Serantoni and I traded looks of disbelief as we rushed to stay in what felt like the peloton. I kicked myself as I watched how he climbed above I was so close to getting it right.īy the time I’d reached the next belay, two more teams had aggressively passed us and were now the ones being chased. They pulled on gear to pass him awkwardly, then they did the same to me. The cork popped when the first French team overtook Serantoni. In the few minutes I’d spent poking around, at least four climbing teams had butted up against us, anxious to continue at all costs. “Eez zees too hard for you?!” yelled up a fidgety Frenchman. Nowadays climbers wait for a solid forecast (which, of course, Cassin didn’t have) rather than gamble with storms. Despite colossal advances in equipment, knowledge and technique, retreat from high up would still be a daunting, if dangerous affair. The serious nature of Cassin’s route has not been eroded by time, nor has the prospect of being caught in a storm high on the mountain. This climb is one of the great epics of 20th century alpinism – a tragedy that remains palpable on the mountain to this day.Įven now, 86 years later, climbers like me sense the enormity of the wall – and the potential consequence of ascent – as a pit in the stomach. The remaining four descended into Italy where, shortly before reaching the safety of a hut, Valsecchi also perished. There, Molteni collapsed from exhaustion and died. The climbers joined forces and battled through the maelstrom until they reached the 10,853-foot summit, which straddles the Swiss-Italian border. A ferocious storm was moving in and retreat from the wall (taller than Yosemite’s Half Dome) was out of the question. (Photo courtesy of Chris Weidner)Īt some point during the three-day ascent, with pitch after pitch of sustained difficulty, Cassin caught up with his competition Mario Molteni and Giuseppe Valsecchi. Chris Weidner Wicked Gravity Bill Serantoni starts the long series of rappels down the Piz Badile’s north ridge. It was Cassin’s first foray onto the granite of the Western Alps (having mostly climbed Dolomites limestone) where the 28-year-old set his sights on one of the tallest, most impressive unclimbed walls in Europe. When Riccardo Cassin started climbing the massive northeast face of Piz Badile in July 1937, he and his partners, Vittorio Ratti and Gino Esposito, had no idea two rival Italian alpinists were already on the wall.
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