Jean-Christophe Lafaille was a French climber noted for a number of difficult ascents in the Alps and Himalaya, and for what has been described as "perhaps the finest self-rescue ever performed in the Himalaya", when he was forced to descend the mile-high south face of Annapurna alone with a broken arm, after his climbing partner had been killed in a fall. He climbed eleven of the fourteen eight-thousanders, many of them alone or by previously unclimbed routes, but disappeared during a solo attempt to make the first winter ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.
The South Face of Annapurna
Les Drus, where Lafaille made his hardest Alpine climb
Makalu, scene of Jean-Christophe Lafaille's last climb
Makalu is the fifth-highest mountain on Earth, with a summit at an elevation of 8,485 metres (27,838 ft) AMSL. It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas 19 km (12 mi) southeast of Mount Everest, on the China–Nepal border. One of the eight-thousanders, Makalu is an isolated peak shaped as a four-sided pyramid.
Makalu from the southwest
Glacier on Makalu
Makalu
2004 photo mosaic: the Himalayas with Makalu and Mount Everest from the International Space Station, Expedition 8.