Lionel Terray (1921-1965) was a French mountaineer and mountain guide, well known in the post war years for his speedy audacious ascents of Alpine and Himalayan peaks, the details of which were published in his own climbing memoir, the wonderfully titled ” Conquistadors of the Useless” essential reading for budding alpinistes in the 1950’s and 60’s. Well worth a read today if you can find a copy. Like many sportsmen and women,Terray got involved in the fashion business somewhere along the way. In his case it was with the hugely successful French-Italian company, Moncler, formed in 1952 by Rene Ramillon, who was one of the first to produce a form of down jacket, primarily for working men in the Alps, though it seems Terray soon realised the potential for mountaineers. The result was a Moncler/Terray duvet, a fine example of which we have here in the collection. Terray died in a climbing accident in 1965 and we suspect his clothing range lasted longer than he did as this duvet would seem to be of 1970/80’s vintage. It once belonged to another well known rock climber and mountain guide, Ed Grindley, though Ed was from GB rather than France. Ed passed away, rather prematurely in 2010, and his wife, Rona, gave us this historically interesting duvet.