Half of the glory

In the early ’50s, Everest took center stage: the conquest of the Earth’s mythical third pole was on the agenda. The opportunity to organize the first post-war attempt fell to the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Exploration. It entrusted the mission to a group of Genevan mountaineers from the Androsace mountain club. On May 27, 1952, they reached the summit within two hundred meters, but the expedition had to turn back. What looked like a failure was not. The Swiss opened up a passage into a region where no one had ever been before, the southern slope of Everest. When, the following year, the English finally reached the summit via the “Genevois” route, the British expedition’s first gesture was to send them a telegram that read: “To you a good half of the glory”. 40 years after their exploit, the actors of this exceptional adventure retrace their epic with images from the film made during the expedition.