Remembering Italian Mountaineer Walter Bonatti, 1930-2011

By David Roberts; Map of 1954 Italian route up K2 by Computer Terrain Mapping

In December 2003, hailing the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of K2, I traveled to Dubino, Italy, to interview Walter Bonatti at his home. He hosted Charlie Buffet (a French journalist fluent in Italian) and me for three days with unstinting hospitality. Bonatti had been a hero of mine since adolescence, when I’d first read his electrifying climbing memoir, My Mountains. Now, despite the language gap, I felt intensely honored as Bonatti replayed every detail of the harrowing ordeal than K2 had meant for him.

Then, when I asked him about his astonishing solo new route on the Petit Dru in 1955, Bonatti fetched a rope and some carabiners from his garage and reconstructed the “bolo” device that he’d used to surmount a blank wall on the fifth day and save his life. Few moments in my 33 years of freelancing have been so thrilling.

I regard him today as perhaps the greatest mountaineer of all time. But beyond that, he was a kind, thoughtful, and generous man. The bitterness of K2 had not soured him. As we parted, I remarked that he had the bearing of a man who had fulfilled his dreams. Yes, he replied in Italian, at 74 he felt realizzato: “A man should live to realize himself. If not, life makes no sense.”

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