Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cleared, of course Oudot and Ichac and Noyelle, down at Camp II, would have been
searching the mountain with binoculars for any sign of their missing teammates.
Meanwhile, all accounts agree, Herzog continued to search at the bottom of the cre-
vasse for the last two pairs of boots. In
Annapurna,
he is fairly matter-of-fact about
the effort, thinking logically, “The boots
had
to be found, or Lachenal and I were done
for.” It is only in
L'Autre Annapurna,
with its glaze of long-sifted memory, that that
mission takes on the guise of martyrdom. In that book, instead of resigning himself
to a euphoric death in the crevasse, Herzog focuses on his impending role: “From that
instant on, I sensed that I would have to sacrifice a part of myself.”
After finding the boots and sending them up on a rope, Herzog is hauled in turn to
the surface by Terray, only to collapse in the snow exhausted. Both of his own versions
of the story indicate that at this point, he urged the others to go on without him. In
Annapurna,
he says to Terray, “It's all over for me. Go on . . . you have a chance . . .
you must take it.”
Terray rejoins: “We'll help you. If we get away, so will you.”
In
L'Autre Annapurna,
however, this exchange has been hugely expanded, into a
drama of interpersonal loyalty that, if it really took place, further elevates Terray's no-
bility. On the edge of the crevasse, Herzog beckons Terray close, then whispers into his
ear: “Leave me, Lionel. I beg you. I'm finished. It's impossible to stand up. My feet and
hands are frozen. . . . Leave me here, beside the crevasse. Leave, leave! Hurry . . . save
yourself.”
“No, Maurice, I refuse.”
“It's you who's crazy!”
“I RE-FU-SE,” Terray hammers. “Either we escape together, or we stay here togeth-
er. Here. With you.”
“That's . . . blackmail?”
“No, that's the
cordée.
You never abandon a wounded man in the mountains. You
know that. It's like in the war. And besides, Maurice, you are my brother in battle.”
Something rings false about this scene. It reads like a fantasia on the theme of the
solidarity so curtly voiced by Terray in Herzog's original telling. Once more, the con-
siderable discrepancy between the two versions creates a problem of credibility for
Herzog. Which really happened? If the entire, poignant dialogue invoking the fidelity
unto death of former comrades-at-arms really took place, why did Herzog leave it out
of
Annapurna,
that otherwise so dramatically crafted narrative?
In any event, Herzog's earlier, terser version seems corroborated by Terray's own
account of the exchange in
Conquistadors:
