Just read that Maurice Herzog died. For those of you not familiar with his name, he was the leader of the French Climbing Expedition that climbed Annapurna in 1950. This was the lst climb of an 8,000 meter peak and was 3 years prior to Everest.

His book Annapurna is an excellent read and follows Herzog and Louis Lachenal as they reach the summit and almost die on the descent until they are saved by fellow team members Lionel Terray and Gaston Rebuffat when all are forced to spend the night on the Mt. Terray's words in the quote above are when he is shocked to see that Herzog's hands are frozen solid. He eventually lost all his toes and most of his fingers. I highly recommend this book and am saddened by his death as growing up as a teenager Herzog was one of my heros.