'I have given my whole life to the mountains. Born at the foot of the Alps, I have been a ski champion, a professional guide, an amateur of the greatest climbs in the Alps and a member of eight expeditions to the Andes and the Himalayas. If the word has any meaning at all, I am a mountaineer.' So Terray begins his autobiography - with typical Gallic arrogance, but typical commitment. One of the most colourful characters of the mountaineering world, his writing is true to his uncompromising but jubilantly passionate love for the mountains. Terray was one of the greatest alpinists the world has ever seen, and his autobiography is one of the finest and most important mountaineering books ever written. Climbing with mountaineering legends such as Gaston Rebuffat, Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, Terray made first ascents in the Alps, Alaska, the Andes, and the Himalaya. He was at the centre of global mountaineering and climbing at a time when Europe was emerging from the shadow of World War II, and he emerged as a hero.
The gripping adventures told within Conquistadors of the Useless capture the energy of French post-war optimism, a time when France needed to re-assert itself and when climbing triumphs were more valued than at any other time in history. Terray's death, in the Vercors, robbed mountaineering of one of its most passionate and far-sighted figures. His energy, so obvious in his book, will inspire generations of climbers for years to come. A mountaineering classic.

Translated by: Geoffrey Sutton