1950: Maurice Herzog is the first to summit a peak over 8,000 meters with Louis Lachenal. As was common practice at the time, he contractually forbade his companion from publishing an account of this achievement. Only he could do so. This would become Annapurna, premier 8000. And the resounding success we all know.
1956: the notebooks that Louis Lachenal had only just finished writing before his death are published posthumously, entirely revised and edited by Maurice Herzog himself, who portrays Lachenal as a madman.
1996: Michel Guérin, one year after founding his publishing house, releases the uncensored illustrated version of Louis Lachenal's Carnets du vertige. The Herzog family files a lawsuit. The book is withdrawn from sale.
Today, it is time to take one more step beyond the controversy, and to listen to the beautiful "a cappella" voice of Lachenal. De l'Eiger à l'Annapurna comes as close as possible to the book Lachenal had begun writing in the final months of his life: all of his texts, and his texts alone.
For their raw power and beauty have not aged a day. They are accompanied by an apparatus of notes, introductory texts, and by drawings and documents from the author provided by his family.
Main features
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To rediscover a giant of alpinism, virtuosic and so modern.
