1955 French Makalu Expedition

Nepal🏔️ 2 Peaks

Gyalzen Norbu

Gyalzen Norbu was born around 1918 in the high valleys of the Solukhumbu district in eastern Nepal. Endowed with immense physical stamina, unshakeable courage, and sharp tactical leadership, Gyalzen established himself in the post-World War II era as one of the most elite and sought-after Sherpa Sirdars in the Greater Ranges. His intimate understanding of Himalayan ice and weather patterns earned him profound respect from European, Asian, and American expedition leaders alike. In the spring of 1955, Gyalzen Norbu served as Sirdar for the French Makalu Expedition led by Jean Franco. Guiding the heavy supply trains across the Barun wilderness and up the treacherous Makalu La icefall, Gyalzen ensured flawless logistical support for the team. On May 16, 1955—the day after Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy claimed the summit—Gyalzen joined the second summit wave alongside Jean Bouvier and Serge Coupé, becoming one of the first human beings to stand atop the 8,485-meter apex of Makalu. Just one year later, in the spring of 1956, Gyalzen took on the Sirdarship for the third Japanese Manaslu Expedition under Aritsune Maki. His diplomatic poise was crucial in bridging cultural divides with the frightened villagers of Sama Gompa, who feared mountain deities. On May 9, 1956, partnered with Japanese climber Toshio Imanishi, Gyalzen Norbu led the final assault up the Northeast Face, conquering the exposed knife-edge summit crest of Manaslu at 8,163 meters. With this triumph, Gyalzen achieved what no other mountaineer in human history has ever matched: he became the first ascender of two virgin eight-thousanders on their maiden climbs. Gyalzen continued to guide international expeditions on the frontiers of high-altitude exploration until his tragic death in an avalanche on an expedition in 1961. Decorated with the prestigious Tiger of the Snows distinction by the Himalayan Club, Gyalzen Norbu stands immortalized as a foundational colossus of Himalayan mountaineering heritage.

France🏔️ 2 Peaks

Jean Couzy

Jean Couzy was born on July 9, 1923, in Nérac, Lot-et-Garonne, France. A prodigiously gifted student, Couzy graduated as an aeronautical engineer from France's most prestigious science and engineering institution, the École Polytechnique in Paris. Combining rigorous analytical intelligence with extraordinary physical agility, Couzy quickly emerged in the late 1940s as one of the most formidable rock climbers in Europe, forging severe new lines in the Pyrenees, the Mont Blanc massif, and the Dolomites. In 1950, at the age of twenty-seven, Couzy was selected as the youngest mountaineer for the legendary French Himalayan Expedition to Annapurna I led by Maurice Herzog. Assigned to support duties and reconnaissance across uncharted glacier basins, Couzy's relentless high-altitude ferrying established the upper camps that allowed Herzog and Lachenal to reach the virgin summit. During the harrowing monsoon retreat through the jungle, Couzy played an instrumental role in evacuating his crippled companions to safety. Four years later, in the autumn of 1954, Couzy returned to the Himalayas on the French reconnaissance expedition to Makalu (8,485m). Partnering with Lionel Terray, the pair achieved the spectacular first ascent of Makalu's subsidiary peak, Chomo Lonzo (7,804m), and mapped the viable approach route via the Makalu La saddle. In the spring of 1955, Couzy was appointed lead assault climber for the full French Makalu Expedition under Jean Franco. On May 15, 1955, using open-circuit oxygen apparatus, Couzy and Terray climbed the final steep summit headwall to stand atop the 8,485-meter apex—the fifth-highest mountain on Earth. Returning to the European Alps, Couzy pioneered the direct North Face of the Cima Ovest di Lavaredo in the Italian Dolomites alongside René Desmaison in 1956—a breakthrough climb that heralded the modern era of extreme big-wall directissimas. On November 2, 1958, at the peak of his climbing powers, Jean Couzy was tragically struck by falling rock while opening a new route on the Crête des Bergers in the Dévoluy massif, dying at the age of thirty-five. He is celebrated as one of France's purest and most visionary alpine masters.

France🏔️ 3 Peaks

Lionel Terray

Lionel Terray was born on July 25, 1921, in Grenoble, France. Raised in the shadow of the French Alps, Terray developed an all-consuming passion for extreme skiing and high-angle alpinism from early childhood. During World War II, he fought heroically against Nazi occupation forces in the Battle of the Alps as part of the Compagnie Stéphane ski-troops, winning the Croix de Guerre. In Chamonix after the war, Terray formed an invincible climbing partnership with Louis Lachenal. In 1947, the duo made the celebrated second ascent (and first French ascent) of the dreaded Eiger North Face in Switzerland. In 1950, Terray was chosen as a lead climber for the French Annapurna Expedition. When Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal staggered down from the summit severely frostbitten and snow-blind, Terray and Gaston Rébuffat mounted a selfless rescue, sacrificing their own summit ambitions. Trapped in a 7,400-meter crevasse overnight in sub-zero blizzards, Terray gave up his gloves and warm clothing to nurse his comrades, later organizing the grueling jungle litter-carry that saved their lives. Over the following decade, Terray became the premier expedition alpinist of the 20th century. In 1952, he made the audacious first ascent of Patagonia's granite needle, Mount Fitz Roy, alongside Guido Magnone. In May 1955, on the French Makalu Expedition led by Jean Franco, Terray and Jean Couzy forged the normal route up the North Face and Makalu La, reaching the 8,485-meter summit on May 15—the fifth-highest peak on Earth. Terray's leadership was so flawless that all nine members of the expedition reached the summit over three consecutive days without injury. Terray continued his global conquests with the first ascents of Peru's terrifying Chacraraju (6,108m) and Taulliraju in 1956, Nepal's monstrous Jannu (7,710m) in 1962, and Alaska's Mount Huntington in 1964. In 1961, he penned Les Conquérants de l'inutile (Conquistadors of the Useless), universally acclaimed as the greatest philosophical mountaineering autobiography ever written. On September 19, 1965, Lionel Terray died tragically in a climbing fall on the Arêtes du Gerbier in the Vercors at age forty-four. He is buried in Chamonix, forever remembered as the soul of pure, noble alpinism.