MOUNTAINEERING INFORMATION ARTICLES

Louis Lachenal: The Man Who Conquered Annapurna

Louis Lachenal was born on July 17, 1921 in Annecy, a city in Southeastern France. He started climbing at a young age, when he first climb Biclope in 1934. He carried on to become an alpine and skiing instructor at Contamines-Montjoie, a ski resort in France.

In 1947, Lachenal became the second team to conquer Eiger, after the first ascent of the peak by German and Austrian climbers Anderl Heckmair, Heinrich Harrer, Fritz Kasparek and Ludwig Vörg in 1938. The Eiger, part of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland, was climbed by the French Alpinist together with his climbing partner Lionel Terray.

Lachenal achieved great distinction when he reached the summit of Annapurna I in Central Nepal, a dangerous mountain to climb with a fatality rate of 40%. With a team of climbers which include Gaston Rébuffat, Lionel Terray, Jean Couzy, and Marcel Schatz, they set off to conquer the fatal ascent to the mountain. But it was together with Maurice Herzog, also a French mountaineer, that the two conquered the 10th highest summit in the world at a height of 26,545 feet (8,091 meters). In this expedition both Lachenal and Herzog had severe frostbite on their feet, which forced an expedition doctor to amputate Herzog’s hands and toes and Lachenal’s without any anesthetic.

Lachenal died while on a skiing trip in Vallée Blanche, Chamonix on a cold night in November 25, 1955. He had fallen into a crevasse on his descent at the Aiguille du Midi with his friend Jean-Pierre Payot. That cold fateful night instantly took away the life of a remarkable man after falling some 25 meters below the ravine and snapping his neck. After recovering the body, the great Alpinist was buried at the Cemetery of Chamonix, together with his partner French climber Lionel Terray. A corridor in Flégère, Chamonix, is named after him. He was dubbed as “the panther of the snows”.

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