K2, 60 years ago the Italian conquest of the summit

K2 (loop)

• 60 years after the first time, the Italians are back on K2

• A landfill at the foot of K2, the alarm raised by an Italian

• Concordia trial, the K2 commander: "Schettino didn't say the abandonment of the ship"

• K2, the dangers of the "death zone"

• 60 years later Italy again on the top of K2

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July 31, 2014 8,000 and 616 meters.

A difficult height even to quantify that climbed on 31 July 1954 by a mountaineering expedition led by the geologist Ardito Desio.

Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli conquer the summit of K2, the highest in the Karakorum massif with a team which also includes a very young Walter Bonatti.

A 1950s Italy awaiting redemption decides to finance the expedition.

In order to allow the Italian flag to rise to that peak, Professor Ardito Desio must first of all convince Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi to finance the enterprise.

To do so, he presses the right buttons: national pride, the revenge of a country with heavy war debts, forced to accept a peace treaty that punishes and humiliates it before the whole world.

The company will be accompanied by controversies.

After the return of the mountaineers, a report of the events written by Desio and adopted by CAI as the official report of the expedition was presented to the Italian Alpine Club.

In this report the narration of the events that took place in the advanced fields was entrusted to Achille Compagnoni and Bonatti noted some discrepancies between the events and the story.