K2 First Ascender Dies
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Thanks for posting. On publication of his own book in 2004, Lacedelli finally admitted that Campagnoni (Lacedelli's summit partner) and Desio (expedition leader) lied about their first ascent of K2 50 years earlier. The proof lies in the photos of Lacedelli and Campagnoni on the summit of K2 with gas cyllinders/masks still in use as seen in the 1955 Mountain World (copy for sale in Steve Smith's shop), whereas the photos were deceitfully removed from Desio's K2 book (Campagnoni and Desio had lied by telling the world that Bonatti had pilfered some of their oxygen, causing them to run out 2 hours before reaching the summit; Lacedelli on the other hand stayed pretty much quiet on the issue until 2004, as noted in the NYT piece). See VftT Campagnoni thread from May 2009 for other references. Campagnoni and Desio took their lies to their graves.
DaddyLongLegs
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Two books that tell Bonatti's side of the story (which is now widely accepted) about the 1954 Italian K2 expedition are The Mountains of My Life by Walter Bonatti and K2:Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs (with David Roberts). Here is my review of the latter book.
Finally had a chance to re-read K2: The Price of Conquest by Lino Lacedelli and Giovanni Cenacchi, 2004, Mountaineers Books, Seattle, 127 pp, in which I find that my comments above are incorrect. Lacedelli does vindicate Bonatti in agreeing that he never believed that Bonatti and partner used any of the cached oxygen in their perilous bivi (Bonatti and partner had neither masks nor regulators), leading to Campagnoni and Lacedelli running out of gas a couple hours short of the summit. Lacedelli explains that they kept their masks on, leading to the controversial summit photos, to warm up the cold dry air that they were breathing. So, Lacedelli dismisses Bonatti's claims that the summit pair could not have run out of oxygen. Also, there is lots of interesting discussion about why Lacedelli kept his mouth shut for 50 years despite knowing the damaging statements in Desio's book about Bonatti.
Walter Bonatti passing
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP16/newswire-bonatti
I was planning to take a prolonged hiatus from posting on VftT, but I could not resist adding something relevant to this thread. I felt fortunate this past summer to visit Bonatti's hut north of Courmayeur; view the North Face of the Matterhorn, Central Pillar of Freney, and West Face of the Dru; and generally put much of Bonatti's writing about his epic climbs in the Alps into better perspective. Bonatti, along with Hermann Buhl and Reinhold Messner, remain my foremost mountaineering heroes.
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP16/newswire-bonatti
I was planning to take a prolonged hiatus from posting on VftT, but I could not resist adding something relevant to this thread. I felt fortunate this past summer to visit Bonatti's hut north of Courmayeur; view the North Face of the Matterhorn, Central Pillar of Freney, and West Face of the Dru; and generally put much of Bonatti's writing about his epic climbs in the Alps into better perspective. Bonatti, along with Hermann Buhl and Reinhold Messner, remain my foremost mountaineering heroes.
Pete S
New member
A related opinion piece by David Roberts in the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/exploits-now-not-so-daring.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/exploits-now-not-so-daring.html
Ok, another one, Bonatti's last interview in summer 2010 (I could not resist 
):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2010/jun/30/walter-bonatti-mountain-climber?intcmp=239
):http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2010/jun/30/walter-bonatti-mountain-climber?intcmp=239
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