Kathmandu, 1 May 2002

 A great man, who contributed so much to the knowledge of the mountains, died just before he could see year 2002, the International Year of Mountains. So on the 13th of December 2001, Ardito Desio disappeared. The Professor, the Explorer, the man with an unlimited passion for the world of the mountains.

Maybe it isn’t just a coincidence that I’m remembering him from here, in the place he was so attracted to (in his heart).  Where at the base of the highest mountain of the world exists one of his most beautiful and challenging creations, the Pyramid Laboratory of the Ev-K2-CNR – RONAST Project for scientific research on high altitude and remote areas. 

Still persistent after a century of existence, Desio wanted strongly to confirm and prove the correct elevation of the highest mountains of the world. In 1987, Desio decided that there was still a lot of scientific knowledge of the major mountains of the world to be discovered. So he started a committee which could permit the continuation with the modern technologies what he, with the tools of his ages, had started to do in the 1920’s.   

In this slightly warm evening, the profiles of the Himalayan Mountains are just disappearing from the horizon of Kathmandu, and I think to the time in which Desio had to decide to leave the idea to install the Pyramid in Tibet, where transportation would have been easier.  Instead he approached Nepal for their assistance. In Winter 1990, he met with His Majesty Birendra, the King of Nepal, also passing away the last year in the tragic event in the royal palace. The King was happy to meet an Italian with such charisma, and the permit to install the Pyramid, according to the need of the research was allowed, with a simple agreement between two great gentlemen.

It’s difficult to describe something, which hasn’t already been said or written, about Desio, surely better than I could.  But I remember him in a visit up to Lobuche, descending quietly from the army helicopter accompanied by Agostino Da Polenza, his strong “right arm” since the starting of the adventure of Ev-K2-CNR. Desio was looking around astonished by the beauty of the environment. Later, he gave me a small camera asking to take some pictures, modestly I thought of taking this big person’s picture in his world, I was wrong, he wanted images of the mountains around, those, he said, are really important and needed to be photographed.

The memories often come to my mind of the many conferences, in which he was presenting. But for me, one in particular was more emotional than any other, because in Bormio we participated in the conference together. What made me astonished was the clarity of his mind, holding so many memories from so many years in the past, but at the same time able to interact and accept the more recent experiences and discoveries of research of the Ev-K2-CNR on which I was reporting on. The watch on the speaker’s table, and the continuous need to be short, Desio had so much to talk about, and with the audience that was awaiting his great knowledge from his lips. For Desio, it was important to talk about the present time and the future of his Ev-K2-CNR.  

What impressed me in his talks was a simple but illuminating philosophy, contrasting to himself, who was used to making such difficult things. The luckiness. He was saying, it’s necessary to be lucky, but you also have to think that you could be lucky. Desio considered himself a lucky man, and considered it important and something like a duty, to look at the fate of each of us with great optimism. From which he started/ initiated incredible enterprises, which succeeded.

It happened like that at K2, where he led the Italian expedition for the first climb of the difficult mountain. With the risk of such a major feat, expert and precise knowledge and leadership was fundamental for success. For all the great men who conquered K2, at the pioneering times of 1954 when ability and heroism went hand in hand, couldn’t have achieved their goal without the command of a man like Desio. I personally realized that, 42 years later, in 1996, when during our expedition for the elevation measurement of the mountains, only four very strong climbers could reach the summit. One of them, Lorenzo Mazzoleni, remained on the mountain even after my unsuccessful attempt to rescue him from at 8300 m on the “bottle-neck” in the night.  He slid down to 7000 m.  

Now from the mountains a fresh breeze has started to descend. Swayambunath, in the opposite direction to Mt. Everest, Hinduism and Buddhism are blending, and the arrival of the night shadows the profile of the holy hill. In my fantasies it is like I am there, and I image the cold of space becoming thick on the things, and the shining flashes of the stars competing with the last far brightness of the day. There is a label in memory of Desio outside the Pyramid, and his name is written among the stars reflected by the crystals of the Laboratory. “In the Year 2002, great grandfather Ardito is watching us from the stars."

Gian Pietro Verza

 Gian Pietro Verza, mountain guide and electronic designer, is working in the international high altitude research project Ev-K2-CNR, with a Laboratory near Everest BC, the Pyramid, web site: www.mountnet.net 
He is collaborating also with the italian commitee for the 2002 International Year Of Mountains, web site: www.montagna.org

 

Note

this transation has been possible thanks to the kind availability of  Ms. Jane Dermer, Tourism Researcher