Annapurna I

The tenth-highest mountain on Earth, 8,091 metres in the Annapurna massif of north-central Nepal. The name comes from the Sanskrit and means "full of food" — a reference to the goddess of harvest and nourishment. The mountain itself is the opposite of nurturing. Annapurna I has the highest fatality rate of any 8000er. Roughly one climber dies for every three who reach the summit.

The first ascent was made in 1950 by a French expedition led by Maurice Herzog. Herzog and Louis Lachenal reached the summit on June 3 — the first humans to stand on top of an 8000-metre peak, three years before Everest. The descent was a catastrophe. Herzog lost his gloves and suffered frostbite that cost him every finger and most of his toes. Lachenal lost the toes on both feet. The team's doctor performed amputations in monsoon conditions on the way down. Herzog's account of the climb, published in 1952, became one of the bestselling mountaineering books of the 20th century.

The standard route from the north ascends a massive avalanche-prone face that has killed many of those who have died on the mountain. The South Face, climbed first in 1970 by Chris Bonington's British expedition, is one of the great walls in Himalayan climbing — 3,000 vertical metres of mixed rock and ice, climbed by Don Whillans and Dougal Haston in alpine style after weeks of fixed-rope work below.

What Annapurna teaches is that the rules that govern other 8000ers do not always apply. Avalanche risk is not seasonal here in the way it is on Everest. The mountain releases when it releases. Climbers who have summited multiple 8000ers describe Annapurna as a different category of danger. The first 8000er to be climbed remains, seventy-five years on, one of the last anyone wants to attempt.