Walter Bonatti
June 22, 1930 — September 13, 2011
Walter Bonatti was an Italian mountaineer, adventurer, and writer whose audacious solo climbs and first ascents in the Alps made him one of the towering figures in the history of mountaineering, widely regarded as the greatest alpinist of the 20th century.
Early Climbs and K2
Born on June 22, 1930 in Bergamo, Italy, Bonatti was drawn to the mountains as a teenager and began climbing seriously in his early twenties. His speed, technical skill, and seemingly limitless endurance made him exceptional from the start. In 1954, at age 24, he was a member of the Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio that made the first ascent of K2, the world's second-highest mountain. Bonatti's role in that expedition became deeply controversial: he spent a night alone at 26,000 feet without oxygen or adequate equipment — a survival against astronomical odds — but was for years denied credit for the part he played in getting the vital oxygen canisters to the summit team. After decades of effort, he was officially exonerated and the true account confirmed in 2004, fifty years after the climb.
The Solo Ascent of the Grand Pilier d'Angle and the Dru
In the years following K2, Bonatti produced a series of routes that pushed the boundaries of what was considered possible in alpinism. In 1955, he made a six-day solo first ascent of the southwest pillar of the Dru in the Mont Blanc massif — a route of enormous difficulty performed entirely alone, which became one of the legendary feats of 20th-century mountaineering. His biographers and peers have compared it to breaking the four-minute mile in its symbolic and technical significance. Over the following decade he added further major routes and first ascents in the Alps, most notably a solo winter ascent of the north face of the Matterhorn in 1965, which he announced as his final climb and retirement from high-altitude alpinism. He was 34. It remains one of the most admired achievements in the sport's history.
Did You Know?
After retiring from alpinism at the peak of his powers, Bonatti spent decades as an adventurous travel correspondent and writer for the Italian magazine Epoca, reporting from remote corners of the world. He never returned to technical climbing but lived a life of expedition and exploration until well into old age, writing several acclaimed books about his experiences in the mountains and the wild.
Legacy
Bonatti died in Rome on September 13, 2011, at age 81. He left behind a body of climbing achievements that continues to inspire awe among alpinists and a body of writing — including his memoir The Mountains of My Life — that communicates the spiritual dimension of climbing with rare elegance. Reinhold Messner, himself considered the greatest high-altitude climber of the generation after Bonatti, has consistently placed Bonatti at the summit of the sport's history. For those who pursue alpinism, his name carries the authority of legend.