Conquistadors of the Useless
Page 48
Jannu 1959-62. After the unexpected ease of the ascent of Makalu, Jannu (25,294 feet) was selected by the French (Devies, Franco, Terray etc) as their next objective. Here was a Himalayan peak offering difficulties the befitted the skills of the now very experienced team. This impression was confirmed as, even by its easiest route, Jannu is defended by a myriad of difficulties and dangers.One of the main obstacles was the ice-encrusted Tête du Butoir (pictured) which was chosen in 1962 as the safest (though hard) route of ascent to the higher levels of the mountain.
Top: From Buffer Peak (extreme right) the route skirted below the ice pinnacles of Tête de la Dentelle and traversed into the main upper cwm of the mountain (the Throne). From here the ridge was regained to where Camp 6 was placed as a base for the summit push.
Bottom: A snow couloir (left) breaches the summit fortress to gain the near-level extended final arête. In places this was so sharp that à cheval techniques were needed to pass safely (right). Oxygen and fixed ropes assisted the ascent. The route to the summit arête was repeated in 1978 (in alpine style) by Alan Rouse, Rab Carrington, Roger Baxter-Jones and Brian Hall.
Fitzroy 1952. Top: At base camp: René Ferlet (left), Louis Dépasse, Lionel Terray, Marc Azéma, Guido Magnone, Franciso Ibañez and Louis Liboutry. Photo: George Strouvé.
Bottom left: Count Aldo Bonacossa’s 1937 expedition reached the snow col (on the left) below Fitroy’s south-east buttress and the 1952 team chose the same route.
Bottom right: A key to success were the snow caves dug for Camp 1 and Camp 3 (on the highest snow field). These enabled the team to sit out the frequent storms and work on the rock bastions above during calm spells.
Top: Fitzroy’s south-east face with the French route on the left, the slabby rib. In 1984 Miguel Angel and J.L. Garcia-Gallego climbed the face to its right (roughly the line of the light and shade). The 5,000-foot east buttress (centre right) fell to Casimiro Ferrari and Vittorio Meles (1977) who finished the 1974 work of the Swiss. Photo: Dave Nicol.
Bottom left: Granite slabs at the start of the 1952 route. The obvious diagonal crack slanting right from the centre/base of the photo gained the broken cliffs above.
Bottom right: Guido Magnone, whose rock-climbing skills proved crucial on Fitzroy. A few months later Magnone (with three others) made the first ascent of the west face of the Dru and, later, Mustagh Tower, Makalu, Jannu and Chacraraju Este.
Fitzroy was not the only Andean peak on which Terray encountered major rock difficulties. Taulliraju’s north-east ridge, climbed in 1956, had as its crux this exposed 100-foot granite slab which was led by Robert Sennelier.
Chacraraju Este seen from the south from the 1956 ascent route on Chacraraju Oeste. ‘We were able to pick out every detail of this apparently unclimbable arrowhead of rock and ice.’ In 1964, rejecting the challenge of the obvious ice-encrusted linking arête, they gained the ridge on the left by a route up the east face (main photo). This gave sustained difficulties to the summit, producing one of the hardest and most elegant climbs in the Andes.
Top: The west face of Hauntsán seen from Huamashraju. The 1952 route linked ridges on the left (with much difficulty low down), crossed the ice-fluted north summit and thence ran up the skyline ridge to the summit (20,981 feet). Photo: H. Adams Carter.
Bottom left: Taulliraju’s north face – the north-east ridge on the left was joined at the obvious notch behind the tower. The hard slab is near the top of the ridge.
Bottom right: Steep mixed climbing on Chacraraju in 1956.
Top and bottom left: Lionel Terray guided three expeditions for his Dutch clients, the geologists Kees Egeler and Tom De Booy – to the Andes in 1952 and 1956 and the Nepal Himalaya in 1962. In 1956 they were joined by Hans Dijkhout and Raymond Jenny for the first ascents of Pic Soray and Nevada Veronica. The pictures show sections of the Pic Soray ascent, a very icy and sustained north face menaced in places by tottering séracs.
Top right: Terray and Kees Egeler.
Bottom right: Tom De Booy.
Alaska 1964. Top: Bradford Washburn’s magnificent of the unclimbed Mount Huntington inspired Terray to make a determined attempt with a strong team. The elegant south ridge (facing the camera), the obvious line, proved long and difficult despite the mountain’s modest height (12,240 feet).
Bottom: As on Fitzroy, a snow cave proved vital. This was dug at the base of the ridge and was soon enlarged, allowing the climbers to sit out periods of poor weather in relative comfort.
Top: On the Third Step of Mount Huntington’s south ridge. After climbing the obvious ice overlap Terray was moving along the easier-angled ridge beyond when some windslab gave way and he fell down the face on the left. His belayer was distracted and Terray was only arrested by a trail line that had luckily already been attached to a snow stake.
Bottom: Despite an injured elbow, Terray joined the second summit bid a few days later. This photo shows him on the summit with Marc Martinetti who was, sadly, to be his partner in disaster a year later in the Vercors.
Conquistadors of the Useless
From the Alps to Annapurna
Lionel Terray
Translated by Geoffrey Sutton
First published in France in 1961 as Le Conquérants de l’Inuitile (Librarie Gallimard, Paris).
First published in English as Conquistadors of the Useless in 1963 (Gollancz, London).
This digital edition first published in 2014 by Vertebrate Digital, an imprint of Vertebrate Publishing.
© 1961 and 2001 Éditions Gallimard
© 2014 Vertebrate Publishing
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Copyright © Lionel Terray 1961
Foreword copyright © David Roberts
Photography © Lionel Terray unless otherwise credited.
Cover photo: Lionel Terray and Marc Martinetti on the summit of Mount Huntington, 1964.
The Estate of Lionel Terray has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as author of this work.
This book is a work of non-fiction. In some limited cases the names of people, places, dates and sequences or the detail of events may have been changed solely to protect the privacy of others. Except in such minor respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of the book are true.
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ISBN: 978-1-910240-17-5 (eBook)
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