Life and Career
Son to a working-class family (the father was a fabric merchant), Bonatti discovered climbing when aged 18 and within a year made in 1948 the fourth ascent of the Walker Spur on the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses in only two days and with limited equipment. This route had been climbed for the fist time in 1938 by Riccardo Cassin and consists of 1,200 m of rock-climbing with UIAA difficulty of IV and V and one step of VI+. The climb of the Walker Spur is one of the major climbs in the Alps, it is exposed to stone-fall and together with the climb of the North Face of Eiger one of the major climbs achieved between the two world wars.
Bonatti disposed in the beginning of very limited financial means and the first climbs were done with very limited equipment (he made large use of pitons that he had manufactured personally). During the first years Bonatti worked in a steel mill and climbed on Sunday directly after the Saturday night shift.
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