Renato Casarotto

Renato Casarotto (born May 15, 1948 in Arcugnano ; † July 15, 1986 at K2 ) was an Italian mountaineer.

Career

From 1971 to 1977 he undertook challenging rock climbing on the Sass Maor , Rocchetta Alta , Monte Pelmo , Spiz di Lagunaz , Busazza Parete , Pale di San Lucano and on the Civetta, among others . None of these tours were below the 5th level of difficulty according to UIAA . In 1975 and 1976 he climbed several routes on the Huandoy ( 6395  m ) in the Andes .

In June 1977 he climbed the Nevado Huascarán ( 6768  m ), the highest mountain in Peru, in 16 days . It was the first solo ascent and the first ascent of the north face Direttissima on this mountain. In September and October 1978 he climbed in the USA over the east pillar and the southwest face of El Capitan ( 2307  m ), the northwest face of Half Dome ( 2693  m ) and the southwest face on Mount Watkins ( 2591  m ).

In January 1979, he managed the first ascent of the northeast pillar on Fitz Roy ( 3406  m ) single-handedly. Since then this has been called the "Casarottopfeiler". In the summer of 1979 he took part in a small expedition under Reinhold Messner on K2 ( 8611  m ), from which he was called the technically best climber in the team. However, he had to give up prematurely because of signs of altitude sickness. In the summer of 1980 he reached the Chopicalqui ( 6354  m ) via the northwest flank .

In the winter of 1980/1981 he tried the first winter ascent of Makalu ( 8485  m ) with Mario Curnis , but had to turn back to 7400 m. A first winter ascent was finally only possible in 2009.

In February 1982 he set out on an unusually tough ascent of Mont Blanc, alone, without radio link and without material or supply depots . His 16-day route led over the Val Veny and the Col de l'Innominata to the Frêney Glacier and from there to the Aiguille Noire , which he climbed over the west face. After crossing the summit, he rappelled back over the north edge to the Frêney glacier and climbed the Picco Gugliermina over the southwest face . After crossing the Peuterey ridge, he climbed the central Frêneypsteiler, roped down to the Innominatagrat and followed it to the Mont Blanc summit. The descent took place over the Bossesgrat to Chamonix .

In the summer of 1986 he made a single attempt at first ascent of K2 over the south-south-west ridge and reached an altitude of around 8,300 m before he turned back because of a bad weather front. During the descent he had an accident on the De Filippi Glacier by falling into a crevasse and died a few minutes after he was recovered.

Web links

• Personal folder on Renato Casarotto (PDF) in the historical Alpine archive of the Alpine clubs in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol (temporarily offline)