Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Alpinist extraordinaire who opened or repeated, from the
Olan to Makalu, the most beautiful routes in the world.
At the time of his death, at thirty-five, Couzy left children of seven, five, and (his
twins) three years of age.
In a moving obituary, Schatz spoke of Couzy's “purity.” “That was the secret of his
demeanor in the mountains in the face of danger—no physical fear ever bothered him;
he acted always as though, with everything carefully weighed, he had decided to act.”
In Conquistadors, Terray wrote, “Jean was not made for the rat-race of this world. He
was a sort of saint, an idealist tormented by visions of the absolute.”
In Paris in the spring of 1999, I met Lise Couzy. A strikingly handsome, dignified
woman, she had never remarried. She recounted the moment forty-one years earlier
when she had received the terrible news. Puiseux had telephoned a friend in Lyon, who
in turn telephoned Lise's mother, whom Lise was visiting. “When I saw my mother's
face, I knew,” she told me.
At first, it was more than she could bear to tell her children. “Where's Papa?” asked
her son that evening. “Maybe he'll come back later,” she prevaricated.
“Jean stayed friends with the other Annapurna climbers,” Lise Couzy recalled. “He
and Terray were particularly close. And he very much liked Lachenal. He was not at all
disappointed in Annapurna, even though for him it was a very hard expedition, a very
tough return.
“When he was off on Makalu, I had a lot of fear. But I knew this was his passion.
On Makalu, Terray lost six kilograms, but Jean put on six kilos! It was a matter of dif-
ferent metabolisms.
“After his death, everybody spoke so well of Jean, but they didn't really know him.
I never thought of marrying again. Jean was my hero. He still is.”
G ASTON R ÉBUFFAT RETURNED from Annapurna deeply disenchanted. According to
Françoise, one of the first things he said was, “I don't believe any more in friendship.”
His long relationship with Terray was irrevocably damaged by the expedition. Says
Françoise of the dolorous march out from Annapurna, “After that, Gaston was no
longer friends with Lionel, because Lionel had seen the political advantage of taking
care of Herzog. Often Lachenal was left alone lying on his stretcher, so Gaston stayed
with him.”
Rébuffat would never again join an expedition to the far-flung ranges, restricting
his climbing instead to the Alps. Yet for the next two years, he pushed the limits of
what was humanly possible in his beloved mountains. Only eleven days after getting
Search WWH ::




Custom Search