Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ley of the Dambush Khola, bent like an arm around a sharp elbow, led directly from
Tukucha to the northeast face of the great mountain. In reality, a high ridge blocked
the river's headwaters, barring all access to Dhaulagiri from this side.
In
Annapurna,
though suffering from various ailments and driven to distraction by
their failures, the men keep up a jaunty banter and an unflagging optimism. Here, the
art of Herzog's writing serves the tale well. Clearly he has made up the copious dia-
logue that laces the pages; in his hospital bed months after the expedition, he cannot
have remembered every exchange down to the exact word. Yet this dialogue has an air
of authenticity; it sounds like climbers talking:
“Good Lord! Look at that! A valley starting here—”
“It's not marked on the map,” said Ichac. “It's an unknown valley.”
“It runs down toward the north and divides into two great branches.”
“No sign of Dhaula! It couldn't be that pale imitation, that fake mountain, in front of us,
could it?”
(This version of the passage, retranslated literally from the French to capture its collo-
quial ease, avoids the arch Anglicisms of the 1952 English translation.)
Does it matter that, in Herzog's concocted dialogue, no individual voice emerges?
That all nine climbers sound alike? Not to most readers, for the chat serves as it should,
to advance a story that gains momentum with every page.
Herzog does not entirely whitewash the personal conflicts that marred the weeks
of reconnaissance. Rather, he presents a series of vignettes that all resolve in the same
fashion: with the wisdom of his own leadership prevailing over the impetuous antics
of the others. On an attempt to climb through an icefall toward Dhaulagiri, Herzog,
Rébuffat, and Lachenal, each roped to a Sherpa, blunder into a nightmare, as a viol-
ent hailstorm hits and the seracs around them creak and shudder. Both Rébuffat and
Lachenal counsel retreat. Then, with his characteristic wild haste, Lachenal starts tear-
ing down the slope, dragging his Sherpa with him.
Herzog, alarmed, yells after him: “Watch out for the Sherpas! Don't let them fall
off.” Lachenal does not slow down.
Later, in safety, Lachenal laments only the missed opportunity to reach a benign
plateau above the icefall: “We were so close!”
His leader admonishes: “You can't push on when it's like that.” Then Herzog mor-
alizes: “I realized that even if we had reached the plateau, it would have been madness
to try to bring the main body up this way. The risk was far too great.”
What takes the edge off these scoldings and I-told-you-sos is Herzog's magnanim-
ity. At every turn, he acknowledges his teammates' skill on rock and ice. Of Lachenal
