On 3 June 1950, Herzog and Louis Lachenal became the first climbers in modern history to climb a peak over 8000m when, on the 1950 French Annapurna expedition, they summited the Himalayan mountain Annapurna I, the 10th-highest mountain in the world. The ascent was all the more remarkable because the peak was explored, reconnoitered and climbed all within one season; and was climbed without the use of supplemental oxygen. It is also the only 8000 meter summit that was reached at the first attempt. Herzog was awarded the 1950 Gold Medal of the Société de Géographie. The event caused a huge sensation that was only matched when Everest was summited in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The two-week retreat from the peak proved very challenging. Both climbers had opted for light boots for the summit dash. This, combined with Herzog losing his gloves near the summit and a night spent bivouacked in a crevasse on the descent with one sleeping bag for four climbers resulted in severe frostbite, with consequent gangrene requiring the expedition doctor to perform emergency amputations in the field. Both summit climbers lost all of their toes and Herzog most of his fingers. Annapurna was not climbed again until 1970, when the French north face route was climbed by a British Army expedition, simultaneously with an ascent of the south face by an expedition led by British climber Chris Bonington. The mountain's fourth ascent was not until 1977.
Book
Herzog's account of the expedition was published first in 1951 in French, then in English in 1952 under the title Annapurna. The book has sold over 11 million copies as of 2000, more than any other mountaineering title. Ending with the stirring line "there are other Annapurnas in the lives of men", the book gave an account of the expedition that established Herzog's climbing reputation and inspired a generation of mountaineers.
Some aspects of Herzog's account of the summit day have been called into question with the publication of other members’ accounts of the expedition, most significantly by a biography of Gaston Rébuffat and the posthumous publication, in 1996, of Lachenal's contemporaneous journals. The 2000 book True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna by David Roberts gives one view of the controversy.
