About the Author

Lionel Terray was a central figure in the French post-war climbing scene, an early repeater of the Alpine north faces and an innovative expeditioner who played a key role during the first ascents of Annapurna (1950) and Makalu (1955). Born in Grenoble in 1921 he was climbing by the age of 12. During the war he lived in Chamonix and formed a climbing partnership with Gaston Rebuffat. Following liberation in 1944 he served with the mountain troops for eight months on the borders of Nazi-occupied Italy. In 1947, with fellow guide Louis Lachenal, he made the second ascent of the North Face of the Eiger. He was a major pioneer in American climbing, including the first ascent of Alaska's Mount Huntington, and seemed at the centre of every major new initiative of his era. His death in a strange climbing accident in 1965 robbed the climbing world of one of its most exciting and innovative personalities.