Lino Lacedelli
Encyclopedia
Lino Lacedelli was an Italian
mountaineer.
(Province of Belluno
).
His climbing career began as a young teenager when he followed a mountain guide up a local summit. He soon came under the tutelage of Luigi 'Bibi' Ghedina, one of the best Dolomite
rock climbers of the age. In 1946 he was accepted into the prestigious Cortina Squirrels club. Lacedelli was known for fast ascents of difficult routes, including: the Constantini-Apollonio South Face Direct (500m V+ A2) on the Pilastro di Rozes (repeat with Ghedina); the first ascent of the Southwest Face of Cima Scotoni (Fanis Group) with Guido Lorenzi; first one-day ascent of the Solda Route on the SW Face of the Marmolada di Penia (with Lorenzi); and the fourth ascent of the Gabriel-Livanos Diedre on the Cima su Alto with Beniamino Franceschi.
In 1951, he achieved international recognition by completing, in the Mont Blanc area
, the second ascent of the Bonatti-Ghigo on the east face of the Grand Capucin
with Bibi Ghendina in 18-hours, just weeks after the four-day first ascent. He became an obvious choice for the 1954 Italian K2
expedition led by Ardito Desio
.
, Lacedelli was selected for the summit team. They reached the summit to claim the first ascent via the Abruzzi Ridge on 31 July 1954. The summit was not reached again until 1977.
for celebration of K2 Golden Jubilee ceremony, Alpine Club of Pakistan Islamabad marked a friendship expedition headed by Hayatullah Khan Durrani
founder of CAAB as chief of the Pakistan National mountaineering team to represent Pakistan in 1st climbed of Golden Jubilee ceremony of k2 mount at Concordia and K2 base camp on 30.31 July 2004 organized by the Government of Italy under the leadership of Italian federal Minister Gianni Alemanno Gerygory Alemano and Lino Lacedelli.on the eve of this great ceremony Mehar Dill Khan Baabai of Chiltan Adventurers Association Balochistan
was world's first 12 year mountaineer who reached to the K2 base.
accused Lacedelli and Compagnoni of having abandoned him and Amir Mehdi to an open bivouac just below high camp.
In 1954, Bonatti, was an ambitious 24-year-old member of the expedition. Bonatti and local porter Amir Mehdi, were carrying spare oxygen
bottles up to Lacedelli and Compagnoni for a summit push from Camp IX, the final camp. The high camp was further away than Bonatti and Medhi had expected and night fell before they reached it. Bonatti and Mahdi survived a bivouac at 8100m, but the Pakistani lost half of each foot to frostbite.
Back at home, the summit team not only denied all charges, but Compagnoni counter-attacked Bonatti, accusing him of trying to sabotage their summit push and steal the top for himself. Bonatti, who made the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958, was ostracised from the climbing community and in 1965 gave up mountaineering.
In 1995, Bonatti published "The Mountains of My Life", an autobiography with stories about the expedition of 1954. Bonatti displays proof of his innocence, including a photograph of Lacedelli and Compagnoni wearing oxygen masks on the summit.
On the night before the first ascent of K2, Bonatti and Mehdi had to endure a freezing, storm-swept bivouac high on the Shoulder of K2, while their companions Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli spent the night in a tent literally within hailing distance. As agreed beforehand, Bonatti and Mehdi had carried the oxygen bottles for the summit team who were waiting for them in Camp IX. But the top camp was placed in a different, higher location than Bonatti had expected, and when they couldn’t find the tent, they were forced to bivouac at 8100 meters.
Since then controversy has raged: why was high camp was moved higher? Did the oxygen really run out several hours below the summit as claimed, and if so, when exactly did Lacedelli and Compagnoni start out for the summit? And since they could communicate verbally, why didn’t Compagnoni and Lacedelli help them over to the safety of the tent?
Ten years after the ascent, accusations became public. Mountaineering journalist Nino Giglio published newspaper articles based on interviews with Compagnoni and the expedition’s Pakistani liaison officer Colonel Ata-Ullah. It was claimed that Bonatti had tried to beat Lacedelli and Compagnoni to the summit, that he used oxygen during his bivouac that caused the summiteers supply to run out early, and that Bonatti had deserted Mehdi and so was responsible for his frostbite and subsequent amputations.
These accusations prompted Bonatti to file and win a libel suit against Giglio and the newspaper (the damages were donated to an orphanage). It was easy to prove that Bonatti couldn’t have used the oxygen: he didn’t have the masks or tubing, just the bottles. One aspect of the libel case proved embarrassing to Bonatti, however: his lawyer tracked down Amir Mehdi in Hunza, bringing him to Gilgit District Court for deposition. Mehdi was asked about the bivouac and his testimony supported at least one of Compagnoni's assertions: Bonatti had been scheming to supplant Compagnoni on the summit team, and had promised Mehdi they would spend the night in Camp 9's tent and continue to the summit, regardless of Compagnoni's objections. Bonatti wanted to try to summit K2 without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Mehdi testified that allegations Bonatti abandoned him or used the summit team's oxygen were fabrications. If they had used oxygen during the bivouac, Mehdi could have saved his toes and his livelihood.
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
mountaineer.
Early life
Lacedelli was born in Cortina d'AmpezzoCortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo is a town and comune in the southern Alps located in Veneto, a region in Northern Italy. Located in the heart of the Dolomites in an alpine valley, it is a popular winter sport resort known for its ski-ranges, scenery, accommodations, shops and après-ski scene...
(Province of Belluno
Province of Belluno
TheThe Province of Belluno is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.It has an area of 3,678 km², and a total population of 214,026 .-Geography:...
).
His climbing career began as a young teenager when he followed a mountain guide up a local summit. He soon came under the tutelage of Luigi 'Bibi' Ghedina, one of the best Dolomite
Dolomites
The Dolomites are a mountain range located in north-eastern Italy. It is a part of Southern Limestone Alps and extends from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley...
rock climbers of the age. In 1946 he was accepted into the prestigious Cortina Squirrels club. Lacedelli was known for fast ascents of difficult routes, including: the Constantini-Apollonio South Face Direct (500m V+ A2) on the Pilastro di Rozes (repeat with Ghedina); the first ascent of the Southwest Face of Cima Scotoni (Fanis Group) with Guido Lorenzi; first one-day ascent of the Solda Route on the SW Face of the Marmolada di Penia (with Lorenzi); and the fourth ascent of the Gabriel-Livanos Diedre on the Cima su Alto with Beniamino Franceschi.
In 1951, he achieved international recognition by completing, in the Mont Blanc area
Mont Blanc Massif
The Mont Blanc massif is a mountain range in the western Alps. It is named after Mont Blanc, at 4,810.45 m the highest summit of the Alps. It is located in France , Italy , and Switzerland...
, the second ascent of the Bonatti-Ghigo on the east face of the Grand Capucin
Grand Capucin
The Grand Capucin is a rock pinnacle in the Mont Blanc Massif in Haute-Savoie, France....
with Bibi Ghendina in 18-hours, just weeks after the four-day first ascent. He became an obvious choice for the 1954 Italian K2
K2
K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest...
expedition led by Ardito Desio
Ardito Desio
Count Ardito Desio was an Italian explorer, mountain climber, geologist, and cartographer.-Early life:Desio was born in Palmanova, Friuli, Italy...
.
K2
With the older and more experienced Achille CompagnoniAchille Compagnoni
Achille Compagnoni was an Italian mountaineer. Together with Lino Lacedelli, on 31 July 1954 he was the first man to reach the summit of K2.-Biography:...
, Lacedelli was selected for the summit team. They reached the summit to claim the first ascent via the Abruzzi Ridge on 31 July 1954. The summit was not reached again until 1977.
After K2
Lacedelli ran the outdoor shop K2 Sports in Cortina, trekked to K2 Base Camp in 2004. In 2005, he was awarded Italy's highest honour, Knight of the Grand Cross. He died aged 83 on 20 November 2009 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the house he had lived his entire life. for appreciation of Italian Expedition and Delegates arrived PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
for celebration of K2 Golden Jubilee ceremony, Alpine Club of Pakistan Islamabad marked a friendship expedition headed by Hayatullah Khan Durrani
Hayatullah Khan Durrani
Hayatullah Khan Durrani is a Pakistani cave explorer, mountaineer, environmentalist, organizer, and a rescuer. He is also a part-time sports anchor actor in Pakistani Television shows. He played a significant role in the promotion of mountaineering and caving adventure sports in Pakistan,...
founder of CAAB as chief of the Pakistan National mountaineering team to represent Pakistan in 1st climbed of Golden Jubilee ceremony of k2 mount at Concordia and K2 base camp on 30.31 July 2004 organized by the Government of Italy under the leadership of Italian federal Minister Gianni Alemanno Gerygory Alemano and Lino Lacedelli.on the eve of this great ceremony Mehar Dill Khan Baabai of Chiltan Adventurers Association Balochistan
Chiltan Adventurers Association Balochistan
Chiltan Adventurers Association Balochistan is non-profit earning Government constituted adventure sports Association consisting of young boys and girls dedicated for the promotion of Mountain Adventure and sports climbing and associated sports in Balochistan Pakistan to protect new generation from...
was world's first 12 year mountaineer who reached to the K2 base.
K2 Controversy
Italians proudly celebrate the first ascent of K2 as one of the golden pages in climbing history. However, certain aspects of the expedition were clouded in controversy. While Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni were celebrated as national heroes, a furious Walter BonattiWalter Bonatti
Walter Bonatti was an Italian mountain climber. He is noted for 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.-Life and career:Bonatti was born in Bergamo...
accused Lacedelli and Compagnoni of having abandoned him and Amir Mehdi to an open bivouac just below high camp.
In 1954, Bonatti, was an ambitious 24-year-old member of the expedition. Bonatti and local porter Amir Mehdi, were carrying spare oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
bottles up to Lacedelli and Compagnoni for a summit push from Camp IX, the final camp. The high camp was further away than Bonatti and Medhi had expected and night fell before they reached it. Bonatti and Mahdi survived a bivouac at 8100m, but the Pakistani lost half of each foot to frostbite.
Back at home, the summit team not only denied all charges, but Compagnoni counter-attacked Bonatti, accusing him of trying to sabotage their summit push and steal the top for himself. Bonatti, who made the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958, was ostracised from the climbing community and in 1965 gave up mountaineering.
In 1995, Bonatti published "The Mountains of My Life", an autobiography with stories about the expedition of 1954. Bonatti displays proof of his innocence, including a photograph of Lacedelli and Compagnoni wearing oxygen masks on the summit.
Lacedelli speaks up
Fifty years after the 1954 K2 expedition, a very old Lino Lacedelli, who had remained silent all this time, couldn’t face taking the truth to his grave. In his 2004 book K2: The Price of Conquest, he revealed the events of the night and the subsequent coverup, changing the course of mountaineering history.On the night before the first ascent of K2, Bonatti and Mehdi had to endure a freezing, storm-swept bivouac high on the Shoulder of K2, while their companions Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli spent the night in a tent literally within hailing distance. As agreed beforehand, Bonatti and Mehdi had carried the oxygen bottles for the summit team who were waiting for them in Camp IX. But the top camp was placed in a different, higher location than Bonatti had expected, and when they couldn’t find the tent, they were forced to bivouac at 8100 meters.
Since then controversy has raged: why was high camp was moved higher? Did the oxygen really run out several hours below the summit as claimed, and if so, when exactly did Lacedelli and Compagnoni start out for the summit? And since they could communicate verbally, why didn’t Compagnoni and Lacedelli help them over to the safety of the tent?
Ten years after the ascent, accusations became public. Mountaineering journalist Nino Giglio published newspaper articles based on interviews with Compagnoni and the expedition’s Pakistani liaison officer Colonel Ata-Ullah. It was claimed that Bonatti had tried to beat Lacedelli and Compagnoni to the summit, that he used oxygen during his bivouac that caused the summiteers supply to run out early, and that Bonatti had deserted Mehdi and so was responsible for his frostbite and subsequent amputations.
These accusations prompted Bonatti to file and win a libel suit against Giglio and the newspaper (the damages were donated to an orphanage). It was easy to prove that Bonatti couldn’t have used the oxygen: he didn’t have the masks or tubing, just the bottles. One aspect of the libel case proved embarrassing to Bonatti, however: his lawyer tracked down Amir Mehdi in Hunza, bringing him to Gilgit District Court for deposition. Mehdi was asked about the bivouac and his testimony supported at least one of Compagnoni's assertions: Bonatti had been scheming to supplant Compagnoni on the summit team, and had promised Mehdi they would spend the night in Camp 9's tent and continue to the summit, regardless of Compagnoni's objections. Bonatti wanted to try to summit K2 without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Mehdi testified that allegations Bonatti abandoned him or used the summit team's oxygen were fabrications. If they had used oxygen during the bivouac, Mehdi could have saved his toes and his livelihood.
Further reading
- K2. Il prezzo della conquista, Lino Lacedelli and Giovanni Cenacchi, 2004, Mondadori, IT. ISBN 9788804535560
- K2: The Price of Conquest, Lino Lacedelli and Giovanni Cenacchi, 2006, Carreg Ltd. UK. ISBN 0-9538631-3-1.
- Ascent of K2: Second Highest Peak in the World, Ardito Desio (David Moore, trans), Elek Books, 1955
- K2. Storia di un caso, Walter Bonatti.
- K2. La verità. 1954-2004, Walter Bonatti, 2005, Baldini Castoldi Dalai editore. ISBN 88-8490-845-0.
- K2. Lies and Treachery, Robert Marshall, 2009, Carreg Ltd. UK. ISBN 978-0-9538631-7-4.
External links
- Lino Lacedelli - Daily Telegraph obituary
- Lino Lacedelli - British Mountaineering Council Obituary
- Italian Legend - Rock and Ice Obituary