Annapurna I 8,091 metres

Where's his gloves?

Annapurna I, 8,091 metres , whose name means 'goddess of plenty', was the first 8,000 metre peak to be climbed. The ace French team from Chamonix were led by Maurice Herzog, seen left on the summit. This expedition was a triumph because of the extent of their achievements. In 1950 there were no satisfactory maps of the region. The team had to explore the entire region in order to choose their route. They reached the summit of Annapurna on the 3rd of June 1950. Tragically, the French team were not equipped for the extreme cold, and suffered serious frostbite. Worse was to come, for by the 1990's, doubt was being cast on their ascent. The recent release of Lachenal's diaries, combined with the ambiguous summit photograph has clouded their success.

The 1950 French route is shown in red

The second ascent was by the same route, by a British Army expedition taking the original French route.

Annapurna I south face

The third ascent, amazingly, was on the same day as the second, by another British expedition, this time from the south face. Chris Bonnington's expedition was a milestone in Himalayan difficulty. It also intrigued the public back in Britain because one of the summiteers, Don Whillans, claimed to have seen a Yeti at base camp.

Annapurna I from Poon Hill

Ascents

1950	NE Face	FRA	Louis Lachenal, FRA ,Maurice Herzog, FRA
1970	N Face (original)	GBR	Capt Gerry F Owens, GBR ,Capt MW Henry Day, climb.ldr., GBR
1970	S Face	GBR	Don Whillans (Deputy), GBR ,Dougal Haston, GBR
1977	N Face, Dutch Rib	NED	Mathieu van Rijswick, NED ,Mingwa Tenzing Sherpa, NEP , Sonam Sherpa, NEP
1978	Dutch Rib	USA	Chewang Rinzing,MingmaTsering, NPL ,Irene Miller, USA , Vera Komarkova, USA
1979	N face (1st ascent route)	FRA	Henri Sigayret, FRA ,Yves Morin, FRA
1979	Dutch Rib	JPN	Pemba, NPL ,Seizo Tanaka, JPN
1980	Dutch Spur	DEU	Ang Dorje, NPL ,Ang Sanghi, NPL , Gustav Harder, DEU , Karl Schrag, DEU , Konrad Staltmayr, DEU , Maila Pemba, NPL , Wolfgang Brog, DEU
1981	S Face, Rib on right	POL	Boguslav Probulski, POL ,Maciek Berbeka, POL
1981	S Face, between 1970 British and 1981 Polish	JPN	Hiroshi Aota, JPN ,Yukihiro Yanagisawa, JPN
1982	Spanish route	AUT	Sherpa Dawa Tensing, NPL ,Thomas Hagler, CHE , Wastl Worgotter, AUT , Werner Burkli, AUT
1984	E Ridge & traverse	SUI	Erhard Loretan, SUI ,Norbert Joos, SUI
1984		IND	4 Sherpas, IND ,Miss Young-Ja Kim, KOR
1985	NW Face (new route)	AUT	Hans Kammerlander, AUT ,Reinhold Messner, ITA
1987	N face	ESP	Josep Maria Maixie, ESP ,Rafael Lopez, ESP
1987	N Face Dutch rib	ESP	Franciso Jose Perez, ESP ,Juan Carlos Gomez, ESP , Kaji Sherpa, NEP
1987	N face (French original route)	POL	Artur Hajzer, POL ,Jerzy Kukuckza, POL
1987	S face (new variation)	JPN	Noboru Yamada (climbing ldr), JPN ,Teruo Saegusa, JPN , Toshiyuki Kobayashi, JPN , Yasuhiro Saito, JPN
1988	S face (1970 British route)	FRA	Benoit Chamoux, FRA ,Josef Rakoncaj, CSK , Nicholas Campredon, FRA , Soro Dorotei, ITA , Steve Boyer, USA
1988	NW face	CSK	Jindrich Martis, CSK ,Josef Nezerka, CSK
1988	Dutch rib	ESP	Juan Fernando Azcona, ESP ,Pablo Aldai, ESP
1989	Dutch route (on N face)	BUL	Liudmil Yanakiev, BUL ,Ognian Stoykov, BUL , Petr Panayotov, BUL
1990	N Side - ascent questioned	ITA	Giancarlo Gazzola, ITA
1990	N Face	ITA	Giancarlo Gazzola, ITA
1993	Normal	TIB	Akebu, TIB ,Pemba Tashi, TIB , Ren Na, TIB , Tshering Dorjee, TIB
1994	British	KOR	3 Sherpas, NPL ,Park Jung-Hung, KOR
1995	Original French Route	SLO	Andrej Karnicar, SLO ,Carlos Carsolio, MEX , Davorin Karnicar, SLO , Tomaz Humar, SLO
1996	N W Ridge	POL	Andrzej Marciniak, POL ,Vladyslav Terzyul, UKR
1996	Original 1950 French route on N Face	SUI	Andre Georges, SUI
1996	British Route on S Face	UKR	Igor Svergun, UKR ,Sergey Bershov, UKR , Serguei Kovalev, UKR