Annapurna: High Peaks and Dangerous Treks on the World's Deadliest Ascent 

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I did the Annapurna circuit in November 2001. It was just myself, another female, one porter, and a guide. Everyone else chose to not go because it was just after 9-11 and people were still afraid to travel. It was great that, not only were we a tiny group, but there were very few other groups too. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

Trekked to annapurna sanctuary few months ago.Seeing this mountain upclose is something else

Yesss, the Simon and Co. bombardment begins!

Ed Viesturs has an interesting story of his ascent of Annapurna. He said they had to straddle this tiny ridge and scoot on their buts their way up toward the summit because of the route they decided to take. It’s crazy that even today with all the advancements in high altitude mountaineering that this beast was successfully climbed in 1950, before Everest and K2 yet it still remains the deadliest of all the 8kers.

1:45 - Chapter 1 - The massif 2:30 - Chapter 2 - The dangers of annapurna 3:55 - Chapter 3 - Nepal reopens its borders 5:25 - Mid roll ads 6:55 - Chapter 4 - Summiting annapura (1950) 12:05 - Chapter 5 - A tale of two mountaineers 14:15 - Chapter 6 - Trekking annapurna 15:55 - Chapter 7 - Disaster at annapurna 2014 18:10 - Chapter 8 - Modern day concerns - Chapter 9 - - Chapter 10 -

Ok, so I solo trekked the Annapurna circuit in 1991. No porters and with a guide map sketched for me on the back of a napkin lol. It took me a total of 22 days but I also wound up spending about 10 days up in a Tibetan village near Manang and the chief took a bit of a shine to me and let one of his kids guide me up some of the yak trails on some (pretty extreme) day walks. Pretty sure at one stage there I got to about 5600 metres above sea level. Possibly more. I wound up spending the best part of a year living and trekking in the Indian and Nepalese Himalayas. Spent a winter there too. Nothing can truly describe it adequately. After trekking through fog and picking leeches off my skin for a week The first glimpse I got of them was on the morning of my 22nd birthday when I woke up and went outside for a pee and I looked up at what I thought was a bank of clouds then with a shock realised it was a mountain range and then the pre dawn sun bathed them with alpenglow. Glorious. Glorious. Glorious. While doing a solo day walk up an isolated valley at the base of Annapurna IIII I heard a long rumble of thunder and looking up witnessed the entire north face of the mountain flake off into what I can only describe as a monster avalanche. Thought I was screwed for a bit there lol. I grew up in the mountains in victoria and also the Aussie outback and so I have an immense respect as well as a healthy caution for nature. Sadly many people nowadays don’t have any idea about it but the Himalayas must be treated with respect. And planning! What saved me is I had a really good parka, and critically, a really, really good sleeping bag that I paid a fortune for. It saved my life or at least my toes on more than one occasion and I still have it to this day. The best way to view trekking the Himalayas, is that you are traversing the wrinkled face of an ancient god. It’s an experience you will never forget….

Oh yes! One of these for each of the 8000ers please!! :D K2: The Savage mountain? That's definitely one to cover Dhaulgiri I was mentioned in this video and, as it turns out, is not unclimbable The story of Herman Buhl, the first man to summit the 'Killer Mountain' (Nanga Parbat) is also worth making a video about! Only person to be the first to summit an 8000er and the first to do it solo at the same time. He lost a crampon on the way down and had to bivouac overnight on a ledge, standing up and holding onto the rock to avoid plummeting to his death.

Possibly in the Biographics channel a feature about Reinhold Messner the first person to climb all 8000m peaks all with out supplementary oxygen and without massive support teams.

First heard about this when watching the documentary on Nims Purja. That guy is one of the baddest men alive.

In 2000 I trekked the circuit it was the most uplifting of experiences, 2002 I walked up to the Sanctuary an equally as beautiful an experience, I believe there is now a paved road by the side of the entire circuit trek, but the Sanctuary is still by foot only. The Nepalese government is trying at last to modernize the interior of the country for the benefit of the people so if you want to see it as it was, go soon.

While we're on the topic of tall and deadly mountains, could we possibly get a future video on K2? I feel like that would make an interesting video.

I was waiting for you to do one on Annapurna. Next: Nanga Parbat!

Ah. Mountaineering! Maybe a story about Reinhold Messner's Everest climb without supplemental oxygen? And the mystery of Mallory and Irvine's attempt and fate in 1924...?

I've never understood risking life and limb to haul my a$$ up a mountain. I think that a year (planned well in advance) should be scheduled where no tourists are allowed up Everest. The only people allowed that year should be those who are cleaning up the crap left by decades of misuse. I know that would be a major hit to their tourist trade in the short term, but in the long term it may provide a better experience for future tourists.

Simon, you should do more natural disasters. El Reno tornado is a good one. The earthquake that ripped Mongolia or another hurricane like Katrina. God bless.

Watch "14 Peaks" to see real bravery, determination and climbing skills. A Nepali climbing the 14 highest peaks in record time.

I would love to visit Nepal, but I'm more into seeing the culture, landscapes & temples than climbing dangerous peaks.

Love anything about mountaineering! Have you thought about a story on K2? A more challenging, deadlier, only slightly shorter Everest that has a rather interesting bit of history around the name (or lack thereof)

Thanks Simon. I will hopefully trek the Annapurna region fall this year!

You should cover all the eight thousanders (14 in total). I'd love to see K2 explored

Thank you for sharing!

Love that we now have a dedicated intro sweater

Excellent presentation Sir ! Thank You

Great video Simon. Climbing mountains is one thing I would never do.

Thanks for another great video! I hope you are safe factboi.

You are a wonder , Simon. The world is better for having you .

Simon's already done a vid - can't remember which channel - on tourist attractions that have been totally ruined purely because of the number of tourists they attracted, the erosion they caused and the associated rubbish they left behind. I'd hate to see these magnificent mountains added to the list.

Good video 👍

Early on one of these for once, great video 🙌

An interesting Geographics channel story would be to do one on tsunamis that were in bays, caused by landslides, such as Lituya Bay, etc. These sometimes tear into forests upwards of thousands of meters! A few are recent enough to have living witness tales and are very interesting and exciting to hear about.

Your work ethic is inspiring my guy

I like the technical comment.about Annapurna. “It’s usually freezing”. 🤔 Useful information.

I did the Annapurna base camp trek, great experience.

Annapurna is scary. The mountain in the Himalayas that gives me nightmares is Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. Nanga Parbat looms over a very pretty place called "Fairy Meadows". But the mountain itself looks like a bunch of raggedy fangs hungrily chomping away while hoping some fool will be clueless enough to try and climb it. The whole mountain on every side is practically a straight up and down wall with no place to stop and rest. Unless you like just dangling over a sheer thousands of meters drop. Usually I enjoy watching mountain climbing videos; but not the ones for Annapurna and especially, Nanga Parbat.

I love climbing .. its self control & self punishment, its a ride that your so focused one you forget what you have done as soon as your back down.

The legend and hero of the Everest air disaster of 96 anatoli boukreev died on Annapurna

You should also make video on kailash.Its also interesting

Annapurna is the name of the goddess who provides food and nutrition in Hinduism

According to 8000er Everest has a 5% fatality rate & Annapurna has a 37.91%. Cho Oyo remains the lowest of the 8k peaks at 1.46%. Look up "ALL 8000ers - ASCENTS vs FATALITIES"

Ah, this must be the K2 waiting room :D

I'm trying to climb all 8000m peaks. I think there is going to be a sharp up tick in deaths. I've been climbing 6000 and 7000m peaks and I climbed Manaslu and Dhaulagiri which were really important for me to gain experience. There are so many more people trying to summit the 8000ers now and they have little to no experience and they don't train very hard either.

You could do a video on K2, arguably also a pretty dangerous mountain in the same category. Mountains like this are super scary in a very unique way, but so fascinating. The accounts of the accident survivors on Everest and others are quite chilling.

There is a peak called Indrasan only 10 people have summited that peak.. i want to see a video on the Himalayas 😍

Hey man really nice video but my only critic point is that I don't understand the American measurements. Pls consider using metric as well. You could just make a little site note in the corner with meters. That would be great!

Rest in peace to those that passed away.

Beware. I summitted Annapurna and never returned. Been up here for the past 10 years bro. 😢

Simon your beard is more magnificent than ever. It's distracting. Like, wow mountains!.... Simon's beard! 😳🥰

Interesting

I jus follow Simon on the internet 🖖😁

Mountaineers have. Notoriously big egos. Therefore their accounts often wildly differ,

Can you do one on Triglav in Slovenia?

I’ve watched many of your videos, and I love them. And this particular one on Annapurna seems to me to be the best on that deadly but fascinating mountain. However, and since English is not my native language, I would like, if possible, that you could speak in a somehow slower pace. In this video you are speaking at vertiginous speed, positively. But thank you very much, still the same.

While Annapurna’s fatality rate is truly 32%, Mt Everest’s fatality rate is far below 1%… not 14%. Not sure where your numbers are coming from.

Bring up K2 at some point? Another far more dangerous mountain than everest 🗻

As an amatuer climber, I wish I was in good enough shape to climb all these cool mountains in the Himalayans, but alas I'll get to stick to still awesome but less extreme mountains ^^

Kinda crazy that they considered the expedition a "success" when people lost all their fingers. It's a mountain for christ's sake, not a war. And this comes from an avid outdoorsman.

Can you please do a video about reinhold Messner?

According to Google the death rate on Mt Everest is about 1% over the last 30 years. Where on earth do you get 14.1% fatality rate?

done it at 21

Could you do a Megaprojects on the British colonization of India, from Company Rule to the British Raj up to the Second World War, maybe with a companion Warographics vid about the Anglo-Nepalese War that you mention here and an Into the Shadows video on the Great Game, the Anglo-Afghan Wars and Russian imperial expansion into Central Asia? Assuming none of this has been covered already, of course.

"vertigo notebooks" is such a metal name wow

Tell the story of the mountain Eiger and what happened to Toni Kurz, that's pretty chilling, no pun intended

All said with one breath

Can you do a Geographics about K2

Mount Everest is a climb for tourists, Annapurna and K2 are where the real mountain climbers go.

how is this guy in so many yt channels

What about Kanchenjunga?

Banqiao Dam Collapse video please?

Interesting speed + accent of commentator!

nah let me correct you it's anna and purna anna means food purna means fullfil so Annapurna is the goddess which provides you food.

we climb mountains, because they are there...

This mountain is small shear height this mountain is smaller than multiple peaks in WA

When the Brexit negotiations started, I noted that a book about Annapurna was part of the diplomatic gift exchange. I thought it was an attempt at some kind of subtle message.

I would have thought the trashing of Everest would have made the Nepalese modify procedures.🗿

Mt Washington in New Hampshire has a lot of deaths, over 100, yet its only 6,388 ft tall.

This video should be about K2

It's not called the Death Zone for nothing, 8,000 + ? You're beggin' for it !

What's at the top of the mountain? A very long drop down, I'll stay at the base of it thanks......... :S

If a narrator has a rate of speech you don’t like, change the playback speed, you namby-pamby BEE-ITCH. This had to be said.

Sydney Opera House

K2 and K1 bro

I could climb it, but need supplemental Taco Bell...

As most mouaineers will say, getting up there is the easiest part. Then the party really starts.

Next time you're going to say something about the state of waste disposal on a mountain perhaps you should read the firsthand accounts of people who've been there and not press reports by people who haven't. If you had you'd know that Everest, more properly known as Chomolungma or Sagarmatha, is not a New Jersey style Superfund site. No "Thumbs-up" for you today.

It’s probably not the deadliest anymore. There were a shit ton of summits this year and few deaths so the rate is going to drop drastically. K2 is probably the new deadliest mountain by rate. However the Dutch Rub is inaccessible because a serac broke off, so we’re back to major avalanche threats on the west ridge.

Why the wharp speed presentation????????????????

Let's be honest. Herzog didn't actually write the book without fingers did he.

Lol dextroamphetamine is my ADHD med

I think Everest’s fatality rate is much lower than that. Last I read it was in the single digits.

I am a bit annoyed, that i have to translate all the Feet into meters, but aside from that, very cool. More mountains please!

Napal and Tibet*

You talk to fast man 🙂 aloe down and ors perfect👍

everytime, simon says Nepol, i am going to lose my head. it is spelled NEPAL hence it is ne-pal. Why is English so complicated for native speaker 😉

Humans can't go anywhere without turning an area to slag.

Love watching videos about the Himalaya/Karakorum ranges. But it drives me nuts when the content creators put so many images of OTHER Himalayan peaks in there. Sure, most people don't know the difference. But those who are truly fascinated by and educated about these lofty summits know that many of the images aren't of the peaks aren't correct. It can be QUITE distracting and detrimental to the true appreciation of the content. After all... people like me watch the videos because we want to see images of the actual mountains being discussed. Anyways... I do appreciate the work put in to create these videos. But the researchers/creators of these videos could do a better job than they do.

First man up Annapurna 1 true summit was a smoking plumber from England don whillans with no oxygen

Simon should quit the fact boy game and start a mountaineering channel

Not for me. I like my fingers

Dont climb mountains for glory!!