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the creative
leadership of Riccardo Cassin
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There is no one who loves alpinism in all the world that does
not know the great climber
Riccardo Cassin of Leccho, Italy.
His name is associated with efforts and history
correctly ranking him among the small circle of climbers who
wrote the history of the sport of alpinism.
Today after years of improvements in climbing and even if
current materials allow for quicker and safer climbing, many
of the routes traced by Riccardo Cassin during the thirties
are still benchmarks for those who practice alpinism. The
great determination, the spirit of sacrifice, the strength
and the courage of the man, Riccardo Cassin, that takes him
to the mountain is the same that follows him in his daily
life.
Native of Friuli, Italy (he was born in S. Vito al
Tagliamento on 02.01.1909), Riccardo Cassin was a young boy
when he moved to Lecco looking for a job, after his father's
death.
The economic and political situation of the time were not
optimistic but it is in those times that emerges the strong
will to reach his own aims: he worked twelve hours a day,
attended evening school and in short time he became
workshop foreman and director of a electrical system
company.
But his love for the mountains had already bloomed and so he
started climbing with his friends on the first excursions on
the Resegone, the mountain that crowns the city of Lecco.
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He began his first climbs on the Grignetta mountain: first
on easy routes,
then soon on absolutely untouched routes. Every moment stolen
from his job
was devoted to the mountain, the "great teacher of life"
as he called it.
Among the many new climbs on the surrounding mountains we
shall cite
those on the Costanza tower of the Grignetta mountain,
on the Medale Crown, and on the impressive southern wall
of the Sasso Cavallo. |
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The places for a young man so strong and so determined
became narrow and that is why he
became acquainted for the first time with the Dolomites.
There Riccardo Cassin repeated
climbing routes of some "sacred monsters" of that time, but
quite soon he began to climb
on his own previously untouched routes. In 1934, with Vitali
and Pozzi he climbed on a
new route on the south-east wall of the Piccolissima
Lavaredo, the following year was time for
an absolute masterpiece: he climbed with Ratti on the
exposed and attractive south-east edge
of the Torre Trieste.
Still, he was unsatisfied with his great enterprise and
especially with the fact some German alpinists
had tried to climb the northern wall of the Cima Ovest of
Lavaredo. Cassin together with his
faithful friend Ratti rushed to participate in this great
new challenge that would made them winners
but only after staying on the wall for 60 hours and after
having overcome extreme technical
difficulties and facing the fury of the elements that had
overtaken them.
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These climbs, with new scenery, would be called Cassin's
triptych of the North, completed in 1937. From the pale
mountains to the wild Val Bondasca near Switzerland, the aim
was the untouched north-east wall of the Pizzo Badile, a
wall of granite one thousand meters high, set in severe and
gloomy surroundings.
Together with Cassin, Ratti and Esposito from Lecco, two
other men from Como, Molteni and Valsecchi, who had reached
the longest wall some hours before them,
joined the company.
In the first evening of the camp on the wall, Molteni asked
Cassin to climb roped together. The second day of climbing
was full of great technical difficulties
worsen by the absolute isolation and the frequent stone shower falling
down from the overhanging edge.
During the second night of the camp there came a terrible
rainstorm that put the five alpinists to the test. First,
Molteni and Valsecchi, already terribly tired by their
efforts on the climb, won the wall on the third day after
they had been climbing for hours under rain, that
transformed into the hail and then into an abundant snow.
The descent down the Italian side was hard because of cold
weather, poor visibility
and quickly diminishing light. Molteni and Valsecchi
physically and psychologically
tired, did not reach their destination. |
 Pizzo
Badile: North-East Wall - First ascension:
Aug.
1937
(Cassin - Ratti - Esposito -
Molteni -
Valsecchi) |
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Esposito,
Cassin, Ratti
From L to R: Luigino "Gino" Esposito (other nickname was "Ginetto"), Riccardo Cassin and Vittorio Ratti, outside the
Gianetti hut, on July 18 1937. Two days before, they had
summited Piz Badile after the first succesful ascent of the NE
face. During the descent, two Lecco climbers who had joined rope
with them (Mario Molteni and Giuseppe Valsecchi) had died of
exposure and exhaustion.
Vittorio Ratti was Cassin's closest friend and climbing companion
in the 30's. He had a stellar climbing career in the 30's, and
has his name linked to such super routes as the Ratti-Vitali on
the West face of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey (Mt. Blanc
Group) or the North Face of the Cima Ovest di Lavaredo (with
Cassin).
Ratti died in a pitched firefight with the Fascist "Black
Brigades" while his partisan unit was blocking the Visconti
bridge outside Lecco, in April 1945. Cassin, who was the unit
leader, reorganized the group and fought afterward a
particularly bitter three day siege.
(source: archive CAI National Mountain Museum in Turin - Italy)
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In one
of those coincidences that will be probably
discussed for years, Riccardo Cassin died at
23PM of August 6th - exactly 71 years (minus about 7
hours) from reaching the summit of Grandes
Jorasses after climbing for the first time
(together with Gino Esposito e Ugo Tizzoni) the
Walker Spur on the north face. It was Saturday,
August 6th 1938.
From L to R - Riccardo Cassin, Ugo Tizzoni and
Gino Esposito (the guy with the rope coil and
the ice axe) reach the Boccalatte hut around mid
day, August 7th, 1938. |
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Sperone
Walker - First ascension: July 1938
(Cassin - Esposito - Tizzoni)
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The year 1938 is associated with Cassin's third North, the
one
that ended the triptych with a route that covered again
the whole Alps. After the Dolomites the most difficult of
the central Alps is the turn of the Mont Blanc and
especially
the cold and majestic North wall of the Grandes Jorasses.
The route engraved in Cassin's mind is the shortest route
to the Walker peak. Together with his friends Esposito and
Tizzoni this climb is one of the most unforgettable:
eighty-two hours on any mountain, among them thirty-five
spent climbing
on ice granite and blocked with snow and ice cracks that
make the climb harder and requires the use of cramps. |
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Cassin's climbing activity was belayed by the events of WWII
that led him to the front lines
to defend his country. His climbs on the whole alpine arc
however went on regularly.
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The bitter exclusion of the expedition to the K2, was a
little bit relieved by the decision of the general direction
of the C.A.I. in 1958 to entrust him with the guide of a
second Italian expedition to the Karakorum.
The aim selected was the untouched wall of the Gasherbrun
IV, colossus that misses only twenty metres to the height of
eight thousand.
The great experience accumulated during more than thirty
years of extreme alpinism is the guide for Walter Bonatti
and Carlo Mauri from Lecco.
The Gasherbrum IV is Italian.
Up to now the Gasherbrum IV peak has been climbed by less
than ten men. |
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Gervasutti and Bollini had just completed the
first ascent of the Gervasutti Pillar on the
Freney face of Mt. Blanc (not to be confused
with the much more famous Gervasutti Pillar on
Tacul), while Cassin had climbed the Innominata.
Relations between Cassin and Gervasutti, the
two "hyperstars" of Italian rock climbing during
the 30's (after Comici died) were never particu-
larly easy. Cassin, the hard man, considered
Gervasutti too much of an aestete. Gervasutti
- XX° century most enigmatic climbing figure,
spoke well of Cassin, but was quite bitter -
and probably self flagellating - about being
beaten on the Walker spur.
It should be noted, however, that Gervasutti
was by far the best "free climber" of the two
- and his 1942 line on the East Face of the
Grandes Jorasses is leagues beyond
the Walker Spur.
(source: archive CAI National Mountain
Museum in Turin - Italy) |
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From L to R: Riccardo Cassin, Paolo Bollini,
Giusto Gervasutti, A. Frattini e M. Mollinato,
outside the old Gonella hut (still there!), August
13, 1940. |
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Gasherbrum
IV - 7980 m. - Conquered
by the Italian expedition on 6
August 1958
(Cassin - Bonatti - Mauri - Gobbi - Oberto
- De Francesch - Zeni
- Maraini)
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Jirishanca:
"The Cervino of the Andes" -
June-July 1960 |
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CASSIN RIDGE - 1961
The wisdom of Riccardo Cassin is important for another great
success
of Italian-American alpinism.
In 1961 with the expedition called
"City of Lecco", Riccardo
Cassin
with his apprentices Alippi, Airoldi, Canali, Perego and
Zucchi
reached the peak of the highest mountain in North
America: Alaska's Mount McKinley
(M 6178), along the west ridge now called Cassin Ridge.
This great success of the Spiders of Lecco, as they were
called,
was also met with a telegram of congratulations by President
John
F. Kennedy.
Riccardo Cassin's climbing activity on the mountains all
over the world
seemed endless. From the Himalayas to Alaska, from the
Caucasus to
the Andes, his next top. Here,
in little more than two weeks
from the beginning of the camp base all the members of the
expedition reached the peak.
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Monte
McKinley (Alaska) South Wall - First ascension -
Expedition "City of Lecco", July 1961
(Cassin - Airoldi - Alippi - Canali - Perego - Zucchi)
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Lhotse
-South Wall - 1975
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In 1975 Cassin was called to guide an expedition
whose aim was one of the greater Himalayan
challenges unsolved: the south wall of the fourth
highest mountain of the world, the Lhotse.
The incredible technical difficulties together with
constant dangers of enormous avalanches
did not allow the victory. The mountaineering of Riccardo
Cassin has continued during the years: in 1987 the unforgettable feat
in Val Bondasca to remember the 50th anniversary
of the climb to the Badile.
At the age of 78 years old Riccardo climbed for
the umpteenth time his own route, along the line he
had created, together with his friends, mindful of
those moments so beautiful and difficult, thinking
of his friends who were not with him any more. |
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Riccardo Cassin is the honorary president of the C.A.I.
section of Lecco, of the Spider (Ragni) group, academician
of the C.A.I., climbing national instructor, honorary member
of the Italian Alpine Club, of the French Groupe Haute
Montagne , of the American Alpine Club, of the Club
Academico de Montanismo Espanol, of the Swiss Alpine Club,
Bregaglia section.
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Riccardo Cassin was awarded four gold medals
due to his
athletic value, in December 1971 they conferred upon him the honour of Commendatore della Repubblica and in 1976 the
honorary citizenship of Lecco.He was designated Grande
Ufficiale della Repubblica.
His is the history of alpinism that makes no distinction
between good and not good alpinists,
but that joins all those, who, as Riccardo, have loved the
mountains without reservation.
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Riccardo Cassin: Greatest climbs
*Piz Badile
The north-east face of the 3,308m Piz
Badile in Switzerland had never been tried
when Cassin succeeded on 14-16 July 1937. He
repeated the feat in 1988, aged 78, and
again later the same week.
*Grandes Jorasses
On 4-6 August 1938, Cassin climbed the
Walker Spur of the Grandes Jorasses on Mont
Blanc. In extreme cold, it took 82 hours.
*Mt McKinley
In 1961 he reached 6,178m Mt McKinley in
the US by a tough southern route, now known
as the Cassin Ridge.
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Riccardo Cassin:
A climber who
leads them
all
turns 100 years.
Italy's Riccardo Cassin turns 100 next month,
and the mountaineering world is preparing to
honour a true pioneer. Peter Popham reports
Monday, 8 December 2008
Riccardo Cassin: 'I always brought home everyone who
came along and never lost a friend on a
rope'
The trophies and honors are piling up in
his
home, but the best memorials to the life
of Riccardo Cassin, who turns 100 on 2
January, are the soaring lines on mountain
maps which show the way up the many dizzying
peaks which he was the first man in the
world to work out
how to climb.
"Riccardo Cassin had figured out the way
forward at this point," writes contemporary
climber Jocelyn Chavy in his log of climbing
the north-east face of a stunning lump of
Alpine granite known as Piz Badile. "There
are no other cracks, no alternative corners
as distinct as the ones ... right in the
centre of the face. How did they do it? No
bolts, no climbing shoes. Just sheer
willpower and lots of audacity: the will to
invent and follow their route right to the
apex of this gigantic funnel. The Badile is
a gift to the present from the climbers of
the Thirties, a masterpiece of modern
climbing".
These days, Italy's most celebrated
living climber gets around in a wheelchair,
and he has been down with influenza for the
past week, so an event scheduled for
yesterday afternoon, in which he was due to
receive an award from the mayor of Lecco,
his home town on the edge of Lake Como, had
to be postponed. Yet only five years ago, he
was still following his daily regimen of
push-ups and sit-ups, and he was climbing
mountains deep into his eighties.
"His temperature has come down," said his
grand-daughter Marta Cassin, 31, "and he's
feeling much better but we didn't want to
risk him getting flu again. Mentally, he's
in good shape, he talks a lot and has many
memories. As his birthday approaches, lots
of old friends have been coming over to see
him. Reinhold Messner was here a couple of
weeks ago with Walter Bonatti, they ate
together and stayed all afternoon talking
about the climbs of 50 years ago."
Celebrations of the big event have
already begun in the town where he has lived
for more than 80 years. Fondazione Riccardo
Cassin, run from his home on the outskirts
of the town by Marta and other members of
his family, is marking his centenary with a
series of events intended to continue
throughout 2009. Restaurants in the town
have launched "Riccardo Cassin" themed
menus; and a book of tributes and
recollections by fellow climbing heroes such
as Messner and Sir Edmund Hillary, 100 Faces
of a Great Alpinist, is published today.
===>
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Born in 1909 in Friuli, on the other side
of the peninsula, Cassin was the first in
his family to climb. "My secret was
certainly not genetic," he told Federica
Valabrega for climbing.com. "My papa died
working in a mine in Canada when he was 24,
and he never climbed." And Cassin's first
sport was boxing. "I boxed for three years
before I started climbing. I was in the
habit of training in the gym and that built
my strength up."
In 1926, aged 17, he moved to Lecco, a
town with the Alps on its doorstep, and
while toiling as a blacksmith he discovered
his life's passion. He and a group of
friends who became known as the ragni di
Lecco (the Lecco spiders) started tramping
up into the peaks at the weekends, first
trying the well-trodden local routes then
venturing into the Dolomites.
"We had no money but a very strong
passion for climbing," Cassin remembers, "so
we pitched in 5 cents each and bought a
50-metre rope and some carabiners.
Unfortunately, eight of us had to tie into
the rope, so we took turns: two at a time
would go up, and then they'd throw the rope
down and up went the next two."
Climbing was crammed into the little
spare time he and his fellow-spiders could
steal – and even getting to the start of the
climbs could be a feat. "I had to work from
Monday to Friday at the steel factory, so I
could only climb at the weekend," he said.
"I had no choice but to reach the top before
dark, because I had to get back to work the
next day. And there weren't aeroplanes at
the time, just trains, bicycles and lots of
walking. To get to Mont Blanc to climb the
Grande Jorasses" – a climb still regarded as
one of his greatest achievements – "I had to
take the train to Pre-Saint-Didier, bike
until Courmayeur, and then walk to the Col
du Gigante, do half of the Mer de Glace
uphill as far as the Rifugio Leschaux, and
then get to the tavola (plateau) of the
Grandes Jorasses and start the climb. So I
was already warmed up."
On the north face of the Grandes Jorasses,
part of the Mont Blanc massif, in August
1938, Cassin and two companions conquered
what was, according to an Alpine historian,
"universally acknowledged as the finest
alpine challenge".
"They knew nothing of the Chamonix
district," writes Claire Engel in
Mountaineering in the Alps, "had never been
there before, and in a vague fashion asked
the hut keeper where the Grandes Jorasses
were. Even more vaguely, the man made a
sweeping gesture and said, 'somewhere
there.' He had not recognised the Italians
and thought the question was a joke. He was
greatly surprised when, the next evening, he
saw a bivouac light fairly high up the
Walker spur."
These were the glory years when Cassin
and his friends opened up many of the most
famous slopes in Europe. He made more than
2,500 ascents, of which more than 100 were
first ascents. With the simplest equipment,
crude ropes and hand-made steel pitons, with
no helicopters on hand in case of trouble,
he wrote the future of his sport on the
sides of these mountains. "I always climbed
with severity," he told Ms Valabrega. "That
is how the mountain became my friend, and
never hurt my climbing partners or me. I
always brought home everyone who came along,
and never lost a friend on a rope."
After the fall of Mussolini, Cassin
fought as a partisan. His best friend and
fellow climber, Vittorio Ratti, was shot
dead at his side as they fought the Germans
in the streets of Lecco.
After the war, it was back to the slopes.
Cassin had reinvented himself as a designer
and manufacturer of mountaineering
equipment, and now took on some of the
toughest mountains in the world.
The one incident that brings out a little
bitterness in Cassin was his exclusion from
the Italian team that took on K2, the
world's second highest mountain, in 1952.
But nine years later, Cassin opened a new
route to the top of Mt McKinley in Alaska,
America's highest mountain, and received a
telegram of congratulations from President
Kennedy.
Fifty years after he created the Cassin
Route up Piz Padile – the route that so
impressed Jocelyn Chavy – he retraced his
steps, at the age of 78, and as the press
wasn't there to see him do it, later that
week he did it again. "I'm stubborn," Cassin
admits. "What I start I have to finish. I
never came down from a mountain without
reaching the top."
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Goodbye Riccardo Cassin
[1909-2009]08/07/2009 - by Vinicio
Stefanello |
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Riccardo Cassin passed
away last night [Aug. 6th,2009] at his home in
Resinelli at the foot of his beloved Grigna mountain.
Cassin was one of the world's all time absolute
mountaineering legends. He had celebrated his 100th
birthday on 2 January 2009. |
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It's going to
be hard to get used to the idea that Riccardo Cassin is
no longer with us. It's difficult already, now. Not only
because Riccardo had lived his 100 years intensely. And
not only because he is an absolute mountaineering
legend. But because that man, sculpted in rock and made
for the mountains, that "man of stone" as Fosco Maraini
defined him, was a reference for all. Riccardo Cassin
represented the essence of alpinism, of a man who sets
himself objectives and reaches them. And Riccardo
managed to do the same in his private life too, not just
in the mountains. The very same mountains he loved to
define as "my girlfriend."
Cassin represented the prototype of an alpinist and man
who always continued in his direction, who knew how to
look forward. Riccardo knew how to look beyond
obstacles. He was graced with intuition and, above all,
he instinctively knew the best way to overcome barriers.
He was stubborn. Obstinate even. Difficult, if you want.
He was the leader who wanted to climb first, always and
regardless of everything else. He was the head of a
patriarchal family. But also a man who, in the mountains
just like in life itself, knew how to make decisions and
take on full responsibility.
Cassin was the man who in 1944, after the 25 of April,
chose to fight for the partisans because "the Germans
had occupied our land and our houses. What else could I
do, other than send them away?" He was the mountaineer
who remembered with pride that he had never lost a
climbing companion and this goes to show the importance
of all those who roped up with him. It is not due to
chance therefore that he described his climbing partners
as "all great alpinists". And he was the son, husband,
father and grandfather who wanted to be an example for
all. Perhaps this is why he was loved and respected by
all. So much so that he was adopted as brother, father
and grandfather by climbers of all ages. For everyone he
was simply Riccardo.
It's difficult to think about a "legend", or simply
about a mountaineer, who is not connected to his
achievements. Or about someone who does not show
disinterest in what happens afterwards. In this too,
Cassin was special. He welcomed the future with open
arms and like all great men he was always curious.
Perhaps it is for this reason that he never tired, that
he looked to the future, to youngsters, with great
interest. This is why he often sided with the new
generations, against the mountaineering establishment.
He was born in San Vito al Tagliamento in Friuli on 02
January 1909 and as a young man he emigrated to Lecco in
search of work and fortune. Perhpas this is why the
desire to renew himself was in his DNA. The desire to
give credit to the hopes of those who need to create
their future with nothing but their own hands. He
started out as a blacksmith's apprentice in Lecco and he
soon became factory head, then company director. All
this happened while he studied at evening classes and,
on Sundays, he began to climb at the Grignetta, before
widening his range of action first to the Dolomites,
then Mont Blanc and then the mountains throughout the
rest of the world.
It is difficult to remember the thousands of stories
regarding his mountaineering life. Just like it is
difficult to remember his more than 2500 ascents and
more than 100 first ascents. It is difficult to explain
what he represented for the city of Lecco and for
alpinism in general, but also for the Ragni di Lecco
group of which he is certainly one of the key symbols.
What is clear is that what remain are beautiful routes
and achievements which left their mark in the history of
alpinism and, above all, fuelled the dreams of a myriad
of mountaineers. Such as, to name but a handful, the
first ascent of the beautiful arête up the Torre Trieste
in the Dolomites, carried out in 1935 together with
Vittorio Ratti. And that same year with Ratti, Cassin
amazed the world by overcoming the incredible overhangs
up the North Face of Cima Ovest di Lavaredo. Then there
is the 1937 first ascent up the legendary NE Face of Piz
Badile, together with Ratti and Gino Esposito. And the
mythical first ascent of the Walker Spur on the Grandes
Jorasses in 1938, together with Esposito and Ugo Tizzoni.
Then came the expeditions. First of all the missed
expedition to K2 for which Cassin, after having taken
part in a reccie and the preparations, was unjustly
excluded. "I cannot forget..." said Cassin, remembering
that episode. Perhaps it was precisely this great
delusion which provided him with the means of proving
his valour as expedition leader, first with the ascent
of K2's magnificent neighbour, Gasherbrum IV (7925m),
summited by Bonatti and Mauri in 1958. Then with the
great first ascent of the South Face of Mount McKinly in
Alaska, during which all six Ragni di Lecco expedition
members summited, including Cassin himself. On that
occasion Riccardo was congratulated via telegram by the
President of the United States of America, John Kennedy.
This is like saying that these were things of times
past, of when alpinism was still a dream and adventure.
Now that Riccardo is no longer here all of this remains.
His personal history, his routes and his achievements
will continue to be the dreams of many. Etched forever,
just like the memory of a man who never deprived himself
of life itself or of the mountains. A man who never
spoke too much and, when he did, always spoke clearly:
all you needed to do was look him in the eyes to
understand. What counted were the facts, for Cassin. But
what also counted was the kindness and that quick-witted
smile which made his eyes shine when he was happy. This
is how I am, they seemed to say. This is how Riccado
Cassin always was and always will be. A man and a legend
who all alpinists called Riccardo. And who will be
sorely missed. |
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Riccardo
Cassin passed away on August 6th, 2009.
He has left us to climb up his
last pitch to reach the Top of the Highest and
most Beautiful Mountain. This is the last
snapshot that we want to remember a unique
person and one of the greatest mountaineers who
ever existed. It is hard to commemorate in a few
words such a person, to remember and explain the
energy and the fascination he transmitted each
time one met him. The energy he had was like the
fuel for a man driven by ordinary
spirit and motivations. His charisma was the one
you feel and breath by meeting somebody who has
written and dictated an important part of the
history of alpinism. But Riccardo would have
never behaved like a star, on the contrary, he
always had a word for everybody he met and
especially for the young generations, which he
never stopped encouraging to find their ways in
a world which seems to be sparing of values and
dreams.
Riccardo has passed away on
August 6th, a remarkable and meaningful date: on
another 6th August, 71 years ago, Riccardo
reached the top of the Grandes Jorasses, from
its north face, for an ascent which would have
marked the history and evolution of alpinism for
ever.
Riccardo has climbed up the
last pitch but he has left us an amazing
heritage of values, dreams, ascents which will
continue to drive us as his rope still is tied
up with ours. Ciao Riccardo !
Taken from www.Cassin.it website of Cassin's
company; in memoriam. |
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Riccardo Cassin Dies at 100
Tough
Italian climber who created
routes up some of the world's
most difficult peaks
In the world of mountaineering, there is no
best, just as there is no best writer or
musician. But only a handful of climbers can be
considered alongside Riccardo Cassin, who has
died aged 100. Tough, warm and good-humoured,
Cassin had an obstinate, down-to-earth approach
to the practicalities of climbing, underpinned
by shrewd intelligence and an artist's eye for
the most beautiful routes up the most difficult
peaks.
Cassin's legacy is a series of new climbs
completed around the world before and after the
second world war, climbs that still dominate the
sport's consciousness as immutable landmarks.
Chief among these were the first ascents of the
north face of the Piz Badile in Switzerland, the
Walker Spur on the Grandes Jorasses in the
French Alps and what is still called the Cassin
Ridge on Denali, or Mount McKinley, north
America's highest mountain.
Born in San Vito al
Tagliamento in north-eastern
Italy, Cassin never knew his father, a
migrant worker who died in a mining accident in
Canada. The young tearaway was, by his own
admission, brought up by a team of strong-minded
women, who did their best to control an already
restless spirit. At 12, he was working in a
blacksmith's shop and at 17, on a tip from a
friend, he moved to Lecco, north of Milan, where
pay and prospects were better.
Until then, Cassin's
spare time had been spent boxing and, with his
bluff nose and spare frame, he looked the part.
But when he saw the cliffs around Lecco, a
passion for climbing soon absorbed him. Time in
the
mountains blunted his reflexes in the ring,
so he quit boxing. He sent his wages home to his
mother, and spent Sundays – his only day off –
in the Grigna, a region of small peaks and
cliffs near Lecco, where he soon became a master
rock climber.
Money was tight, so Cassin and his friends
pooled their savings to buy ropes and made their
own equipment where they could, including pitons
made at the steel fabricators where he then
worked. After the war, he founded his own
business making this kind of equipment, which is
still exported around the world. They relied on
trains and bicycles to reach the mountains,
maintaining a high level of fitness in the
process.
Above all, the gregarious Cassin thrived in
the collegiate atmosphere of Italian
mountaineering, and proved a natural leader. He
joined the Nuova Italia climbing group in Lecco,
which later became the Ragni di Lecco – the
Lecco spiders. Among his closest companions was
Vittorio Ratti, and together they climbed the
first of Cassin's great alpine climbs, the north
face of the Cima Ovest di Lavaredo in the
Dolomites, in 1935.
Two years later, this pair, together with
Gino Esposito, turned their attention to the
huge granite north face of the Piz Badile in the
Bregaglia range in Switzerland. As on the Cima
Ovest, Cassin faced competition from another
capable team, in this case two rivals from Como.
But when the weather turned sour, the two groups
joined forces to wait out a storm and then reach
the summit. Even so, the climbers from Como
collapsed and died on the descent.
In 1938, Ratti was on military service, so
Cassin, again with Esposito and Ugo Tizzoni,
headed to the Bernese Oberland to try the
infamous north face of the Eiger, only to
discover a German-Austrian team led by Anderl
Heckmair had just done it. The only challenge
left that could rival that was the Walker Spur
on the Grandes Jorasses, so the Italians raced
back to Italy and headed for Courmayeur, below
Mont Blanc.
Cassin had never climbed in the Mont Blanc
range and his knowledge was sketchy, so he asked
directions to find the mountain he had come to
climb from the guardians of mountain huts where
he stayed. If they wondered who the naive
Italian thought he was, they got a shock three
days later as Cassin reached the top of the most
prized and beautiful line in the French Alps.
Climbers understand instinctively the aesthetic
appeal of the line that a particular route makes
up a mountain. For many, the Walker Spur is the
greatest of all.
Exempted from fighting in the war because he
worked in an electronics factory producing
military equipment, Cassin, who loathed fascism,
joined the partisans even before Italy made
peace with the Allies in 1943. When Mussolini
allied the rump Salò republic to Germany, Cassin
stepped up his involvement, and after the
Americans started shipping arms in early 1945,
was involved in fierce fighting on the streets
of Lecco. His best friend, Ratti, was shot dead
at his side as they fought with German troops
attempting to withdraw.
Cassin had little opportunity to climb during
the war, but in the 1950s went on a series of
expeditions to the Himalayas, and north and
south America. He provided critical assistance
to the leader of Italy's successful K2
expedition, Ardito Desio, in 1953, but, after
reconnoitring the mountain, was unfairly forced
off the team because of a putative heart
problem. Political divisions and jealousies
remained a feature of Italian alpinism for
decades.
Cassin certainly did not behave like a man in
poor health. He led a successful expedition in
1958 to Gasherbrum IV in the Karakoram range of
Pakistan, a breathtaking achievement on a
formidably difficult but very beautiful peak
that has still been climbed only 10 times. In
1961, now in his early 50s, he led the team to
the summit of Denali, up what became known as
the Cassin Ridge, a stunning line that remains a
coveted challenge. In 1964, he succeeded on the
west face of Jirishanca, known as the Matterhorn
of the Andes.
Adorned with many honours from the Italian
state and the international climbing community,
Cassin climbed deep into old age, repeating the
north face of the Piz Badile on the 50th
anniversary of his first ascent, when he was 78.
He was still making hard rock climbs into his
80s. The mountains are a great teacher, he said
in an interview not long before he died. They
teach you to think without fearing. Although he
was a wheelchair user in his final months, he
remained bright and optimistic, celebrating his
100th birthday with visits from the few climbers
whose reputation rivalled his own – Walter
Bonatti and Reinhold Messner.
Cassin is survived by his three sons. His
wife, Emilia, predeceased him.
• Riccardo Cassin, mountaineer, born 2
January 1909; died 6 August 2009
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Riccardo
Cassin Dies at 100The date of
August 6th ushered in the end of an era in the
climbing world. At the age of 100, revolutionary
trad climber Riccardo Cassin passed away. With a
life that spanned a century, 8 decades of first
ascents, and two World Wars, it is difficult to
define what this legend is best known for.
Beginning his career with a FA in Italy’s
Dolomites and continuing to pioneer routes
around the world, Cassin quickly became known
for his inspirational perseverance and
understanding that the mountain always comes
first. A feature article in Climbing magazine
quotes Cassin as stating,
“I always climbed with severity—that is
how the mountain became my friend and never hurt
my climbing partners or me. I always brought
home everyone who came along, and never lost a
friend on rope. If you like climbing, you should
continue going, but do so with respect of the
mountain without presumptuousness.”
This respectful attitude is what made Cassin
such a success in the climbing world and in
life. Known as a role model to all who knew him,
including his children and grandchildren, Cassin
was able to pursue his passion for the sport
while appreciating the beauty of the
relationships around him. During most of his
time climbing, Cassin worked five days a week,
raised a family, and started his own company.
His passion for the sport never wavered and with
the support of the women in his life, Cassin was
able to live a plentiful life on both sides of
the mountain.
Cassin’s rise to international climbing fame
began with a FA of Piz Baldie, a mountain in the
Swiss Alps previously thought to be an
impossible summit. As a testament to the
benefits of leading an active life, Cassin
climbed Piz Baldie 50 years later at the age of
78 – twice in one week – after the media failed
to cover the initial climb out of disbelief.
During his initial mountaineering years, he
continued to climb difficult peaks including an
FA of Mt. McKinley along what is now known as
the Cassin Ridge. Never letting his age slow him
down, Cassin climbed well into his eighties and
has become a beacon of inspiration for
adventurers of all kind.
So we raise our glasses to an inspiration and
a legend, not simply for his epic climbing, but
for his passion for life.
“The mountain is a life teacher because it
gives you the most fulfilling sensation you
could possibly get from life and teaches you how
to think without fearing. One who fears should
not attempt to climb; nonetheless, you must have
a little prudence when you climb. One without
prudence is crazy.”
- Riccardo Cassin
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