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Walter Bonatti (; 22 June 1930 – 13 September 2011) was an Italian people mountaineer, alpinist, explorer and journalist. Walter Bonatti: Ground-breaking mountaineer who played a crucial role in the first ascent of K2 Walter Bonatti, légende de l'alpinisme italien, est mort - L'alpiniste, écrivain et journaliste Walter Bonatti a signé quelques-unes des ascensions les plus audacieuses et complexes des années 50 et 60 Walter Bonatti, alpiniste italien. Il est mort d'un cancer, le 13 septembre, à Rome, à l'âge de 81 ans He was noted for many climbing achievements, including a Solo climbing of a new alpine climbing route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in August 1955, the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958, and, in 1965, the first solo climb in winter of the North face of the Matterhorn on the mountain's centenary year of its first ascent. Immediately after his solo climb on the Matterhorn, Bonatti announced his retirement from professional climbing at the age of 35, and after 17 years of climbing activity. He authored many mountaineering books and spent the remainder of his career travelling off the beaten track as a reporter for the Italian magazine Epoca. He died on 13 September 2011 of pancreatic cancer in Rome aged 81, and was survived by his life partner, the actress Rossana Podestà.
Famed for his climbing panache, he also pioneered little-known and technically difficult climbs in the Alps, Himalayas, and Patagonia. In 2009, Bonatti was awarded the first-ever Piolet d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award. He is widely considered as being one of the greatest climbers in history.
In 1949, within a year of starting to climb, he made the first repetition of the Oppio-Colnaghi-Guidi Route, a challenging climb on the South Face of the Croz dell'Altissimo long and rated UIAA V+. Soon after followed the climb of the Bramani-Castiglioni Route on the North-West face of Piz Badile, a second repetition of the Ratti-Vitali route on the West Face of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, a rocky mountain in the Italian part of the Mont Blanc massif and the fourth ascent of the Walker Spur on the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses in only two days and with limited equipment. This last route had been climbed for the first time in 1938 by famous climber Riccardo Cassin and consists of of rock-climbing with UIAA difficulty of IV and V and one step of VI+. The climb of the Walker Spur by the Cassin route is exposed to stone fall and ranks together with the North Face of the Eiger as one of the major climbs achieved in the Alps between the two world wars.
Bonatti had limited financial means and his first climbs were done with very basic equipment, including pitons that he had manufactured personally. During the first years, Bonatti worked in a steel mill and climbed on Sunday directly after the Saturday night shift. In less than two years since he started climbing, Bonatti had already joined the restricted circle of the best Italian climbers.
In 1951 the same team tried again to climb the east face of the Grand Capucin. They started the climb on 20 July in good weather conditions. In two days they got close to the summit but again the weather worsened and they had to spend a day on the face in a hanging bivouac. The next day, despite bad weather conditions, they managed to successfully complete the climb and return safely to the hut. A few years later, in 1955 and after completing the climb himself, Hermann Buhl stated that it was the "most difficult granite climb in an absolute sense".Walter Bonatti, Montañas de una vida, Ed. Desnivel, 2012, p. 30 In 1952, Bonatti and Roberto Bignami opened the first route on the south ridge of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey.
In February 1953, together with Carlo Mauri he made the first winter ascent of the north face of the legendary Cima Ovest di Lavaredo. A few days later they made the first repetition of the winter ascent of the north face of Cima Grande, climbed already in 1938 by Fritz Kasparek. Before the end of the 1953 winter, with Roberto Bignami, and in only two days, Bonatti opened on Matterhorn a new direct variant on the Furggen Ridge. In the summer of 1953, he achieved the first climb of Mont Blanc by the north gully from the Peuterey Col.
In 1954 Bonatti was assigned to the Alpine regiment and for four days each week he trained men to climb; for the other three, he was allowed to head off into the mountains on his own. With all his achievements he had become an unavoidable selection for the Italian assault on K2, which would rebound to his disadvantage.
Along with Hunza people climber Amir Mehdi, Bonatti had the task to carry oxygen cylinders up to Lacedelli and Compagnoni at Camp IX for a summit attempt. However, Compagnoni had decided to place Camp IX at a higher location than previously agreed with Bonatti. Bonatti and Mehdi reached a point close to Camp IX but by this time night had fallen and Mehdi's condition had deteriorated. Bonatti knew that he and Mehdi needed the shelter of a tent to survive a night at this altitude without risk of frostbite or worse, but the Camp IX tent was placed at the end of a dangerous traverse across icy slopes and visibility was too reduced to get there. Bonatti saw that Mehdi was in no condition to climb further or make a return to Camp VIII and was reluctantly forced to endure an open bivouac without a tent or sleeping bag at and . This cost Mehdi his toes, while Bonatti was lucky to survive the terrible night unharmed. Compagnoni gave the explanation that his decision to change the agreed site of the camp was to avoid an overhanging serac, but Bonatti accused both (and the facts would later support his claim) of having deliberately changed the location to make it impossible for Bonatti and Mehdi to remain overnight at that height, so there would be no way they too could attempt the summit themselves.
Bonatti was in the best physical condition of all the climbers and the natural choice to make the summit attempt, but Ardito Desio selected Lacedelli and Compagnoni. Had Bonatti joined the summit team he would likely not have used supplemental oxygen. Therefore, Lacedelli and Compagnoni's oxygen-assisted climb could have been eclipsed. Although the Bonatti-Mehdi forced bivouac was not anticipated, Compagnoni intended to discourage Bonatti from reaching the tent and participating in the final summit climb. On the morning of 31 July, after Bonatti and Mehdi had already begun their descent to the safety of Camp VIII, Compagnoni and Lacedelli retrieved the oxygen cylinders left at the bivouac site and reached the summit of K2 at 6.10pm. Ardito Desio, in his final report, mentioned the forced bivouac only in passing. Mehdi's frostbite was an embarrassment to the expedition. Bonatti was later accused by Compagnoni of using some of the oxygen to survive his bivouac, causing the climbers to run out of oxygen earlier than expected on the summit day. Bonatti immediately claimed that he could not use this supplemental oxygen because both the mask and the regulator were at Camp IX. Bonatti brought evidence supporting his response that Compagnoni had lied about running out of oxygen en route to the summit. Although Bonatti's version of facts was supported by Lacedelli in K2: The Price of Conquest (2004), Lacedelli contended that the oxygen had in fact run out. However, he attributed this not to Bonatti's alleged use of the oxygen, but to the physical exertion of the climb causing the use of more oxygen than expected.
For a long time, Bonatti was accused and vilified by a part of the climbing community but over time the growing amount of evidence in support of his version of the facts proved his honesty. Reinhold Messner, in June 2010, said: Bonatti was one of the greatest climbers of all time – the last true Alpinist, an expert in all disciplines. But more importantly, Walter was a marvelous, tolerant, loving person. He leaves a great spiritual testament: he was a clean man vilified for 50 years over what happened on K2, but in the end, everyone accepted that he was right.
In 2007, the Italian Alpine Club published a revised official account, entitled K2 – Una storia finita, that accepted Bonatti's version of events as completely accurate.
Bonatti tried to organize a solo ascent of K2 without oxygen the following year to put the record straight but could not get the backing, so he retreated to Courmayeur, where he became a mountain guide in 1954.
In the August 1955, after two attempts frustrated by the weather, he managed to solo climb a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in the Mont Blanc Group. The climb, rated ED+ with difficulties up to UIAA VIII-, required six days (and five hanging bivouacs) and still today is considered a masterpiece of climbing. Exploit de Bonatti dans le massif du Mont-Blanc
After five days of climbing on a vertical rock offering very limited protection, Bonatti found himself stalled and faced with an impassable overhanging section. On the left and on the right the rock was absolutely smooth. Bonatti put together all the slings and small sections of ropes he had on him, attached one end of the rope in a crack, and swinging on the other end managed to negotiate the difficulty. This route, known afterward as the Bonatti Pillar, is considered still today as one of the greatest achievements in alpinism. In order to overcome long vertical sections and several overhangs, Bonatti had to adapt the techniques of aid climbing to the granitic rock formations of the Dru.
In 2005 a massive landslide completely destroyed the Bonatti Pillar route.
Bonatti managed to pass the night unharmed but his companion Gheser started to suffer from frostbite to one foot. On 26 December Bonatti and Gheser descended lower to join the other party. The four climbers continued the climb together and arrived on the Brenva Col. From there two options were possible: descend directly to Chamonix crossing a section of unstable and avalanche-prone snow, or climb to the summit of Mont Blanc and descend the normal route to find shelter in the Refuge Vallot. Bonatti decided to take the second option, the safest but also the longest and more painful because it required the four men to gain of elevation in a winter storm. Bonatti pushed the men to climb as fast as possible because he realized time was limited; Gheser's feet and hands were suffering from severe frostbite (later in the valley he would have some fingers amputated). They arrived at the Vallot Hut when night had already fallen.
In the meantime Vincendon's party decided, from the summit of Mont Blanc, to turn back and head directly to Chamonix, but the arrival of darkness forced them to spend the night in a crevasse at . Bonatti and Gheser left the Vallot Hut on 27 December, descended the Italian side of Mont Blanc and arrived at the Gonella Hut, where on 30 December a team of alpine guides arrived to rescue them.
Vincendon and Henry, in the meantime, were totally exhausted and frostbitten and waited in the crevasse to be rescued, but the bad weather prevented a successful operation. Multiple attempts to save the climbers were made (including a helicopter sent to rescue the party but crashed on the glacier). All proved useless. Both climbers died of cold after 10 days exposure. Their bodies were recovered in March 1957. The events that marked this tragedy triggered changes in mountain rescue techniques and procedures in France.
Bonatti declared after the first ascent of the north-east face of the Grand Pilier d'Angle, that "The mixed terrain of the face was, without doubt, the most somber, the most savage and the most dangerous of any that I have ever encountered in the Alps.".
On 9 March 1961, Bonatti climbed together with Gigi Panei and made the first winter ascent of the Via della Sentinella Rossa, a classic route on the Brenva side of Mont Blanc in a record time of 11 hours from the bivouac of La Fourche.
During the same expedition, along with Argentines René Eggmann and Folco Doro Altán, they ascended on 4 February the unclimbed Cerro Mariano Moreno and on 7 February the also unclimbed Cerro Adela. In the following days, they concatenated the mountains Cerro Doblado, Cerro Grande, and Cerro Luca (this last one climbed for the first time). Cerro Luca, in the Group of Cerro Grande, was named by the two climbers after Mauri's son. The traverse of the three mountains is currently known as Travesía del Cordón Adela (Cerro Adela traverse). This impressive traverse took place only two days after the first ascent of Cerro Mariano Moreno.
The Central Pillar of Frêney remained unclimbed only for a few days. On 29 August 1961 Chris Bonington, Ian Clough, Don Whillans and Jan Długosz were the first to solve what was called the "Last Great Problem of the Alps’.
Shortly after the climb, Walter Bonatti announced his retirement from professional climbing at the age of 35 and after only 17 years of climbing activity.
Most of these adventures are described in his book In terre lontane.
Bonatti, aged 81, died alone at a private clinic where the hospital management would not allow his partner of more than 30 years to spend the last minutes of his life together because the two were not married. His funeral took place in Lecco on 18 September 2011, where he was cremated and the ashes interred in the cemetery of Porto Venere.
He was always fiercely opposed to the use of expansion bolts. Reinhold Messner shared Bonatti's approach and stated in the book The Murder of the Impossible that "Expansion bolts contribute to the decline of alpinism".
In his book The Mountains of My Life Walter Bonatti writes:
A hut in the Val Ferret, at near the village of La Vachey, in the municipality of Courmayeur is dedicated to Bonatti. Website of Hut Walter Bonatti (in Italian)
In 2009 Bonatti was awarded the Piolet d'Or for his lifetime achievement. After his death, the Piolet d'Or prize for lifetime achievement was renamed Piolet d'Or for lifetime achievement, Walter Bonatti prize.
British climber Doug Scott wrote in his 1974 book Big Walls that Bonatti was perhaps the finest alpinist there has ever been, while in 2010 Reinhold Messner described him as one of the greatest climbers of all time and a marvellous person.
The legendary Chris Bonington said about Bonatti: He was a complex person and a sensitive one too. K2 always preyed on his mind. But he was also a man of great integrity. And a great gentleman.
French alpinist Pierre Mazeaud declared: Il y a de la spiritualité chez cet être-là. Pour moi, Walter est sans doute un héros de légende mais c’est avant tout un homme de vérité qui a tout simplement du cœur (There is spirituality in that person. For me, Walter is undoubtedly a legendary hero but it is above all a man of truth who has a big heart).
Gaston Rebuffat would speak of Bonatti in the following terms: Un homme doté d'un idéal mais également doté des précieuses qualités humaines qui permettent de réellement mettre un idéal en pratique. (A man with ideals, but also with the precious human qualities making possible ideals to become real).
In May 2012 the first movie on the life of Bonatti: Con i muscoli, con il cuore, con la testa, was produced by Road Television. The production of the movie started before Bonatti's death and modified slightly afterwards.
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