The first conquest made of an 8000-metre peak occurred in June 1950, when a French team reached the summit of Annapurna. Maurice Herzog, the leader, became a national hero and his account of the expedition remains a best-selling mountaineering book. But the book left much unsaid, for far from the solidarity portrayed by Herzog, the team was riven with dissent. This volume seeks to offer the real story of the Annapurna expedition. Drawing on interviews with friends and family of the climbers, as well as books published in France, David Roberts gives the three climbers who accompanied Herzog - Lachenal, Lionel Terray and Gaston Rebuffat - long overdue recognition for their achievement. He has also interviewed Herzog, the one survivor among the climbers, and puts his account of their climb into perspective. Finally he explains why it has taken nearly 50 years for the full story of the expedition to emerge and how the revelations will change the way we think about this victory in the mountains and the climbers who achieved it.