Customer Reviews

Conquistadors of the Useless

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Lionel Terray was one of the great clasic climbers and this book captures the spirit of those days. The accounts of the climbs are very richly told, they are not technical descriptions but beautiful stories told by a man who devoted his existence to the mountains. Anyone interested in the sport of climbing can benefit from this book, not from the technical side but from the spiritual side and the historical value of the many first ascents by Terray.

Lionel Terray's book is a hidden gem. Terray was a well-rounded true mountaineer. He got his start in the French military mountain patrol during World War II. His unit would scale mountains in proximity to, but higher than, German camps and then spread machine gun fire in the camp's vicinity. Never really aiming at the camp itself lest they hurt someone. How French! This book is richly narrated and includes chapters on Terray's ascent of the Eigerwand, and Annapurna among others. If you read this book you may get the idea that there are some mountaineers who do have some common sense. Terray was satisfied at times to put up a second ascent (Eiger) rather than risk all on a daring first-ascent, which in those days was usually suicide. He was on Maurice Herzog's Annapurna team and luckily was not on the summit team , most of whom survived but with fewer limbs. I highly recommend this book. It's great armchair reading.

Not just anyone has it in them to take on the more modern adventure of mountain climbing. "Conquistadors of the Useless" is the autobiography of French adventurer Lionel Terray, telling of his long and eventful life. Born in 1921, he began his adventuring at only the age of twelve and let up very rarely until a freak accident caused his death at forty-four years of age. An edition updated with much more information on the man who revolutionized post-World War II Mountain climbing, "Conquistadors of the Useless" is a must for any mountain climber who wants to embrace the activity's history.

Terray writes in a thoughtful while engaging manner. A great climber, while still retaining humility, he sadly died too young, as have many of his colleagues on the mountains. One of the most readable of the mountain books and one of the few that leaves one with both respect AND affection for the writer -somewhat rare in this often egotistical field. The book keeps you turning pages as much to learn more about the narrator as to join him on some astonishing and more often than not, epic adventure. A real good one.