UKC

Claudio Corti is best known as the only survivor of the 1957 epic on the Eiger described in Jack Olsen's book Climb Up To Hell. Recently Mike James (father of Alan) dug out an old climbing journal from 1963 in which he described his ascent of the North Face of the Piz Badile in the company of Claudio Corti. The epic they endured on this ascent puts an interesting historical perspective on Corti's tarnished reputation as an Alpine climber...

Read more: http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=306

In reply to JoH - Editor:

Excellent article. Very worthwhile.

Davie

In reply to JoH - Editor:

Very interesting, seems that some of the recent history may be wrong in that article but need to contact some people and finish the Villan book to see if there is anything in there that throws light on it.

Whillans said Corti took up guiding and was very competent when he was climbing with him in the dolomites.

In reply to sutty:

I'd be very interested to hear any new information you have. My father only encountered him on this one trip so his memory will certainly not reflect what sort of climber Corti turned into as he got older.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

Really interesting and excellent article. Thanks Alan (and thanks to Mike, too).

Adam

In reply to JoH - Editor: great article ! Still one of the big ticks I`d really love to do...

In reply to JoH - Editor: Great, thanks for taking the effort and posting it.

In reply to JoH - Editor: Note for the 'Where are they now' Corti is still alive and recently received a testimonial from the Ragni in Lecco
http://www.ragnilecco.com/ragni/download/Grignetta2006.pdf

In reply to JoH - Editor:
Nice article. I remembered reading about this before and found an old 1982 Penguin paperback in my bookcase - 'Peaks, Passes and Glaciers - selections from the Alpine Journal'. This has an article by Ian Clough (A Storm on the Badile) with another description of the same epic.

It's also well worth reading though rather dated by the comment during the night after the storm - 'Our previously gay little party would be engaged in a grim struggle in the morning'.

In reply to alpkid:

Thanks, I have now updated the article.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

you have mail.

In reply to JoH - Editor: Sid Clark (if it is the same one)is still alive and climbing all over the place. I think he is down under for about a three month trip at present.

In reply to cosmicray:

He would be around 70 years old so that does sound a bit energetic.

Alan

In reply to JoH - Editor:
Pictures of CASSIN Piz Badilde climbed on 6-9-2007
http://www.nkbv.nl/weblog/Patrick%20Deijkers?page=2