Last week I read French mountain climber Maurice Herzog's book "Annapurna", about the 1950 French expediton to the Nepal peak Annapurna. Herzog and Louis Lachenal got to the summit on June 3, 1950. Both lost all their toes due to frostbite and Herzog lost his fingers, also. Nepal silver rupee VS 1989 (AD 1932) Krause: KM 724, size: 30mm weight: 11.07gm The book mentioned that the porters who carried supplies were paid six silver rupees per day. Silver rupees had to be packed to the base camp for the climb. From "Annapurna": ------------------------------------------------------------ At Butwal, the first village in Nepal, which marks the end of the great plain of the Ganges and the beginning of the mountains, we had to get our money changed, for in these mountainous regions, particularly in the remoter districts, the natives have no faith in paper money and insist upon silver, the standard coinage in most Asiatic countries. Seated in the shade of a great banyan tree, I presided over the coolies' payday which lasted all day long. The fascinated coolies shoved their noses close to the beams of the scales. Each of them received six rupees and one packet of "Red Star" cigarettes, acknowledged it with hands clasped, Hindu fashion, and then signed his name on G. B. Rana's list. (In front of what he is told is his name, written by the babu, each porter presses his thumb previously dipped in ink.) As the list lengthened, additional pieces of parchment were stuck on. By the time the operation was finished, it was nearly four yards long! ------------------------------------------------------------ And this today: French mountaineer Maurice Herzog, the first person to scale the 8,091-meter (26,545-foot) Annapurna peak, has died at the age of 93. Herzog died early Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, said Pierre You, the president of the French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing. His book about the epic expedition, "Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak", was called "the most influential mountaineering book of all time" by National Geographic Adventure and made Sports Illustrated's list of the top 100 sports books of all time. "It has sold millions of copies", the IOC said, "more than 20 million copies", and has been translated into dozens of languages.
