Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EIGHT
The Silence of Lachenal
U
PON HIS RETURN TO
F
RANCE,
Louis Lachenal entered the hospital in Chamonix. Like
Herzog, he would undergo painful operations on his feet—sixteen of them over five
years—as well as many difficult skin grafts.
For Lachenal, in his anguish, there was no “new life,” no mystical discovery of a
higher purpose his suffering had revealed. Only one thing mattered: would he be able
to climb again? And if so, would he ever again approach the transcendent level at which
