Annapurna, first conquest of an 8000-meter peak (26,493 feet)

Two almost exhausted men crept up a steep, wind-scoured slope of snow and reached a small level space. There they saw that there was nowhere higher to go. They were standing on the summit of the highest mountain yet climbed by man. Maurice Herzog was one of the two. He was the leader of the French Expedition to the Himalayas which was the first in the history of mankind to climb an 8,000 meter peak -- the magic goal of every mountaineer, -- by conquering Annapurna's 26,493 feet.