Annapurna: 10th Highest Mountain in the World

one of the fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, and is the 94th most prominent mountain in the world. The mountain is technically named Annapurna I and is the high point of a massif that includes five other major peaks over 23,620 feet (7,200 meters), including 26,040-foot (7,937-meter) Annapurna II, the 16th highest mountain in the world.

Annapurna Fast Facts

• Elevation: 26,545 feet (8,091 meters)

• Prominence: 9,790 feet (2,984 meters). 94th most prominent mountain in the world.
• Location: Nepal, Asia
• Coordinates: 28.596111 N /  83.820278 E
• First Ascent: Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal (France), June 3, 1950
• Annapurna is a Sanskrit word that literally means “full of food” but translates to Goddess of the Harvest. Annapurna is a Hindu fertility goddess.
• Annapurna I is the highest point of a 34-mile-long range, which is east of the Kali Gandaki River’s deep gorge. The gorge, which separates Annapurna from Dhaulagiri I some 20 miles away, is considered the world's deepest canyon.
• Annapurna was the first 8,000-meter peak climbed and the first to be climbed without supplemental oxygen.
• Maurice Herzon and Louis Lachenal, the first to summit Annapurna in 1950, were part of a French team that included other great climbers including Gaston Rébuffat and Lionel Terray.​
• Herzog and Lachenal both suffered severe frostbite on their feet and Herzog on his hands after losing his gloves. Gangrene set in afterward, forcing the expedition doctor to amputate fingers and toes in the field without anesthetic.

• Maurice Herzog wrote the book Annapurna about the 1950 expedition, which has sold over 11 million copies, making it the best-selling climbing book of all time.