Possibly the best allegory in this time of great expeditions is escalating Gasherbrum IV (7925 mts) a mountain, paradoxically, fails, narrowly, at that altitude but has become the Karakorum a symbol similar to the Matterhorn in the Alps. And 1958 a powerful Italian expedition led by Cassin and composed of some of the most critical climbers issuing Desio the K2 four years before, took revenge accomplished by tracing a path today that it has again been repeated. The summit was reached by Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri, unrepeatable roped.
Precisely Bonatti was one of the greatest climbers after WWII, dominating the global climbing scene 1950 a 1965. His strength made him legendary survive a terrible bivouac above eight thousand meters on K2 or, crushed after a finger with the hammer, keep climbing four days alone in the pillar that bears his name in the Dru, or become 1961 the symbol of resistance and solidarity in the central Pillar Freney, to oust his fellow death trap that had become the Mont Blanc.
His legendary strength made him continue to climb four days alone on the pillar that bears his name in the Drus after having smashed his finger with the mace
But is his attitude to life, his honesty and uprightness, against the disgrace and persecution to which he was subjected, which have made the Italian mountaineer one of the essential ethical mountaineering references of all time. "The pure climber who ever lived", as said Doug Scott. While one can say, with strong arguments, that fellow sports history Reinhold Messner is greater, however, the quantity and quality of mountaineering companies, his travels and explorations, are such that even today are an indisputable benchmark. But even exceeds their contribution ideological and ethical. Because as few Bonatti represents the core values ??of mountaineering and adventure: ethics coupled with a sporty look insurmountable, requiring staff, Spartans end up, and greater commitment to the uncertainty and risk.
Doug Scott called it "the purest mountain climber who ever lived"
And 1954, despite his youth, Walter was selected to be part of the Italian group that carried out the first ascent of K2, the second highest mountain on Earth. Today we know that is, within the highest, committed the most difficult and played an essential role, transporting the bottles on the end of the climb, that nearly cost him his life to be abandoned to their fate by his two companions to eight thousand feet and having to spend a terrible night in the open next to a carrier hunzaki. Only his strength, mental and physical, allowed to leave alive. But returning to Italy did not recognize their role in the conquest of K2 and also had to deal with a insidious campaign of lies and insults.
Bonatti never bowed and was fighting his honor fifty years. At the end of the 2004, and fifty years late, the Italian Alpine Club was forced to admit that his performance in the K2 had been decisive and that everything was exactly had told the whole truth in "the case of K2", with which the figure was "rehabilitated". Bonatti, with bitter irony, replied that he did not need rehabilitation, those in need were they. It was the triumph of honesty versus lies, of ethics against abuse of power. Bonatti away in Rome in September 2011, become a symbol, with consideration, the respect and admiration of everyone from the mountain.
At 35 years he made his last great climb: the north face of the Matterhorn in winter and solo; slamming the door and withdrew from the alpine scene envious harassed him
And 1965 tired of the controversy unleashed in their country, who accompanied him in all his adventures, made his last big climb: north face of the Matterhorn in winter and alone and slamming envious retired from alpine scene that plagued him. He was only 35 years and could continue to climb many more years and many mountains. At that time embodied a kind of Achilles Mountain Modern.
They were troubled times in a changing world. Times of the Cold War and the Beatles, of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Wall, Part sputnik y de Gagarin, of the poker game between Kennedy and Khrushchev which took the world to the brink. Too long for a simple and honest man, straight lines. And he took refuge in his adventures, Travel, in which he traveled the world, writing books and taking photographs.
His early eclipse drank the same silence of those great artists, his contemporaries, they left everything in his youth
His early eclipse drank the same silence of those great artists, his contemporaries, they left everything in his youth: actress Greta Garbo, the chess Bobby Fischer or singer Jacques Brel, who retired from the track on 1966, to 40 years. Perhaps this complex world, that was brewing we live in today, and did not deserve more films of Greta Garbo, and another song by Jacques Brel. Nor another escalation of the great Walter Bonatti ...
