Annapurna by Maurice Herzog Page A

plateau:
    ‘As I was ploughing along heavily, I thought I heard someone else behind me … a third man. He was following us. I wanted to call out to tell you. I couldn’t. I glanced behind me rather furtively, to set my mind at rest. But like an obsession, the feeling of someone else there kept on coming back to me. Then everything was all right again. It happened at the same moment that you felt so groggy.’
    ‘It just shows that when you’re at a great height, your powers of clear thinking deteriorate very quickly.’
    We were all in, our legs like jelly and our heads like lead. Then the sun began to reach us, through the ceiling of nasty-looking clouds.
    ‘Angtharkay is coming!’ cried Ichac, who had just seen a little black speck on our tracks.
    ‘That’s fine! He’ll help us carry all this stuff.’
    We were excited, and ready to put off for a while the joys of our super sleeping-bags. We got into our frozen boots as best we could, broke camp in record time and then burdened like donkeys we moved carefully down the slope of rotten snow.
    ‘Salaam, Angtharkay!’
    ‘Tired, sir?’
    He wanted to carry everything himself, and it was hard to resist the temptation; my shoulders were being sawn through by the straps; but it was wiser to share the labour. On we went, striding down slopes which were just ready to avalanche and completely untrustworthy at this time of day. Here now was the ridge – Terray’s nightmare – and our skis were still there. Angtharkay went on down to the lower camp on foot while we skied slowly down, describing elegant figures in the very uneven snow.
    Next day we were given a triumphal reception at Tukucha. Terray , who had gone down the day before, was better, though still pretty exhausted. The others plied us with questions.
    ‘Well, what do you make of Dhaulagiri?’
    ‘Where do the waters from the north face drain?’
    ‘They drain into the moon!’
    1 This impassable chain (not to be confused with the Nilgiri Hills of South India) forms an immense screen between Tukucha and Annapurna. To reach Annapurna one would have to skirt the Nilgiris to the south along the Miristi Khola, or to the north.
    2 The East glacier lies between the north and south-cast ridges. At first sight it appeared to give access to both ridges.
    3 See map, see here .
    4 The north buttress of the Pointe Walker on the Grandes Jorasses is perhaps the most difficult climb in the Alps.

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    The East Dhaulagiri Glacier
    EVERYONE WAS BACK in camp, except Couzy and Schatz, who were still off on the Annapurna reconnaissance, so it was a good opportunity to review the general situation. Oudot, who had only just left them, reported that on April 27th he had gone as far as the depression which we had first seen from Lete.
    ‘It was hard work, but perfectly possible for porters. From there we saw Annapurna – but a long way off. From the higher ridges a spur runs down into the Miristi Khola Valley.’
    ‘And the pass?’
    ‘No sign of the Tilicho. I stopped there and let the other two go on.’
    ‘What it amounts to is this,’ I said after a moment, ‘there are three problems. For Dhaulagiri we must explore the north side, and the way of getting there. The reconnaissance that Ichac and myself have just made gave us one glimpse into the unknown, but did not really clear up the problem.’
    ‘It’s not a problem,’ said Ichac, ‘it’s a mystery. I’ve my own ideas on the matter, but obviously we must go and see for ourselves.’
    ‘Well then, we must organize another reconnaissance over there. It’s far away, and it’s high. We’ll have to make an all-out effort.’
    ‘I’m ready to go,’ said Terray, ‘as soon as ever I can. I’m fed up with being sick. I made very heavy weather the other day with Ichac and Maurice. I want to get my own back. In two days’ time I’ll be perfectly fit again.’
    ‘I don’t want to push myself forward,’ put in Oudot, ‘but I admit I’d like to be off, too. I