Claudio Corti (mountaineer)

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Claudio Corti (born July 18, 1928 in Olginate ; † February 3, 2010 ibid) was an Italian mountaineer.

Career

In 1953, Corti and Carlo Mauri made the first ascent of the southeast face of Piz Cengalo , and with Giulio Fiorelli and Carlo Mauri the first ascent of the northeast face of Pizzi Gemelli .

Also in 1953 he managed the first ascent of a new route (600 m, VI, A3) on the Piz Badile north-east face. His climbing partner Felice Battaglia had previously died after a lightning strike, whereupon Corti reached the summit alone and named the route to Battaglia.

In 1954 he succeeded with Cesare Giudici the first ascent of the northeast face of Picco Luigi Amedeo , as well as with Arnaldo Tizzoni the first repetition of the Stenico route at the Campanile Basso . 1955 was followed by his first ascent of the west face of Pizzo Torrone Occidentale with Mario Colombo.

In 1956 he made two first attempts at the Bonatti pillar on the Petit Dru . After they had to stop on the first attempt due to bad weather, his rope partner Annibale Zucchi was seriously injured by falling rocks on the second attempt. Corti then brought it back to the valley.

In 1968 he succeeded with Pavel Pochylý and Jiří Zrůst the first repetition of the Lecchesi route in the south-east face of the Grand Capucin . In 1969 the first ascent of the southeast face of Scudo Tremare followed with Claudio Gilardi. With this he also made the first ascent of the Cima Scingino south face in 1971, and in 1972 the first ascent of the route Via Guido Cenini (300 m, V +) in the Punta Medaccio south east face and the first ascent of the route Via Vera (350 m, V +, A2) in the Piz Badile southeast face. Also in 1972, he and Aldo Anghileri opened the Via del Caminetto (220 m, V +, A2) at the Pala del Cammello .

He was a participant in the Casimiro Ferrari expedition to Patagonia , which made the first recognized ascent of Cerro Torre in 1974 . Corti was not part of the summit team, but played a significant role in the expedition's successful progress.

With Claudio Gilardi, he opened a new route on Pizzo della Pieve in 1974 and in 1975 repeated his route Via Felice Battaglia on Piz Badile with Sergio Lanfranconi. He made his last mountain tour in 1975 with Gilardi on Mount Kenya in Africa.

Tragedy in the north face of the Eiger

On August 3, 1957, Corti and his rope partner Stefano Longhi climbed the north face of the Eiger . They moved east of the normal route and moved into their first bivouac in the front wall. On August 4th they crossed the normal route at the level of the broken pillar and bivouacked in the area of ​​the difficult crack . On August 5th, the two Germans Günter Nothdurft and Franz Mayer climbed the wall, made rapid progress, and reached the Italians at the Hinterstoißer Quergang on the same day . At the lower end of the second ice field , the four climbers moved into a common bivouac.

On August 6, the two rope teams climbed on separately and on that day they reached the area of ​​the death bivouac on the iron , where they bivouacked again. On August 7th, the climbers missed the normal route and bivouacked in the uppermost part of the ramp ice field . On August 8th, the climbers moved about 150 meters above the cross between the gods in the normal route and tried to get to the spider via the traverse , where they were surprised by a sudden fall in the weather and forced to another bivouac. The dilemma was observed from the valley by the media and numerous onlookers.

On August 9th, Longhi fell in the traverse as the last of the rope, but was held on the rope by the other three climbers. However, since they could not pull him up, he remained secured by the rope on a ledge below the traverse . Corti, Mayer and Nothdurft then continued to climb to get help after climbing the summit. Before the exit cracks, however, Corti was hit by falling rocks and could no longer continue. The place still bears the name "Corti-Bivouac" today. The Germans stayed with him for the time being.

On August 10th, around 70 alpinists and rescue workers from five nations set out to help, including Ludwig Gramminger , Lionel Terray , Carlo Mauri and Riccardo Cassin . With the help of a steel cable device anchored on the summit ridge, helpers could be lowered into the wall, which were guided by observers from the Kleine Scheidegg via radio link.

On August 11th, Munich's Alfred Hellepart was roped down and discovered the exhausted Corti after about 320 meters. He took him in the Graminger seat and was then pulled up on the steel cable. This procedure took just under two hours. It was the first successful rescue from the Eiger north face to date. Corti was then transported down the western flank on a mountain stretcher. However, the two Germans could no longer be found. According to Corti, they left the bivouac in the morning to reach the summit on their own, leaving their equipment behind for him. A rescue of Longhi failed that day due to radio problems and another sudden fall in the weather.

On August 12, another steel cable anchorage was installed further east on the summit ridge in order to also reach Longhi. However, the report then arrived that, according to observations from the Kleine Scheidegg and from a fixed-wing aircraft, Longhi had not survived the night. His body was only removed from the wall on July 9, 1959 by the Swiss Fritz Jaun.

Corti had to put up with a lot of criticism and hostility in the following years. Media representatives and some alpinists like Heinrich Harrer claimed that he was to blame for the death of his friend and that he might also have something to do with the disappearance of the two Germans. Claudio Corti was even assumed to have pushed the two Germans down the wall in order to secure his survival with their material.

On September 22, 1961, two bodies were finally found far off the normal route on the western flank, identified as the Germans Mayer and Nothdurft. They had made the ascent to the summit area and were then hit by an avalanche on the descent. They are likely to have missed the ascending rescue teams by only hours. With that, Corti was rehabilitated and his statements confirmed.

literature

  • Daniel Anker , Rainer Rettner: Corti-Drama.
  • Lionel Terray : the conquerors of the useless.
  • Lionel Terray: At the gates of heaven.
  • Giorgio Spreafico: The Prisoner of Eiger.
  • Heinrich Harrer : The White Spider.
  • Ludwig Gramminger : The saved life: from the history of mountain rescue.
  • Luca Merisio, Guido Lisignoli: giants made of granite.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Corti, Claudio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian alpinist
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Olginates
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 2010
Place of death Olginates