July 31: Start and Finish, The Mass Assault, and The Year of Chivalry Summary and Analysis

"July 31: Start and Finish" chronicles the same summer. Loulou Boulaz and Yvette Attinger, the first women to attempt the North Face, started the climb with Michel Vaucher and Michel Darbellay. They bivouacked low down and started off late the next day in uncertain weather, but by afternoon, they were at the Ramp, where they bivouacked. The next day, the weather was worse, and they headed back down, bivouacking through the night and arriving safely in the morning.

Austrians Helmuth Drachsler and Walter Gstrein started up as the previous party arrived on the ground, climbing slowly on icy rock and going straight up the rock cliff from the first to second ice field. The next day, they tried to climb...