Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Now, in the bistro, as Terray later put it, “I extolled the thrilling life we were leading
on the Alpine Front.” Instead of agreeing, Lachenal “vehemently proclaimed his hor-
ror of war and of the army.” Lachenal was a pacifist, who, rather than face the com-
pulsory labor service his country demanded, had fled to Switzerland.
Terray left that first meeting with Lachenal with mixed feelings: “I liked his un-
complicated passion for the mountains, but his way of talking and his anti-militarism
rather irritated me.”
Terray himself, however, harbored a deep ambivalence about the war. The mountain
campaigns he pursued so skillfully seemed in an important sense to corrupt his beloved
climbing. Even as he prepared to fire upon a company of Germans who, unaware of the
French patrol that had climbed above them, sunbathed and skied around their outpost,
his feelings were torn. “After a few minutes of this cruel game,” he later wrote, “we
grew weary of shooting at men who were unable to defend themselves and withdrew,
satisfied at having carried out our mission.”
After a pivotal alpine battle at Pointe de Clairy, Terray “went back down to the val-
ley through the peaceful forests full of disgust.” The battle had given him an epiphany.
Spring was beginning to burgeon. Creamy snowdrops speckled the ground, and the air was
full of odors evoking peace and love. As I descended through this poetic landscape I realized
that the hell I had just left, in which so many men had meaninglessly lost their lives, could
never again have anything in common with the naively sporting game I had played through
the winter months. The whole abomination of war was suddenly and overwhelmingly ap-
parent to me.
In the summer of 1945, with Europe at peace for the first time in six years, Terray
went climbing with Lachenal. On the very first route they shared, Terray was awe-
struck at Lachenal's technique:
I began to admire his extraordinary ease of movement. Whether on ice or on snowed-up,
loose rocks, he already gave proof of that disconcerting facility, that feline elegance which
was to make him the greatest mountaineer of his generation.
The first major accomplishment for the pair came the next day, with the second as-
cent of the east face of the Moine. To their surprise, Terray and Lachenal reached the
summit by midday. They basked in sun on top, staring across at the 4,000-foot north
face of the Grandes Jorasses. That very day, they knew, Rébuffat was attempting the
second ascent of the Walker Spur with Edouard Frendo.
They discussed Gaston's chances on the imposing route, rating them at well less
than fifty-fifty. They spoke in hushed tones of the dazzling deeds of Ricardo Cassin,
