Francesco Jori

Francesco "Checco" Jori (born October 16, 1889 in Alba , municipality of Canazei , province of Trentino , † December 27, 1960 in Trento , province of Trentino) was an Italian mountaineer.

biography

Francesco Jori, known by friends as Checco, was the brother-in-law of the alpinist Giovanni Piaz and worked as a school teacher in Alba, Vigo di Fassa and Mezzocorona and later as rector in Val Gardena . He then became a mountain guide and hut keeper. He managed the Schlernhaus , the Kölner Hütte and, until his death, the Rifugio Marmolada. As a mountaineer, he advocated the idea of free climbing without technical aids (“Where I need a hook to get through, I have to do without”).

On August 19, 1909, he and the German Käthe Bröske made the first ascent of the Punta Fiames -Südostkante ( Fiameskante ). A repetition of this route (V, 450 meters in altitude) did not succeed until 1922. The tour became a climbing classic in the Dolomites in the following decades. On August 9, 1911, together with Giovanni Piaz and Irma Glaser, he succeeded in the first ascent of the Delagoturm -Südwestkante ( Delagokante ). This route (IV +, 100 m) was also one of the most popular tours in the Alps and is considered the most beautiful edge climbing in the Dolomites. On February 3, 1914, he also managed to cross the Vajolet Towers for the first time in winter .

His greatest achievement is the first ascent of the 1500 m high Agnèr north face from September 14th to 15th, 1921 with Arturo Andreoletti and Alberto Zanutti. Jori only took four hooks with him on this tour in difficulty level V, but he did not need them. After 34 hours the three reached the summit and named the route “Via Jori”. Along with the northern edge, this is one of the most famous tours on the Agnèr. An ascent in winter was only possible in 1968 by Reinhold Messner , who then expressed his admiration for the performance of the first ascent in 1921 in a letter to Jori.

Joris other first ascents include, among others Piz Serauta and Small Vernel-Südanstieg on the Marmolada , the Cima dell'Omo -Nordrinne, and the Colac -Südostanstieg.

A few months after the death of his wife, Francesco Jori died of an operation in 1960.

swell

• The climber ; Issue May 1982, pages 55 and 56
• Personal folder on Francesco Jori (PDF) in the historical Alpine archive of the Alpine clubs in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol (temporarily offline)