Edited by:
redazione
An Italian mountaineer and mountain guide, on 31 July 1954 he made the first ascent of K2 with Lino Lacedelli.
Personal details
name: Achille Compagnoni
born: 26 September 1914 – Valfurva
died: 13 May 2009 - Aosta
Nationality: Italian
Occupation: mountaineer, mountain guide, ski instructor, hotelier
Biography
Achille Compagnoni was born in Valfurva, in the upper Valtellina, and grew up in an environment where skiing and the mountains were part of everyday life. In 1934, he joined the Border Militia and later transferred to the Alpine troops and the Alpine Military School in Aosta, where he stood out for his athletic ability and familiarity with the mountainous terrain. During his years of service, he competed in skiing: in 1936 he came second in the Mezzalama Trophy, as part of a team with Giuseppe Lamberti and Ettore Schranz, and in 1940 he won the Italian cross-country skiing championship over 36 km.
After his military service, he settled in Breuil-Cervinia, where he worked as a mountain guide and ski instructor. The Matterhorn was the main focus of his work: records attribute 106 ascents via different routes to him, a figure which is not based on a documented count. Alongside his work as a guide, he became a hotelier, beginning construction of the Hotel Da Compagnoni in 1948.
In 1953, Ardito Desio selected him for the Italian expedition to K2, organised by the Italian Alpine Club. Having reached the Karakoram in the spring of 1954, following the approach, acclimatisation and the setting up of camps along the Abruzzi Spur, Compagnoni and Lacedelli were tasked with the final ascent and reached the summit, marking the mountain’s first-ever ascent. Compagnoni was 39 years old. During the ascent and descent, he suffered severe frostbite to his hands, which cost him several phalanges, required a long period of treatment and limited his subsequent mountaineering activities.
Accounts of the final two days of the expedition have long been at odds with one another. What is certain is that on 30 July 1954, Walter Bonatti and the Pakistani high-altitude porter Amir Mahdi carried the oxygen cylindersintended for Compagnoni and Lacedelli to Camp IX, failed to find the tent of the lead rope team and spent the night in the open, at an altitude of over 8,000 metres. Accounts differ regarding the actual location of the final camp, communications between the rope teams and the moment when the oxygen ran out. Compagnoni stood by his version of events, whilst Bonatti contested the accounts included in the expedition’s official report. In 2004, the ‘Report of the Three Sages’, drawn up for the Italian Alpine Club by Fosco Maraini, Alberto Monticone and Luigi Zanzi, recognised Bonatti’s accounts regarding the location of Camp IX, the site of the bivouac and the chronology as well-founded, and concluded that Compagnoni and Lacedelli had used oxygen right up to the summit. The text was published in 2007, and the CAI reaffirmed its validity in a resolution passed in April 2023. The review does not alter the attribution of the first ascent to Compagnoni and Lacedelli, but recognises the decisive contribution made by Bonatti and Mahdi.
For the K2 expedition, Compagnoni was awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Valour, conferred by decree of the President of the Republic on 10 March 1955. In 1966, he was awarded the Lion d’oro, an honour reserved for prominent figures from the Valtellina region, and on 2 June 2003 he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 1959 and 1960, he appeared as an actor in two films: La grande guerra by Mario Monicelli and Tutti a casa by Luigi Comencini.
He spent much of the last few decades in Breuil-Cervinia, maintaining his links with the mountaineering community and the hotel industry. He died in Aosta at the age of 94; his funeral was held on 15 May at the Church of Maria Regina della Valle d’Aosta in Breuil-Cervinia, and he is buried in the cemetery at Valtournenche. From 27 February to 30 March 2014, to mark the centenary of his birth and the 60th anniversary of the ascent of K2, the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan hosted the exhibition Achille Compagnoni. Beyond K2, promoted by the association named after him and curated by Marco Enrico Giacomelli, featuring photographs, documents, original equipment and personal items.
Mountaineering exploits
Matterhorn (4,478m) - 1942 – traverse with Luigi Carrel and Alfredo Perino, including the De Amicis ridge
Matterhorn (4,478 m) - 1949 – night-time winter ascent on 15 and 16 February, with Modesto Patrolini
K2 (8,611 m) - 1954 – first ever ascent on 31 July, with Lino Lacedelli, as part of the Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, Karakorum, on the border between Pakistan and China
Works
Men on K2, Milan, Veronelli, 1958
The Tricolour on K2, Milan, Edizioni dei Periodici Mondadori, 1965
‘Sesto grado’, Florence, Giunti Marzocco, 1976, with Laura Parravicini
‘K2. The Italian Conquest: Between History and Memory, Azzano San Paolo, Bolis, 2004
Bibliography
As a writer
Marco Enrico Giacomelli (ed.), Achille Compagnoni. Beyond K2, Marsilio, 2014
As a key reference
Ardito Desio, The Conquest of K2, Garzanti, 1954
Walter Bonatti, K2. The Story of an Adventure, Baldini & Castoldi, [year to be verified]
Lino Lacedelli, Giovanni Cenacchi, K2. The Price of Conquest, Mondadori, 2004
Fosco Maraini, Alberto Monticone, Luigi Zanzi, K2, a story come to an end, Priuli & Verlucca, 2007
Marco Enrico Giacomelli (ed.), Achille Compagnoni. Beyond K2, Marsilio, 2014