Walter Bonatti

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Walter Bonatti (born June 22, 1930 near Bergamo ; † September 13, 2011 in Rome ) was an Italian alpinist , photo reporter and author .

Walter Bonatti 1964

Life

Walter Bonatti is considered one of the most talented mountaineers of all time. The number of his first ascent and new routes is remarkable. His new route through the north face of the Matterhorn, which he made alone in the winter of 1965, has only been repeated four times (1994 by Catherine Destivelle within 3 days, 2006 by Ueli Steck within 25 hours, 2011 by Patrik Aufdenblatten and Michi Lerjen in 7 hours 14 minutes and 2015 by Felix Sattelberger with Reini Hones).

Bonatti turned to mountain sports at an early age and was already climbing the most difficult faces in the Alps at the age of only 19 . He got through u. a. the east face of the Grand Capucin (1951); the north face of the Drei Zinnen (1953) and the Walker pillar of the Grandes Jorasses (1963) he walked in winter. With Carlo Mauri , Bonatti reached the previously unclimbed summit of the 7,932 m high Gasherbrum IV in Pakistan on August 6, 1958 .

In the spring of 1954 he took part in the Italian Karakoram expedition to one of the most difficult of all eight-thousanders , the K2 . Bonatti, who, together with the Pakistani porter Mehdi, carried oxygen up for the later first climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli , had to move into an open-air warehouse at an altitude of over 8,000 m. In the falling darkness he could not find Camp IX, which Compagnoni was supposed to have set up at a location other than the one agreed upon. The circumstances were later the subject of lengthy discussions, in the course of which Bonatti became the target of absurd accusations. Bonatti himself saw himself deprived of the summit success. Although he survived the bivouac without physical impairment, he was deeply disappointed and subsequently became a loner. With the publication of K2 - Una storia finita (K2 - A completed story) in 2008, the Italian Alpine Club CAI ( Club Alpino Italiano ) rehabilitated Walter Bonatti for his contribution to the first ascent of K2 (8611 m).

Walter Bonatti wrote alpine history in 1955 with his six-day solo trip on the southwest pillar of the Petit Dru in the Mont Blanc massif, now known as the “Bonattippeiler”. Ten years later, in February 1965, he put an end to extreme mountaineering for himself with a solo winter ascent of the north face of the Matterhorn on a new direct lead, for which he needed three bivouacs on the face.

On July 10, 1961, Bonatti tried his hand at the central Frêney pillar ( Mont Blanc ) with Italian and French comrades . Only 90 meters below the exit into easier terrain, at the so-called Chandelle , they were surprised by a sudden fall in the weather and Pierre Kohlmann was struck by lightning. In the storm they were stuck in the wall for 60 hours. Kohlmann, Robert Guillaume, Andrea Oggioni and Antoine Vieille died of exhaustion and hypothermia on the descent through loads of fresh snow . Only Bonatti, Roberto Gallieni and Pierre Mazeaud survived (see Frêney tragedy ).

Since saying goodbye to extreme alpinism , Bonatti was still traveling a lot in mountains and other extreme areas around the world. From 1965 to 1979 he traveled to almost every continent in order to create photo reports for the weekly magazine Epoca and the German monthly Bild der Zeit, which was published only two years ago (some of which can be seen as the forerunner of Geo ).

Walter Bonatti was honored with the Piolet d'Or mountaineering award in 2009 for his exceptional life's work in alpine skiing . The Rifugio Walter Bonatti in the Aosta Valley is named after him.

Bonatti wrote more than 20 books.

From 2005 until his death in 2011 he lived with his wife, the actress Rossana Podestà , in Dubino in Valtellina .

Web links

Commons : Walter Bonatti  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Italian alpinist. Mountaineering legend Walter Bonatti is dead. In: Der Spiegel , September 14, 2011. Accessed on March 20, 2017 at 11:16 am (URL, German).
  2. ↑ Bonatti guide repeatedly on the north face of the Matterhorn. (URL) Retrieved March 16, 2016 .
  3. ↑ New speed record on the Matterhorn. Retrieved March 3, 2020 .
  4. ↑ 2009 Piolets d'Or Lifetime Achievement: Walter Bonatti. (URL) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 30, 2012 ; accessed on September 15, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pioletsdor.com
personal data
SURNAME Bonatti, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian alpinist and photo reporter
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergamo
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 2011
Place of death Rome