Edited by:
Massimo Martini
No quivers of joy. No thrill of victory. The goal achieved is already surpassed. I would almost say a sense of bitterness at the dream come true. I think it would be much nicer to be able to wish for something all your life, to continually strive for it and never achieve it. But even this is but another episode. I will immediately look for another destination. If it does not exist, I will create it.
.On 16 September 1946, he is with Giuseppe Gagliardone on the east ridge of Mont Blanc du Tacul: they abandon the ascent and begin the abseiling. As had happened to him several times in the midst of dramatic moments, the rope could not be recovered: he had to climb back up to untie it. "It seems impossible, but on almost all ascents where there are difficult abseils, it happens to me that, at least once, the rope gets stuck at the top. That's what happened to me on the Cima De Gasperi, on the Pic Adolphe from the south, on the Nord delle Jorasses, and I could go on. To a large extent, negligence had something to do with it, but there must also be my usual friend 'chance' who, at the right moment, gave me a foot stomp. From above, the strongman asks his companion to prepare all the pitons to speed up the descent and, as he bends over the sack, he can barely see him when he is already sliding down the slabs to his left, with the last piece of rope slipping out of the ring.
.Originally from Cervignano del Friuli, then transplanted to Turin for work, Giusto Gervasutti embodied the synthesis between two schools of mountaineering that had hitherto followed two divergent paths: on the one hand the Dolomite climbers, technically the strongest, but accustomed to steep walls as rich in holds, almost always dry and sunny, set at non-prohibitive altitudes.On the other side of the Alps and mountaineering there were the 'westerners', active on granite walls that were less steep but tended to be smooth, almost always cloaked in ice and set at altitudes that made all human activity extremely tiring, especially if exposed to the vagaries of inclement weather in every season; To these must be added the complications offered by approaching the attack across vast glaciers, overcoming enormous seracs and ascending snow-covered slopes (to be climbed) bombarded by the inevitable discharges of snow and stones. Gervasutti had been technically trained in the Dolomites since 1927, achieving his first exploits in 1930 with the north face of Mount Siera. The list of his ascents from then on became endless, so much so that he was commonly referred to as 'il fortissimo' (the strongest): this nickname derives from an article in a Turin newspaper, which commented on the success of the Turin CAI team at the Mezzalama Trophy in 1933 and spoke of the 'fortissimo Gervasutti'. Indeed, the nickname is very apt, since it is well known that he maintained a rigorous care for his physical fitness, practising various sports even in the city (gymnastics, fencing, swimming), and behaving with rare morality towards eating, smoking and women. But Gervasutti's greatest strength is his will to action: one goal achieved is immediately followed by another to be achieved. Let us just recall his first ones: 1931 in the Dolomites the NW of the Cima Toro and the W-NW of the Cima Both; 1934 in the Andes the Punta Cilena or Matteoda plus two Cerros above 5000 metres, the NE gully of the Mont Blanc du Tacul, the north of the Pic d'Olan in the Dauphiné; 1935 he missed the first of the north of the Grandes Jorasses by one day, but during the second he dragged the first woman there, then the Pic Adolphe Rey, the SE ridge of the Pic Gaspard; 1936 the NE of the Ailefroide with a rib broken in a trivial accident; 1938 the S-SW of the Pic Gugliermina of the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey; 1940 during a pause in the wartime operations in which he was commander of the "Mont Blanc-Seigne subsector" he made the ascent of Mont Blanc from the Pilons (because he could no longer bear to admit in social conversations that he had never climbed Mont Blanc!); 1942 the east of the Grandi Jorasses; 1944 the south of the Pic Adolphe Rey; 1945 the east of the Petit Capucin. If we add to all this a very long list of other extremely difficult ascents, we understand why on the day after his masterpiece, the east face of the Jorasses, Gervasutti wrote: "No tremors of joy. No intoxication of victory. The goal achieved is already surpassed. I would almost say a sense of bitterness at the dream come true. I think it would be much nicer to be able to wish for something all your life, to continually strive for it and never achieve it. But even this is but another episode. I will immediately look for another destination. If it does not exist, I will create it'. On 16 September 1946, he was with Giuseppe Gagliardone on the east ridge of Mont Blanc du Tacul: they abandoned the ascent and began the abseil descent. As had happened to him several times in the midst of dramatic moments, the rope could not be recovered: they had to climb back up to untie it. "It seems impossible, but on almost all ascents where there are difficult abseils, it happens to me that, at least once, the rope gets stuck at the top. That's what happened to me on the Cima De Gasperi, on the Pic Adolphe from the South, on the North of the Jorasses, and I could go on. To a large extent, negligence had something to do with it, but there must also be my usual friend 'chance' who, at the right moment, gives me a foot stomp'. From above, the strongman asks his companion to prepare all the pitons to speed up the descent and, as he bends over the sack, he can barely see him when he is already sliding down the slabs to his left, with the last piece of rope slipping out of the ring.