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Porters, few of whom owned any footwear, were issued with gym shoes for the last leg of the approach march to the mouth of the Sanctuary. 1970.

“The ascent of Annapurna by Maurice Herzog’s French expedition in 1950 was one of the great landmarks in the history of moun taineering. For although his team made the attempt by the most easily accessible route, the climb represented a significant break through-the first conquest of a 26,000-foot peak.

Yet the real challenge of Annapurna remained-the South Face, over 10,000 feet of rock and ice and one of the most formidable mountain walls in the world. Nothing remotely comparable had ever been attempted before.

At the end of March 1970 an expedition led by Chris Bonington arrived at Base Camp in the Annapurna Basin or ‘Sanctuary’. Two months later, on 27 May, two members of the team, Don Whillans and Dougal Haston, reached the summit. The seem ingly impregnable South Face had been conquered…”