Evening star., 1953-06-25
At Last, After Exhousting Final Squirt. Climbers
Scale Annopuno' Peak and Gaze on Scene Below

L
was right at the bottom. and
the pennantS. Useless gestures,
no doubt, but something more
than symbols eloquent tokens
Of affection and good will. I
tied the strips of material
stained by sweat and by the food
in the sacks-to the shaft of my
ice-axe, the only Flagstaff at
hand. Then ! focused my cam
era on Lachenal.
I Now. will you take me?"
Hand it over-hurry up!"
said Lachenal.
He took several pictures and
then handed me back the CAM
era. ! loaded q color film and
we repeated the process to be
certain Of bringing back rec
ords to be cherished in the fu-
ture.
Are you mad?" asked Lach-
enal. I'VE haven't a minute to
lose: We must go down at once. .
And in fact q glance around
showed me that the weather was
no longer gloriously fine as it
had been in the morning. Lach-
enal was becoming impatient.
Feet Start to Freeze.
It was impossible to build a
cairn: there were no stones;
everything was frozen. Lachenal
stamped his feet; he felt them
freezing. I felt mine freezing too,
but paid little attention.
The highest mountain at the
time to be climbed by man lay
under our feet! The names Of
our predecessors on these heights
raced through my mind: Num-
merry, Mallory and Irvine, Bauer,
Welzenbach, Tilman, Shipton.
How many of them were dead
how many had found on these
mountains what, to them, was
the finest end of all?
My Joy was touched with hu-
mility. It was not just one party
that had climbed Annapurna to-
day, but a whole expedition. I
thought of all the others in the
camps perched on the slopes at
our feet. and I knew it was be-
cause of their efforts and their
sacrifices that we had succeeded.
Come on. straight down."
called Lachenal.
He had already done up his
sack and started going down. I
took out my pocket aneroid:
$500 meters. I smiled. swal-
lowed a little condensed milk and
left the tube behind-the only
trace of our passage.
One Last Look.
I did up my sack, put on my
gloves, and my glasses, seized my
ice-ax; one look around and I.
too, hurried down the slope. Be-
fore disappearing into the cou-
loir I gave one last look at the
summit which would henceforth
be all our joy and all our con-
ISOLATION.
Lachenal was already far be-
low; he had reached the foot of
the couloir. I hurried down in
his tracks. I went as fast as
could, but it was dangerous 60
ing. At every step one had to
take care that the snow did not
break away beneath ones weight.
Lachenal, going faster than I
thought he was capable Of, was
now on the long traverse. It was
my turn to cross the area of
mixed rock and snow.. At last I
reached the foot of the rock
band. I had hurried and I was
out of breath.
I undid my sack. What had
been going to do? couldn't
say.
my gloves!"
Before I had time to bend over,
I saw them slide and roll. They
went further and further straight
down the slope. I remained
where I was, quite stunned.
They Roll Away.
I watched them rolling down
slowly, with no appearance of
stopping. The movement of
those gloves was engraved IN my
sight as something irredeemable,
against which I was powerless.
The consequences might be most
serious. What was to do?
Quickly, down to Camp ""
Rebuffat and Terray would be
there. My concern dissolved like
magic. I now had a fixed objec-
tive again: To reach the camp.
Never for a minute did it occur
to me to use as gloves the socks
which I always carry in reserve
for just such miShap as this.
On I went, trying to catch up