Word: bonatti
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...possible fifth way, the Grand Pilastre, a 5,000-ft. perpendicular wall of gripless, smooth rock and slithery green ice that looms over empty space toward the summit. Last week the Grand Pilastre was finally conquered in a fantastic three-day climb by Italy's Walter Bonatti, 27, and Toni Gobbi, 43. Awed alpinists compared it to the first four-minute mile...
...Conqueror. Nobody was surprised that hawk-nosed, blue-eyed Walter Bonatti had tried it ("I climb mountains because I am afraid of them, and conquest of fear is one of man's greatest needs"). Bonatti ranks among the world's finest mountaineers, is certainly one of the toughest. A Lombard laborer's son, he quit his steel mill job at 19 to become an Alpine guide and ski instructor. In 1954 he was the youngest member of the triumphant Himalayan expedition up K2. The next year he performed a fine one-man climb up Mont Blanc...