Published: Saturday, December 15, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
Famed French climber Maurice Herzog dies at 93
Sign up for HeraldNet Headlines
PARIS -- French mountaineer Maurice Herzog, the first person to scale an 8,000-meter peak, has died at the age of 93.
Herzog died early Friday, said Pierre You, the president of the French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing.
A photograph of Herzog waving a French tricolor atop the 8,091-meter (26,545-foot) Annapurna in the Himalayas on June 3, 1950, made front pages around the world,
He and climbing companion Louis Lachenal both lost fingers and toes to frostbite during the expedition, which Herzog later recounted in a best-selling book.
Though Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest three years later, Annapurna was not scaled again for 20 years.
Herzog died early Friday, said Pierre You, the president of the French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing.
A photograph of Herzog waving a French tricolor atop the 8,091-meter (26,545-foot) Annapurna in the Himalayas on June 3, 1950, made front pages around the world,
He and climbing companion Louis Lachenal both lost fingers and toes to frostbite during the expedition, which Herzog later recounted in a best-selling book.
Though Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest three years later, Annapurna was not scaled again for 20 years.
Story tags » • Mountain Climbing
Comments
(
