Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“a treasure on which we should live the rest of our days,” Lachenal comments, “In
any event, it's certainly several hundred thousand copies, and I would love to be able
to say as much about my book!” Devies has circled this jape and marked it with the
proofreader's squiggle for “delete.” In the next paragraph, the word “official” must go,
in Lachenal's phrase, “Herzog has written the official book . . .”
The daily entries are likewise combed of imperfections. In Lachenal's mordant re-
cord of the April 2 reception at the French ambassador's in Delhi, the judgment “Bored
me to tears” wins a “No” from Devies and a delete mark. Herzog too puts his two
cents' worth in, though his contribution is less imperious than Devies's, amounting
usually to quibbles and corrections. Thus on April 23, when Lachenal writes, “We con-
vinced Momo to head off toward the great glacier on the east face . . .” Herzog changes
the phrase to “We headed off toward the great glacier on the east face,” clucking in the
margin, “A closer fit with reality, but could stay in its present form.”
On May 3, “Momo encouraged us again to make a new attempt toward the right.
We obeyed.” Herzog circles “We obeyed” and jots, “It was not an order.” On May
14, after Herzog's “council of war,” Lachenal writes, “A long discussion began, at the
end of which almost everyone leaned in favor of a departure in the direction of An-
napurna.” Herzog complains, “There were no objections.”
And so on, throughout the diary. But as Lachenal covers the summit dash and the
long descent, Herzog and Devies grow more petulant. On the summit, says Lachen-
al, the pair shot “the several official photographs that we had to take.” Herzog: “No
one required us to do this.” As Lachenal is carried on his stretcher in the lowlands, he
Herzog underlines “of being surrounded by no one who is kind to me, of passing whole
days alone on my stretcher with at best one Sherpa as companion, with no sahibs,
knowing full well that nothing will get done, not even ordinary tasks, without my hav-
ing to ask many times and then to wait a long, long time.” In the margin, he scolds,
“Not very nice to his comrades, who were doing their duty. Should we leave this in, as
written in the heat of battle?”
For the
Carnets,
Lachenal wrote a 2,000 word “Commentaires” that he intended to
append after the last entry in the diary. This cogent summary of Lachenal's feelings
five years after Annapurna stirs Herzog and Devies to something like fury. “No,”
“No,” “No,” writes Devies again and again; “No, absolutely wrong.” With his sly icon-
oclasm, Lachenal characterizes the dual quest for Dhaulagiri and Annapurna as like
“chasing two rabbits at the same time.” “Wrong,” thunders Devies. “This had nothing
to do with chasing two rabbits at the same time, but with choosing between two ob-
jectives the one that would be easier.”
