“But the entire cirque was dominated by the bulk of the South Face. From this aspect - and, for that matter, from any other aspect - Annapurna could never be described as a beautiful mountain in the sense that Machapuchare undoubtedly can. Annapurna has no real shape or form. It is like the body of a great octopus, its tentacles of subsidiary peaks thrown higgledy-piggledy from the central mass - yet its South Face is immensely impressive. It reminded me of the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses with its three huge buttresses, but it was three times the size and very much more complex” (Chris Bonington, Annapurna South Face).