Emilio Comici

 This is not the first time that the author has dealt with Emilio Comici, the great Triestine mountaineer, in fact he is already the author of a previous (1988) monograph. The motivations that prompted him to take up the pen again are linked to the substantial iconographic apparatus of this volume. As stated in the preface by Claudio Mitri, president of the 'XXX Ottobre' Association, a section of the CAI in Trieste, the discovery of the so-called Brunner archive in the attic precisely in the year of the centenary of Emilio Comici's birth coincided with the discovery of numerous unpublished photographs of the legendary climber.

This is not the first time that the author has dealt with Emilio Comici, the great Triestine mountaineer, in fact he is already the author of a previous (1988) monograph. The motivations that prompted him to take up the pen again are linked to the substantial iconographic apparatus of this volume. As stated in the preface by Claudio Mitri, president of the 'XXX Ottobre' Association, a section of the Trieste CAI, the discovery of the so-called Brunner archive in the attic precisely in the year of the centenary of Emilio Comici's birth coincided with the discovery of numerous unpublished photographs of the legendary climber.

The result is a short essay, which accompanies a collection of 160 vintage photographs. It is not a simple biography, although those unfamiliar with Comici's human and sporting career will have no difficulty following the exposition, but a true critical essay. The fundamental idea that underpins the entire discourse is to emphasise the romantic aspect of the introverted personality of this great climber, one of the first to seek not only the summit, but also the beauty of the route and the technical gesture.
"Beyond any official definition, for me romanticism is the action performed, sought out, carried out for its own sake, free of any ulterior motive, especially profit or personal interest. In its essence."
It cannot be said that Comici's life was dictated by self-interest: even his activity as a mountain guide was not a success for him, so much so that his real economic security came from a position as a civil servant (which did not help his memory for years, given that we were in the midst of the fascist period). And yet that lapidary impression given to us by Franza Rudowsky, then president of the Oesterreichschen Alpenverein, has survived nearly seven decades intact:
"He climbed as if he had the wings of an angel".
Sixty-two years after his death, there is no history of sport climbing that does not mention Emilio Comici among its founding fathers. An extremely topical figure, especially today, when untouched peaks are almost extinct, while what counts is the beauty of the route or, in its latest evolutions (free climbing and bouldering) the beauty of the technical and athletic gesture.
Commenting on no less than 160 photos would take up an enormous amount of space and would bore the reader. Let us just recall how Comici's entire life is represented in them: from the group photos with the 'XXX October' in his native Trieste, to those in action on his most spectacular routes (of course, the famous 'split' at the Torre del Diavolo on the Cadini di Misurina is not missing), to the snapshots of his proverbial double climbs. I just like to emphasise that a 'modern' image was rightly chosen for the cover, in which Comici's face has nothing to remind us of his era. It is a timeless face, an icon that underlines even more its topicality.