Lionel Terray was a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
climber who made many first ascents, including
MakaluMakalu is the fifth highest mountain in the world at and is located southeast of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and China...
in the Himalaya (with
Jean CouzyJean Couzy was a French mountaineer. He studied aeronautical engineering at the École Polytechnique. At age 27, he was a member of Maurice Herzog's 1950 expedition to Annapurna. Prior to this, his usual climbing partner was Marcel Schatz, another member of the expedition...
on 15 May 1955) and Cerro Fitzroy in the
Patagonian AndesPatagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
(with Guido Magnone in 1952).
A climbing guide and ski instructor, Terray was active in
mountain combatMountain warfare refers to warfare in the mountains or similarly rough terrain. This type of warfare is also called Alpine warfare, named after the Alps mountains...
against Germany during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the war, he became well known as one of the best
ChamonixChamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...
climbers and guides, noted for his speedy ascents of some of the most notorious climbs in the French, Italian, and
SwissThe Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
AlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
: the Walker Spur of the
Grandes JorassesThe Grandes Jorasses is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif.The first ascent of the highest peak of the mountain was by Horace Walker with guides Melchior Anderegg, Johann Jaun and Julien Grange on 30 June 1868...
, the south face of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, the north-east face of
Piz BadilePiz Badile is a mountain in the Bregaglia range in the Swiss canton of Graubünden and Italy, the border between the two countries running along the summit ridge. Its northeast face is considered one of the six great north faces of the Alps....
, and the north face of the
EigerThe Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m...
. Terray, frequently with climbing partner
Louis LachenalLouis Lachenal , a French climber born in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, was one of the first two mountaineers to climb a summit of more than 8,000 meters. On 3 June 1950, along with Maurice Herzog, he reached the summit of Annapurna I in Nepal at a height of 8,091 m...
, broke previous climbing speed records.
Terray was a member of
Maurice HerzogMaurice Herzog is a French mountaineer and sports administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and reached the summit with Louis Lachenal. Upon his return, he wrote a best-selling book about the expedition...
's 1950 expedition to the Nepalese Himalayan peak,
AnnapurnaAnnapurna is a section of the Himalayas in north-central Nepal that includes Annapurna I, thirteen additional peaks over and 16 more over ....
, the highest peak climbed at the time, and the first 8000-meter peak climbed (although British climbers
George MalloryGeorge Herbert Leigh Mallory was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s....
,
George FinchGeorge Ingle Finch FRS was a chemist and mountaineer.He was born in Australia but educated in German-speaking Switzerland and studied physical sciences at Geneva University....
, Geoffrey Bruce, Henry Morshead, Edward Norton and Howard Somervell had reached higher altitudes on
Mount EverestMount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
during the 1920s). Terray did not reach the summit of Annapurna, but together with the
SherpaThe Sherpa are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpas migrated from the Kham region in eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 300–400 years.The initial mountainous migration from Tibet was a search for beyul...
Adjiba he aided summitteers
Maurice HerzogMaurice Herzog is a French mountaineer and sports administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and reached the summit with Louis Lachenal. Upon his return, he wrote a best-selling book about the expedition...
and
Louis LachenalLouis Lachenal , a French climber born in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, was one of the first two mountaineers to climb a summit of more than 8,000 meters. On 3 June 1950, along with Maurice Herzog, he reached the summit of Annapurna I in Nepal at a height of 8,091 m...
down from the mountain. Both Herzog and Lachenal experienced extreme frostbite and subsequently underwent amputations.
Despite these events, the French team returned to
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to huge public acclaim, and Herzog's expedition book
Annapurna became an international bestseller.
Terray was also one of the main participants in the great attempt to rescue four climbers trapped on the north face of the
EigerThe Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m...
in 1957. This mission forms the subject of
Jack OlsenJack Olsen was an American journalist and author known for his thorough, scholarly approach to crime reporting. Olsen was Senior Editor and Chief for the Sun-Times in Chicago Illinois in 1954...
's famous book The Climb Up To Hell, in which Terray's skill and bravery receive special mention.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Terray made a number of first ascents in Peru, including the highest unclimbed peak in the central Andes at the time, 20,981-foot
Huantsan. He also made first ascents of lower but more difficult peaks, including Veronica, Soray, Taulliraju, and Chacraraju, possibly the hardest peak in the
Peruvian AndesThe Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
and considered unclimbable at the time. One of Terray's finest achievements was the first ascent of 25,295-foot
JannuJannu or Kumbhakarna is the 32nd highest mountain in the world. It is an important Western outlier of Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest peak. Jannu is a large and steep peak in its own right, and has numerous challenging climbing routes.The official name of this peak is Kumbhakarna, but the...
in
NepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
in 1962. He also climbed the Nilgiris near Annapurna, and led the successful 1964 first ascent of 12,240 foot Mount Huntington, in the
Alaska RangeThe Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, 650-km-long mountain range in the southcentral region of the U.S. state of Alaska, from Lake Clark at its southwest end to the White River in Canada's Yukon Territory in the southeast...
, by the northwest ridge.
Terray died on a rock climb in the
VercorsThe Vercors is a range of plateaux and mountains in the départements of Isère and Drôme in the French Prealps. It lies west of the Dauphiné Alps, from which it is separated by the rivers Drac and Isère...
, south of
GrenobleGrenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
, on 19 September 1965, several years after the publication of his climbing memoir,
Conquistadors of the Useless.
His grave is situated in
ChamonixChamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...
, France. A traffic circle is named for him in Chamonix, WSW of town.