rodean. Ningún animal, ninguna planta tienen derecho a existir en este lugar. En la pureza de la mañana, esta ausencia de vida, esta miseria de la Naturaleza, no hacen más que exaltar nuestras fuerzas interiores. ¿Quién comprenderá el entusiasmo que este vacío nos produce, cuando los homrbes se enamoran siempre de naturalezas ricas y generosas?”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna. Primer ochomil. La gran aventura

“Yes! A fierce and savage wind tore at us. We were on top of Annapurna! 8,075 meters, 26,493 feet.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“A glacier is like a river; the level places where it spreads out tranquilly are followed by turbulent falls.”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak

“conifers”
― Maurice Herzog, Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak