Annapurna by Maurice Herzog Page B

spend my time handing out Epsom salts to my panel patients in Tukucha.’
    ‘All good for prestige. And anyway you’ve only just got back.’
    ‘Our prestige is so high it can stand my absence for a few days.’
    ‘Seriously,’ I put in, ‘I don’t care for the Expedition’s medical officer being too long away from Tukucha, but obviously it would be a good thing for you also to get acclimatized.’
    ‘Then we’ll go together,’ decided Terray.
    ‘Right you are.’
    ‘I warn you,’ said Terray to Oudot, ‘I’m going on to the bitter end.’
    ‘We’ll get there together.’
    ‘However long the route, however many passes there are to cross, whatever the difficulties, I shan’t stop.’
    ‘All that’s necessary is for you to go to a point from which you can sketch the whole northern side of Dhaulagiri,’ said I.
    ‘Right,’ said Terray, ‘but I’m in earnest about what we’ll need for this trip. I shall want two Sherpas, six porters whom we can engage locally, and at least eight days’ supplies.’
    ‘We’ll go into all that in detail.’
    ‘And what’s the second problem?’ asked Lachenal, who was obviously infected by Terray’s fever to be up and doing.
    ‘The second question is Annapurna. We’ll have to go further into it, but before we can decide anything we must wait for Couzy and Schatz to come back. As for the third problem …’
    ‘Ah, this is where we come in, Gaston,’ said Lachenal to Rébuffat.
    ‘You don’t know what I’m talking about.’
    ‘Oh, don’t I?’
    ‘The East glacier of Dhaulagiri,’ said Gaston.
    ‘Exactly. Is it possible to make one’s way up it, and then to get on to the south-east ridge on the left, or the north ridge on the right? Here again the reconnaissance that you made in this direction with Biscante wasn’t pushed far enough for a definite opinion to be possible.’
    ‘Far enough, all the same,’ Gaston replied, ‘to make us pretty dubious about it. I don’t think going straight up the glacier would be at all easy. Judging from what we saw, it’s a huge slope of ice cluttered up with seracs and seamed with crevasses. Avalanches sweep it continuously. I don’t much like the look of it.’
    ‘I shall go with you,’ I said to Lachenal and Rébuffat. ‘We’ll ride up as far as possible on horseback, and pitch a small base camp at the foot of the glacier. It’ll be surprising if we can’t clear up the problem.’
    The following day everyone rested. In the morning Ichac, Noyelle, Rébuffat and myself took the opportunity to climb up a hillock south of Tukucha from which we had a perfect view of Dhaulagiri. Through the glasses I picked out the frightful obstacles on the East glacier . By keeping to the left, that is to say, on the true right bank of the glacier, we should be able to avoid most of the seracs, except in the upper section. The problem was to reach one of the two ridges.
    Dhaulagiri, as seen from here, was magnificent. The morning mists were still lingering in the valleys, but high up the snow and ice glistened and made us blink. The sky was pastel blue. On another rocky point barely 200 yards from us, a vulture was watching, motionless.
    We had now been in Asia for a month.
    Next morning we traversed the great rocky flats of the Gandaki on horseback. The Sherpas took us by way of Larjung, no doubt so that they could spin the prayer-wheels. This village, where the alleys are covered in by roofs – there must be a great deal of snow in winter – is extremely picturesque. Half a mile further on we left our mounts, and the party spread out over the grassy slopes. Numbers of yaks and cows were grazing hungrily on the lush grass. On the hill-side our way was lined by trees covered with sweet-smelling blossoms that ranged from pink to red. It wasn’t easy to keep to a timetable in a paradise like this. Today – and the Sherpas couldn’t understand it – we let the porters have all the halts they asked for. It was fantastic that