A climbing guide and ski instructor, Terray was active in mountain combat against Germany during World War II. After the war, he became well known as one of the best Chamonix climbers and guides, noted for his speedy ascents of some of the most notorious climbs in the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps: the Walker Spur of the Grandes Jorasses, the south face of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, the north-east face of Piz Badile, and the north face of the Eiger. Terray, frequently with climbing partner Louis Lachenal, broke previous climbing speed records.
Terray made the second ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in 1947, with Louis Lachenal. He was also one of the main participants in the great attempt to rescue four climbers trapped on the north face of the Eiger in 1957. This mission forms the subject of Jack Olsen's 1962 book, The Climb Up To Hell, in which Terray's skill and bravery receive special mention.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Terray made a number of first ascents in Peru, including the highest unclimbed peak in the central Andes at the time, 6,395-metre (20,981 ft) Huantsan. He also made first ascents of lower but more difficult peaks, including Willka Wiqi, Soray, Tawllirahu, and Chakrarahu/Chacraraju, possibly the hardest peak in the Peruvian Andes and considered unclimbable at the time. One of Terray's finest achievements was the first ascent of 7,710-metre (25,295 ft) Jannu in Nepal in 1962. He also climbed the Nilgiris near Annapurna, and led the successful 1964 first ascent of 3,730-metre (12,240 ft) Mount Huntington, in the Alaska Range, by the northwest ridge.[2]
Terray organised a rescue attempt of two climbers stranded on Mont Blanc in December 1956. For this he was expelled from the Chamonix Guide's Association, which had refused to participate in the rescue from the start on the grounds that the risk to the rescuers would be too great.[3] Due to the fact that no other guides would accompany him, Terray set out a small team of amateurs. They were turned back on 1 January 1957 either by poor weather[3] or on the understanding that a helicopter would attempt a rescue the following day.[4] Terray was highly critical of the Chamonix Guide Association's inaction when the alarm had first been raised.[5]
Terray was fatally injured from a fall while climbing in the Vercors, south of Grenoble, on 19 September 1965, several years after the publication of his climbing memoir, Conquistadors of the Useless.[6] There were rumors that Terray was functionally illiterate and the book was ghost-written; however in a Foreword written by author and climber David Roberts to an English edition, he confirms he found the original manuscript written in Terray's hand which is word for word what was published, dispelling any notion that Terray did not write the book entirely himself.[7]
His grave is situated in Chamonix, France. A traffic circle is named for him in Chamonix, WSW of town.
