Climbs on the Pale Mountains…
The Dolomites are famous mountains, the most beautiful and most “climbed” in the world. From the years of the 19th-century pioneers to those of grade IX and X, many generations of mountaineers have tackled the slabs and the arêtes, the cracks and the overhangs of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the Civetta, the Marmolada, the Sassolungo, the Campanile Basso di Brenta and hundreds of other magnificent peaks. This book tells of some of the most important and gripping of the “vertical days” spent on the Pale Mountains from 1857 to the present day. Leaving in a corner the cold accounting of height gains, of hours spent on the face, of pitons used and grades of difficulty overcome, the author tells of the enthusiasm and the fears, the silences and the shouts, the motivations and the hopes, the rivalries and the friendships, the defeats that made it possible to build victories. Many stories to tell one History.
“The Vertical Days of Stefano Ardito follow an ever harder route up the great walls of the most beautiful mountains in the world. The history of our vertical deeds thus becomes walkable for everyone, even for those who don't go up high”
All stories have a beginning and an end, protagonists, a backdrop. This book tells one that unfolds over a century and a half, from the last days of the summer of 1857 to the spring of 2007. A glance at the protagonists of the first and the last chapter is enough to see how far the years of the Risorgimento and of the industrial revolution are from those of globalisation and the Internet. The development of technology, from means of communication to vehicles, has transformed culture, ways of thinking, every facet of life. Between John Ball's 1857 adventure on the Pelmo and Hansjörg Auer's free solo on the Pesce a century and a half later, this book tells of dozens of other great days in the mountains, in the vertical world of the Pale Mountains. The protagonists are very different from one another in origin, class and culture, but from the years of grade III to those of grade IX and X, the motivation has always stayed the same. "Because it's there", as George Leigh Mallory explained with extraordinary effectiveness before leaving for Everest, where he would lose his life. Whether it is a virgin eight-thousander, a line still to be opened on a face, a pitch or a single move still to be freed, the challenge has always stayed the same.
From the same series, I Rampicanti, we have also reviewed Yuji The Climber.
Fact sheet
- Title
- Dolomiti, giorni verticali (Dolomites, vertical days)
- Author
- Stefano Ardito
- Publisher
- Versante Sud
- ISBN
- 9788887890366
- Pages
- 264
- Photos and illustrations
- None
- Year first published
- Not available
- Price (euros)
- 18.00