Posted: May 13, 2009 12:56 pm EDT
(K2Climb.net) Italian K2 pioneer Achille Compagnoni died today in a northern Italy hospital at age 94, media reports.

After several failed attempts, K2 was finally summited in 1954 by the Italians, Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. There has been a debate about the events that took place on that first climb ever since.

In early June of 1954 a team of a dozen or so left from a 4,000m camp. In late July four men had reached camp VIII, about 200 meters below the summit. The final ascent was made by Lino and Achille and completed without oxygen...or so goes the official story.

The two men left behind at camp VIII were Walter Bonatti, then 24 years old, and the Hunza porter Mahdi, charged with the task of carrying the oxygen. According to Bonatti, who made the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958, he and Mahdi could not re-supply the two lead climbers due to bad weather and darkness. So, on Lino's instruction, they left the oxygen where they were and prepared descent.

Only the bad weather forced the young climber and his local porter to first to camp out in the snow, as the two lead mountaineers wouldn't help them or let them into their tent.

Disgrace

The names of the summiteers were not released until the return of the expedition. When it was announced, Lino and Achille were celebrated as national heroes. The celebration ended a decade later when an Italian newspaper accused Bonatti of stealing oxygen and attempting a solo ascent ahead of Lino and Achille.

Bonatti sued for libel and won, but he was ostracized from the climbing community. The climber took revenge in his own way: Solo climbs, first ascents, new technical routes all over the world, elegance in the itineraries and methods, Bonatti proved without a shadow of doubt that he was one of the best climbers of his time, if not in all of climbing history until giving up mountaineering in 1965.

Bonatti has since published "The Mountains of My Life", an autobiography with stories about the expedition of 1954. In his book Bonatti displays proof of his innocence, including a photograph of Lino and Achille wearing oxygen masks on the summit.

50 years after the 1954 K2 expedition, a very old Lino Lacedelli - who had remained silent all this time - couldn’t face to take the truth with him to the grave. In a book released in 2006, he confessed what really happened on K2, thus changing the course of history. Lino also called Bonatti to apologize, but the climber would have none of it. "It's too late," he said.

As for Compagnoni, today he took his final version of events with him to his grave.

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