Lionel Terray

Lionel Terray (German pronunciation: [ljɔnɛl tɛʁɛ]; 25 July 1921 – 19 September 1965) was a French climber who made many first ascents, including on the 1955 French Makalu expedition in the Himalaya (with Jean Couzy on 15 May 1955) and Cerro Fitz Roy in the Patagonian Andes (with Guido Magnone in 1952). A climbing guide and ski instructor, Terray was active in mountain combat against Germany during World War II. After the war, he became well known as one of the best Chamonix climbers and guides, noted for his speedy ascents of some of the most notorious climbs in the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps: the Walker Spur of the Grandes Jorasses, the south face of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, the north-east face of Piz Badile, and the north face of the Eiger. Terray, frequently with climbing partner Louis Lachenal, broke previous climbing speed records. Terray was a member of Maurice Herzog's 1950 expedition to the Nepalese Himalayan peak Annapurna, the highest peak climbed at the time, and the first 8000-metre peak climbed (although British climbers George Mallory, Andrew Irvine, George Finch, Geoffrey Bruce, Henry Morshead, Teddy Norton and Howard Somervell had reached higher altitudes on Mount Everest during the 1920s). Terray did not reach the summit of Annapurna, but together with the Sherpa Adjiba he aided summiteers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal down from the mountain. Both Herzog and Lachenal experienced extreme frostbite and subsequently underwent amputations. Despite these events, the French team returned to Paris to huge public acclaim, and Herzog's expedition book Annapurna became an international bestseller. Terray made the second ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in 1947, with Louis Lachenal. He was also one of the main participants in the great attempt to rescue four climbers trapped on the north face of...