Jean Franco

Biography

Jean Franco, born July 19, 1914 in Nice and died December 2, 1971 in Montagnat (Ain), is a French mountaineer and writer. He was a high mountain guide and resistance fighter during the Second World War. Co-author in 1944 with his wife of the first ascent of the South Pillar of the Écrins in the Alps, he was appointed, after the war, head of the Praz college in 1946 then, in 1951, coordinator of the French expeditions in the Himalayas. He was the head of the 1954 and 1955 expeditions to Makalu in Nepal. Between May 15 and 18, 1955 his team reached the summit, the 5th highest in the world. This 1955 expedition was also the first in the world in which all the members of the team reached the summit of a peak over 8,000 m. In 1959, he also led the second of three French expeditions to Jannu (the third, in 1962, reached the summit). In 1957, he was appointed director of the National School of Skiing and Mountaineering (ENSA) in Chamonix. He shared his adventures through books that became references in mountaineering and extreme sports, such as Makalu in 1955 or Battle for Jannu with his friend and teammate Lionel Terray at Gallimard in 1965.