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ANTOINE TERRAY

Real Estate Company Owner and Son of French Mountaineer, Lionel Terray.

‘I moved to Chamonix when I was four and my father died one year later. So I have very little memory of my father, Lionel Terray the famous French mountaineer. He was not often there. But for me he never died. He's still here and he guided me all my life.’

‘Lionel grew up and was born in Grenoble. The home of Moncler was not far from where he died at the bottom of the Vercors, in a town called Monestier de Clermont, which Moncler is named after. At the start Moncler was making camping equipment and my father had been to Canada to be a ski instructor. He brought this heavy down jacket from Canada with him back to France, which we didn’t have yet in Europe, but he needed it as he was preparing for Himalayan expeditions. He realised we needed clothes that could adapt to high altitude environments and to combat the cold mountain weather. So he went to Moncler and became a technical advisor.’

‘He was part of the 1950 Annapurna expedition as a guide with two other major guides from Chamonix, Gaston Robuffa and Louis Lachnall. Louis Lachnall was the guide that made it to the summit with Maurice Herzog, who was the leader of the expedition. But my father had tremendous difficulties coming back alive on the descent from the summit. It was quite disastrous.’

'He climbed all over the world and he died in Grenoble. And he died on a climb that's called the half circle crack. Well, he did the half circle and then finished the circle in that very crack.’

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