On 27th May 1952, Raymond Lambert, being part of a group of Genevan alpinists to which the mission of conquest of Everest was entrusted, climbs to just 200 metres below the summit, but then has to give up. The following year Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing reached the summit following the route opened by the Genevan, to whom they telegraphed the words “ To you a good half of the glory”. Forty years after the feat the Genevan alpinists recall the past with film images of the expedition.