Maurice Herzog - Telegraph For Lachenal, to continue meant the certain loss of his toes and an end to a glittering climbing career, something he dreaded. But to retreat meant abandoning Herzog to his fate, unconscionable to a mountain guide. "Then I'll follow you," he declared. The pair duly marched on, Herzog almost in a hypnotic trance, carried by religious visions until the moment came when they stood on the summit and the euphoria was complete. "Never had I felt happiness like this - so intense and yet so pure," Herzog wrote. He pulled out the "sweat-soaked" tricolor and posed for the photograph that would guarantee his fame - a photo that would later be credited to Herzog, as if he had reached the summit and set up the camera alone. Lachenal, aware of their need to retreat, fought to snap Herzog from his stupor. The pair then made an epic descent that included a bivouac in a crevasse. Having lost his gloves, Herzog returned with hands as white and solid as wood. Their team-mates Gaston Rébuffat and Lionel Terray whipped his hands with rope ends in a futile attempt to restore circulation; they would later be amputated in the field by the expedition doctor, Jacques Oudot. Herzog did not spare his readers: "Beyond my wrists and ankles I could feel nothing," he recounted. My hands were in a terrible state. There was hardly any skin, and what was left was black. After an exam Oudot declared: 'I'll be back in a moment to give you some injections..."" Having forced the others to sign contracts that forbade them from writing about the expedition, Herzog ensured that his version of events, and his heroism, dominated the public imagination. His account notably downplayed the contribution of his team-mates, who undoubtedly had saved his life. Herzog also glossed over their disagreements, portraying the expedition as an exemplar of patriotic and unified French resolve. Lachenal faded into obscurity and died skiing into a crevasse in 1955. In 1996, however, his unexpurgated diary of the expedition was published. This, combined with a biography of Gaston Rébuffat, led to True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna, by David Roberts. Without diminishing the team's achievement, it redistributed credit for the feat more evenly. Nevertheless, while Annapurna may have strayed from a literal version of events, it spoke a truth about the appeal of mountaineering and continues to inspire generations of climbers the world over. Interviewed in 1996, Herzog was unapologetic. "Annapurna is a sort of novel," he said. It's a novel, but a true novel. Maurice Herzog was born in Lyon on January 15 1919, the oldest of eight children. His father was an engineer and alpinist who had met his mother during convalescence in Toulouse from wounds sustained in the Great War while serving with the French Foreign Legion. Maurice was a talented climber, but by no means among the best. His war record, however, made him an obvious leader for the Annapurna expedition. He had served first with the Armée Secrète, then joined the Left-leaning French Partisans (FTP), captaining a high mountain troop. He was twice awarded the Croix de Guerre. He graduated from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris in 1944, and after the war joined the tyre company Kleber-Colombes before being invited to lead the Annapurna expedition. From 1963 to 1966 Herzog served as Minister of Youth and Sport under President Charles de Gaulle. He was responsible for the creation of hundreds of youth centres across the country, but once observed: "La politique est presque plus dangereuse que l'Annapurna." Later he was mayor of Chamonix (1968-77) and a member of the International Olympic Committee (1970-94). He was a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur. Despite his disabilities, Herzog managed to continue to ski and travel, and he accumulated more than 3,000 hours as a pilot. As well as Annapurna, he was the author of a memoir, L'Autre Annapurna (1998). He married first, in 1964, Marie Pierre de Cossé-Brissac (daughter of the Duc de Brissac), with whom he had a son and a daughter. He married secondly, in 1976, Elisabeth Gamper, with whom he had two sons. Maurice Herzog, born January 15 1919, died December 13 2012