Maurice Herzog

Maurice Herzog (1919–2012) was a French mountaineer and statesman who led the historic 1950 expedition that conquered Annapurna I (8,091 m) in Nepal. On June 3, 1950, Herzog and Louis Lachenal stood on the summit, marking the very first time human beings reached the summit of an 8,000-meter mountain peak.

Suffering horrific frostbite on the descent that resulted in the amputation of all his toes and most of his fingers, Herzog wrote Annapurna, which sold over 11 million copies and remains the best-selling mountaineering book of all time. He later served as French Minister of Youth and Sports under Charles de Gaulle.