On January 2, 1909, the versatile mountaineer Riccardo Cassin was born in Friuli, Italy.
Cassin’s father died in a mining accident in Canada in 1913. To help his family, Cassin left school at the age of 12 to work in a blacksmith shop.
In 1926, Cassin moved to Lecco and worked at a steel plant. He started boxing and also went to the surrounding mountains every spare moment. Eventually, he had to choose between boxing and climbing, and he chose climbing. He started honing his skills in the Grigna massif around Lecco. Eventually, he excelled in all disciplines, including rock, big-wall, and alpine climbing.
A young Riccardo Cassin in the Grigna. Photo: Facebook
Cassin made several pioneering climbs in the 1930s. Among them:
- 1934: First ascent of Cima Picolissima of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo with two partners. The following year, he climbed the Torre Trieste via the southeast ridge and established a new route on the north face of the Cima Ovest di Lavaredo in the Dolomites with Vittorio Ratti.
- 1937: First ascent of the northeast face of Piz Badile along with partners Ratti and Gino Esposito. They also teamed up with two others, M. Molteni and G. Valsecchi, who died of exhaustion during the descent.
- 1938: Climbed the Walker Spur on the North Face of Grandes Jorasses with Esposito and Ugo Tizzoni. One year later, Cassin and Tizzoni ascended a new route on the north face of the Aiguille de Leschaux.
Tri Cima di Lavaredo, Dolomites. Photo: Shutterstock
100 first ascents
These are only a few of his 2,500 ascents, of which 100 were first ascents.
The Second World War stopped his climbing. During the war, Cassin fought against the Nazis as a partisan.
The Ragni di Lecco (Spiders of Lecco) chapter of the Italian Alpine Club was founded in 1946. Their goal was to surpass Lecco’s so-called “old climbers,” including Cassin, who also became part of the group.
The North Face of the Grandes Jorasses. Photo: Robin Lacassin
Thwarted from joining K2 expedition
In 1954, the leader of the Italian K2 expedition, Ardito Desio, left Cassin off the team — according to Cassin, because of their rivalry. Instead, Cassin went on to lead several major expeditions himself, including a successful 1958 climb of 7,932m Gasherbrum IV. On that expedition, Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri made the first ascent of GIV via the northeast ridge.
The Gasherbrum IV team, with Cassin at far left. Photo: Riccardo Cassin
Then in 1961, Cassin led a strong party to the still-unclimbed south face of 6,190m Denali. On July 19, all five members topped out on a difficult route that became known as the Cassin Ridge.
The Cassin Ridge on Denali, center. Photo: Bradford Washburn/Alpineinstitute.com
Cassin returned to the Himalaya in 1975 to lead an expedition to 8,516m Lhotse. They wanted to try a new route along the west part of the south face. Two years earlier, a Japanese party had tried that line unsuccessfully. Two members of Cassin’s team reached roughly 7,500m, when bad weather forced them to turn around.
Piz Badile at 78
In 1987, on the 50th anniversary of his first ascent of the northeast face of Piz Badile, Cassin climbed it again at the age of 78. His filmmaker friend, Fulvio Mariani, would have liked to film it, but Cassin had not told him about the ascent, so Cassin volunteered to do it again.
When journalists reported that Cassin had repeated his own route twice, Cassin pointed out that the second repetition was not valid because a helicopter had picked him up at the summit.
Cassin continued climbing until he was 80. He died in Lecco on August 6, 2009, at the age of 100.
Riccardo Cassin. Photo: Leyendasymontanas.blogspot.com
