The same year that Bonatti end mountaineering retired, the mountain world suffered another huge loss. Lionel Terray was perhaps the best representative of that great generation of French climbers. He had been part of the expedition to Annapurna, where he played a key role in both the triumph and the subsequent dramatic retreat.
It was a versatile man knew all disciplines combine mountaineering, same as climbing a wall of ice as a rock, on an expedition, filming descended on the skis. He traveled much of the world climbing conducting, films and adventures. The choice of all the mountains in which laid eyes speak of his great soul dared and committed mountaineer: The North Face Eiger, la Walker, the Fitz Roy, the Makalu, the Chacraraju or Jannu, among other.
Terray was perhaps the best representative of that great generation of French climbers
Its rich heritage includes essential mountain film "Les Etoiles du Midi" , by Marcel Ichac, and one of the best memoirs of a mountaineer "The Conquerors of the Useless". On the last page, Terray makes a serious reflection on the evolution of mountaineering and predicts the inexorable passage of time: "Today I will no longer be as inflexible as it had once been, and the limits of my bravery not go as far "Although other, prophetic sense affirms, "Mountaineering is still far from finding its limits".
For him, however, “The Alps shall be to me in much more dire peaks than they were in my youth. If in fact there is no rock, no Serac, no cracks that I'm waiting somewhere in the world to stop my career, come a day when, old and tired, find peace between animals and flowers. Be closed circle, and finally I will be the simple shepherd who longed to be in my childhood dreams ". Terray was unable to fulfill his dreams of being a pastor, because perish the same year 1965 in a climbing accident in the Vercors.
«Llegará un día en el que, old and tired, find peace between animals and flowers. Por fin seré el simple pastor que añoraba ser en mis sueños de niño», wrote
As predicted mountaineering Terray was far to find its limits. In the late sixties and early 70 techniques of rock climbing Yosemite move to Europe, revolutionizing rock climbing and soon after climbing big walls in other mountain ranges. The influence of American mountaineering in Yosemite will become huge, with guys like Royal Robbins, (rock climber most talented American who developed the techniques of big wall in Yosemite and in the Alps) John Harlin, the Jim Bridwell, from a huge amount coming to Europe and European climbers and mountaineers who go to Yosemite, producing a current dual sport and cultural exchanges.
The contributions and innovations are material constants. And 1966 Americans Tom Frost and Yvon Chouinard invent rigid crampons ice-climbing vertical sectors. Thanks to these new materials and a new mindset, ice climbs are undertaken that will mark a before and after in this type of climbing. This new concept can symbolize what routes as northern corridor Dru, by Walter Cecchinel and Claude Jager or the Super Corridor of Tacul, scaling 1975 by Patrick Gabarrou and Jean Marc Boivin. But also come new pegs, stoppers and chocks, and revolutionaries friends.
Como Vaticino Eric Shipton, after the conquest of Everest, "Now you can start climbing". And really began
As great nations get "their" mountains, the era of national sponsorships in the Himalayas ends. Generally, with exceptions such as the K2, these first ascents were technically simple as it tried to reach the highest peaks on the planet, as happened before in the Alps, by simple routes without media notice. Although, certainly, were first ascents and expeditions in these very light and few climbers.
But after this pioneering impulse begin a logical progression that would follow the same trend as in the Alps. Thereafter it would be to scale vertical walls and inaccessible, for the most difficult routes, with the best style. As predicted Eric Shipton, after the conquest of Everest, "Now you can start climbing" And truly began. If the time of the first ascents ranges from 1950 a 1964, to undertake the great walls in the Himalayas last ten years.
Would the British, in 1970, the first to open a route "impossible" in the dangerous south face of Annapurna
And would the British, in 1970, the first to open a route "impossible" in the dangerous south side of Annapurna. The expedition was led Chris Bonington that, thereafter, would become not only the best boss expeditions but there has been a major driver of evolution in the Himalayan alpine.
Also 1970, el italiano Reinhold Messner, part of an expedition led by Dr. Herrligkoffer, escalate the dizzying Rupal wall of Nanga Parbat, one of the largest in the Himalayas, but losing his brother Günther, and part of his feet, in a desperate descent to limit the possibilities of human. When he recovered, both physically and psychologically, begin the unstoppable career that led him to become the greatest mountain climber of the modern era ...
For Bonington, «la sur del Annapurna y la suroeste del Everest fueron primeras ascensiones a paredes vírgenes del Himalaya que hicieron posible lo imposible»
Best escalation 1971, demonstrating the great leap that is occurring in the Himalayas, would be made by a French team led by Yannick Seigneur and Robert Paragot. The French team get climbing western pillar Makalu, possibly the smartest route open in a mountain of eight thousand meters. It is a superb granite buttress, as an arrow, holds the top of the fifth highest mountain in the world. A climb that is a true reflection of the thinking of those great mountaineers, that combines ethics and aesthetics-that Walter Bonatti always considered as the two main pillars of mountaineering- and also the idea of Alfred Mummery I always felt that the true mountaineer is what opens new routes. Difficult routes and committed.
From the time evolution speeds. And the British, as before, will play a starring role. Five years later, closing a cycle, Bonington direct the great expedition heavy climbing for the first time achieved the southwest face of Everest. He later stated: "Ultimately the Annapurna South and Southwest were first ascents of Everest virgin Himalayan walls were" impossible possible "and show that a well structured dispatch sufficient resources can climb almost anything. But soon, that year, Reinhold Messner y Peter Habeler opened a new avenue in the Gasherbrum I in alpine style and with it new possibilities for mountaineering. It meant the beginning of a new era " .
Boardman and Tasker disappear when they were trying to climb the northeast ridge of Everest without bottled oxygen and in alpine style
His companions Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, venture and the times to undertake a difficult climb in the Changabang in 1976, and three years later, with Doug Scott, a new route on the Kangchenjunga. But 1982 disappear when they were trying to climb the northeast ridge of Everest without bottled oxygen and in alpine style. But, that year, his countrymen Alex MacIntyre, Doug Scott y Roger Baxter-Jones also opened the south side of Shisha Pangma, perhaps the only one of these walls is finished converting, for the time being, in a classic. And 1984 two Spanish, Enric Lucas and Nil Bohigas, are incorporated and committed new trend, opening a new route on the formidable wall of the south face of Annapurna.
