Walter Bonatti

Walter Bonatti (born June 22, 1930) is an Italian born climber who set new standards in post-war Alpine climbing.

Bonatti was born in Bergamo, Lombardy.

Famed for his climbing panache, he pioneered little known and technically difficult climbs in the Alps, Himalaya and Patagonia. Among his notable climbs are a solo climb of a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in August 1955 and the first solo winter ascent of the Matterhorn north face in 1965. At the age of 21, Bonatti in 1951 made the first ascent of The Grand Capucin, an extraordinary red granite pinnacle in the Mont Blanc massif, from July 20 to the 23. This was the climb that brought him to public notice. At the tender age of eighteen, Bonatti had already made the fourth ascent of the formidable North Face of the Grand Jorasses with very poor equipment over a period of two days.

Bonatti was at the center of a climbing controversy regarding the first successful attempt of K2 by Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni in 1954, where as a 24-year old he helped ferry oxygen cylinders to the summiteers at Camp 9. Bonatti was accused of using some of the vital oxygen during his enforced bivouac at 26,600 ft when in fact, it was physically impossible for him to do so - he had no mask or regulator. He descended the next day leaving the oxygen intact for Lacedelli and Compagnoni to use in their successful summit climb. They used oxygen to the very summit of K2, oxygen that Bonatti had risked his life to get to them. In the early 1990s, two summit photos proved his story that the climbers were using oxygen.

Bonatti wanted to climb K2 "solo, alpine style, and without oxygen" [The Mountains of my Life, page 139] .Two decades earlier than Messner and Peter Habeler astonish the mountaineering world by climbing Mount Everest without bottled oxygen.

Walter Bonatti was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur for saving the lives of two fellow-climbers in a disaster in the Alps. Bonatti is the author of a number of books about climbing and mountaineering.

Bonatti currently lives in Dubino together with the famous actress Rossana Podestà.

Some of his climbs described in "The Mountains of my Life" book:
- The North Face of the Grandes Jorasses (1949)
- The East Face of Grand Capucin (1951)
- The North Faces of Lavaredo in Winter (1953)
- K2 Expedition (1954)
- The Southwest Pillar of the Dru (1955)
- Gasherbrum IV (1958)
- The Red Pillar of Brouillard (1959)
- Rondoy North - Patagonia (1961)
- The North Face of the Grandes Jorasses in Winter (1963)
- The North Face of the Matterhorn: Solo and in Winter (1965)

Books

The Mountaineering Books of Walter Bonatti
* "Le Mie Montagne (My Mountains). Bologna: Zanichelli, 1961
* "I Giorni Grandi (The Great Days). Verona: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1971
* "Magia del Monte Bianco (Magic of Mont Blanc). Como: Massimo Baldini Editore, 1984
* "Processo al K2 (Trial on K2). Como: Massimo Baldini Editore, 1985
* "La Mia Patagonia (My Patagonia). Como: Massimo Baldini Editore, 1986
* "Un Modo di Essere (A way of Living). Milan: dall'Oglio Editore, 1989
* "K2-Storia di un Caso (K2 - The Story of a Court Case). Bergamo: Ferrari Editrice, 1995
* "Montagne di Una Vita (Mountains of a Life). Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1995
* "K2-Storia di un Caso (K2 - The Story of a Court Case). 2d ed. Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1996
* "The Mountains of my Life". Modern Library, 2001. ISBN 0-375-75640-X

Other
* "On the Heights". Hart-Davis, 1964. ISBN B0000CMDRK
* "Magic of Mont Blanc". Gollancz, 1985. ISBN 0-575-03560-9
* "K2" (Italian). Baldini e Castoldi, 1998. ISBN 88-8089-072-7

References