Lionel Terray

Lionel Terray was a French mountaineer born on July 25, 1921 in Grenoble and died on September 19, 1965 at the Gerbier ridge in the Vercors massif.

At 11, he made his first easy climbs near Grenoble and then in Chamonix at the age of 12. In the 1940s, he settled as a farmer in the Chamonix valley. In the summer of 1940, he ran on the south ridge of Le Moine. During the winter of 1940-41, he achieved many successes in alpine skiing in the French championship. In May 1941, he met Gaston Rébuffat. He married in 1942 with Marianne, a teacher in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, and took part in the war with the famous Compagnie Stéphane à ski on the Maurienne front.

In 1945-46, he was an instructor at the École de Haute Montagne, ski instructor and instructor at ENSA, and a guide. At that time, Lionel made his first races with Louis Lachenal, it was the beginning of great epics on the biggest faces of the Alps and in particular the north faces of the Grandes Jorasses and the Eiger. Then, he left France for Quebec, and became coach of the national ski team.