Guido Magnone's incredible adventure begins strangely on the banks of the Ourcq canal among a group of kids who dream of swimming. Guido, the solitary son of "rital", dives to get noticed, succeeds, takes a liking to it, breaks his first record, collects medals. At the same time, he draws, attends the Beaux-Arts, is accepted with open arms and befriends the sculptors César and Féraud. At the end of the war, during a health stay in Chamonix, it is love at first sight for the mountains, climbing. Guido's ascent is now dizzying. He stormed the west face of the Drus, then the Fitzroy and the Tour de Mustagh, summits reputed to be impossible. He rubs shoulders with the greatest, Lionel Terray, Maurice Herzog, and participates in the Makalu expedition, camera in hand, or those of Jannu and Chacraraju. Later, in his fifties, Guido hangs up the carabiners and participates in the foundation of the UCPA
Terray. This name sounds like a challenge and evokes deep respect in the memory of every mountaineer. For all, Lionel Terray remains forever the "Conqueror of the useless", the example of a generous and mature mountaineer, far from any egocentrism and any ambition. Not only a pioneer and witness to the history of mountaineering, Terray is also remembered as a man and a master more than an athlete. Forty years after the tragic death of this extraordinary mountaineer and guide, who liked to think of himself as a "simple mountaineer", his former friends and the youngest generation of mountaineers come together in this film to celebrate and remember his legacy.
This documentary is a reconstruction, based on archive footage, testimonies, and filmed reconstructions, of the Vincendon / Henry tragedy. December 1956: Jean Vincendon and François Henry, two young mountaineers, aspire to join the High Mountain Group. Lacking experience, they set out to climb Mont Blanc via the Brenva spur in the middle of winter. The weather conditions deteriorated, and they decided to give up before meeting Walter Bonatti and Sylvano Gheser. They then decided to continue the climb and set off in two different roped parties. Bonatti decided to take refuge at the Vallot refuge higher up, rather than descend. The two young mountaineers, overcome by the poor weather conditions and fatigue, remained stuck for several days at 4,000 meters. What followed was a completely disorganized rescue operation that became, for more than ten days, a spectacle for all of France and a national tragedy.
Many mountaineers as part of their activity have used cameras and films to allow us to participate through images in their adventures and their emotions. Many of them have become true film professionals: Joseph Vallot, Lionel Terray, Marcel Ichac, Renè Vernadet, Jean Afanasieff, Pierre Royer, Denis Ducroz, Kurt Diemberg and many others are among the conquerors of the image of the mountain. The film depicts the passion of these men on the highest mountains in the world... behind the lens.
Guido Magnone designs cardboard boxes by hand for his parents' small business. A painter friend loves his brushwork and pushes him to attend the Beaux Arts. He takes an external competition, wins it, befriends the sculptors César and Féraud, surrealists, a handful of bohemians. He then discovered the mountain and quickly became one of the best climbers of his generation. He made prestigious conquests such as the west face of the Drus in the Alps, the first ascents of Fitz Roy in Patagonia with Lionel Terray or Makalu in the Himalayas... Magnone also participated in the creation of the UCPA and will be president of the Groupe de Haute Montagne from 1961 to 1965. From 1977, Guido returned to his first passion: sculpture, to devote himself fully to it around 1990. He began to exhibit again in 1996. In 2002, he exhibited his sculptures in Paris , Bourg-la-Reine, Aosta then in Etroubles in 2009.
Lionel Terray was a French mountaineer born on July 25, 1921 in Grenoble and died on September 19, 1965 at the Gerbier ridge in the Vercors massif. At 11, he made his first easy climbs near Grenoble and then in Chamonix at the age of 12. In the 1940s, he settled as a farmer in the Chamonix valley. In the summer of 1940, he ran on the south ridge of Le Moine. During the winter of 1940-41, he achieved many successes in alpine skiing in the French championship. In May 1941, he met Gaston Rébuffat. He married in 1942 with Marianne, a teacher in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, and took part in the war with the famous Compagnie Stéphane à ski on the Maurienne front. In 1945-46, he was an instructor at the École de Haute Montagne, ski instructor and instructor at ENSA, and a guide. At that time, Lionel made his first races with Louis Lachenal, it was the beginning of great epics on the biggest faces of the Alps and in particular the north faces of the Grandes Jorasses and the Eiger. Then, he left France for Quebec, and became coach of the national ski team. He returned to France in 1949 and set up as an independent guide. In 1950, he participated in the famous French expedition to Annapurna, alongside Maurice Herzog, Louis Lachenal, Gaston Rébuffat, Marcel Ichac (filmmaker), Jean Couzy, Marcel Schatz, Jacques Oudot (doctor), Francis de Noyelle (diplomat ), Adjiba (Sherpa). In February 1952, he made the first ascent of Fitz Roy with Guido Magnone. On July 7 of the same year, he made the first ascent Nevado Pongos (5,710 m) and Huantsan (6,369 m) by its North face with Cees Egeler and Tom De Booy. In 1954, Terray took part in an expedition to Makalu (8,481 m) with Jean Couzy. On October 22, they made the first ascent of Kangchungtse (7,678 m) and on October 30 that of Chomo Lonzo (7,790 meters). On May 15, 1955, still with Jean Couzy, they reached the summit of Makalu. In 1956, Terray performs the first Chacraraju (6,112 meters), he continues with the Taulliraju. Before that, between the months of May and June, he had climbed the peaks of Veronica (5,893 meters), Soray (5,428 meters) and the second ascent of Salcantay (6,271 meters) taking a new route along from the north face. Returning to France, he took part in the attempt to rescue Vincendon and Henry on Mont Blanc. In August 1957, Terray participated in rescue operations on the north face of the Eiger to rescue Italian climbers Claudio Corti and Stefano Longhi. During the summer of 1958, he appeared in Marcel Ichac's film "Les Étoiles de Midi". In July 1961, Gallimard published his first book, Les Conquérants de l'Inutile. In April 1962, Terray returned to the Himalayas and made the premiere of Jannu. The same year, he climbed the East Chacraraju (Peru) and the Nilgiri (7,061 meters) in the Annapurna massif (Nepal). In 1964, Lionel Terray led an expedition to climb Mount Huntington (3,731 meters). During the climb, Terray fell and injured his elbow and right hand, he nevertheless reached the summit on May 26. On September 19, 1965, with his friend Marc Martinetti, Lionel Terray fell to his death at the Arc de Cercle crack, at the Arêtes du Gerbier, in the Vercors. He is buried in Chamonix.
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