Conquistadors of the Useless (59 page)
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Authors: Geoffrey Sutton Lionel Terray David Roberts
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. âWe 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 â 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 â 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 Ãditions Gallimard
© 2014 Vertebrate Publishing
Vertebrate Publishing
Crescent House, 228 Psalter Lane, Sheffield S11 8UT.
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.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-910240-17-5 (eBook)
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