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Ivano Ghirardini (born 1 May 1953) is a French mountaineer. [1]
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Ivano Ghirardini (born 1 May 1953) is a French mountaineer. [1]
He was born in Montefiorino in Emilia-Romagna. He left Italy with his family in 1954 and was naturalized in 1972.
He attended school in Marseille, earning a Baccalaureate in mathematics. He learned to climb in Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban and at Sisteron.
In 1975, he made his first solo winter ascent of the north face of the Grandes Jorasses via the Shroud (Le Linceul). In January 1977, he attempted a winter solo ascent of the Matterhorn, but failed due to a storm. However, he was successful on his second attempt in December of the same year. He soloed the Grandes Jorasses again in January 1978 (the Croz Spur), and then the north face of Eiger in March 1978, thereby becoming the first mountaineer to solo all three of the "trilogy" (the north faces of the Matterhorn, Grandes Jorasses and Eiger) in winter.
He attempted K2 twice in 1979, both times having to give up due to stormy conditions. He made a solo bivouac without oxygen at 8,300m.
In 1980, Ghirardini climbed Mitre Peak in the Karakoram in Pakistan, again solo. He is the only mountaineer to date to have done so.
First solo climb of the south wall, in four days, following the French Route-1954 and taking the Messner's variation, reached the summit in January 1981 making this remarkable first.
Ghirardini, 1994, V 5, 6a, A2, 65°, 800m, between pt Margarita and pt Young, ephemeral couloir. The first part was climbed with Slavko Sveticic, then Ghirardini soloed the last section.
In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent, is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers and climbers were focused on reaching the tops of iconic mountains and climbing routes by whatever means possible, often using considerable amounts of aid climbing, or with large expedition style support teams that laid "siege" to the climb.
Gaston Rébuffat was a French alpinist, mountain guide, and author. He is well known as a member of the first expedition to summit Annapurna 1 in 1950 and the first man to climb all six of the great north faces of the Alps. In 1984, he was made an officer in the French Legion of Honour for his service as a mountaineering instructor for the French military. At the age of 64, Gaston Rébuffat died of cancer in Paris, France. The climbing technique Gaston was named after him. A photo of Rébuffat atop the Aiguille du Roc in the French Alps is on the Voyager Golden Records.
The Grandes Jorasses is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, on the boundary between Haute-Savoie in France and Aosta Valley in Italy.
Lionel Terray was a French climber who made many first ascents, including on the 1955 French Makalu expedition in the Himalaya and Cerro Fitz Roy in the Patagonian Andes.
Walter Bonatti was an Italian mountain climber, explorer and journalist. He was noted for many climbing achievements, including a solo climb of a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in August 1955, the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958, and, in 1965, the first solo climb in winter of the North face of the Matterhorn on the mountain's centenary year of its first ascent. Immediately after his solo climb on the Matterhorn, Bonatti announced his retirement from professional climbing at the age of 35, and after 17 years of climbing activity. He authored many mountaineering books and spent the remainder of his career travelling off the beaten track as a reporter for the Italian magazine Epoca. He died on 13 September 2011 of pancreatic cancer in Rome aged 81, and was survived by his life partner, the actress Rossana Podestà.
The six great north faces of the Alps are a group of vertical faces in the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps known in mountaineering for their difficulty, danger, and great height. The "Trilogy" is the three hardest of these north faces, being the Eiger, the Grandes Jorasses, and the Matterhorn.
In mountaineering and climbing, enchainment is climbing two or more mountains or climbing routes on a mountain in one outing. Rock climbing two or more routes in this manner are also called a "link up" in the United States. Climbers may do an enchainment of easy routes as a way of training for a more difficult objective, but some enchainments of hard routes are a prize in their own right, a notable example being the great north faces of the Alps.
Michel Auguste Croz was a French mountain guide and the first ascentionist of many mountains in the western Alps during the golden age of alpinism. He is chiefly remembered for his death on the first ascent of the Matterhorn and for his climbing partnership with Edward Whymper.
Catherine Destivelle is a French rock climber and mountaineer who is considered one of the greatest and most important female climbers in the history of the sport. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s for sport climbing by winning the first major female climbing competitions, and by being the first-ever female to redpoint a 7c+/8a sport climbing route with Fleur de Rocaille in 1985, and an 8a+ (5.13c) route with Choucas in 1988. During this period, she was considered the strongest female sport climber in the world along with the US climber Lynn Hill, however, in 1990 she retired to focus on alpine climbing.
Patrick Gabarrou a.k.a. "Le Gab", is a French mountaineer and mountain guide who is credited with more than 300 first ascents, most of them in the Mont Blanc massif.
Jean-Marc Boivin was a French mountaineer, extreme skier, hang glider and paraglider pilot, speleologist, BASE jumper, film maker and author. The holder of several altitude records for hang gliding and paragliding, the creator of numerous first ascents and first ski descents in the Alps, a member of the team that broke the record for a sub-glacial dive and the first person to paraglide from the summit of Mount Everest, Boivin was a pioneer of extreme sports. He died from injuries incurred after BASE jumping off Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world.
Reinhard Karl was a German mountaineer, photographer and writer.
Armand Charlet was a French mountaineer and mountain guide.
Tsuneo Hasegawa was a Japanese alpinist. His achievements include the winter solo ascent of the "Great North Faces of the Alps" or "North Face Trilogy" and the world's first winter solo ascent of the South Face of Aconcagua in 1981. He died in 1991 in an avalanche while ascending the Ultar II South east face.
Yvette Vaucher is a Swiss mountaineer and parachutist. Credited as Switzerland's first female parachutist, she was also the first woman to climb the Matterhorn's north face.
Alex MacIntyre (1954–1982) was a British mountaineer in the 1970s. He is known for developing new climbing techniques that enabled ascents not previously accomplished.
Josef Knubel was a Swiss mountaineer and mountain guide. He made many first ascents and other climbs in the Alps during his career. He is best known for his ascents as a guide for Geoffrey Winthrop Young.
Tom Ballard was a British rock climber and alpinist, who was the first mountaineer to climb the six major alpine north faces solo in a single winter season. In February 2019, Ballard disappeared during bad weather on an expedition to Nanga Parbat, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. His body was discovered on the mountain's Mummery Spur on 9 March 2019.
The recorded history of climbing of the Eiger mountain in Switzerland starts in the 1800s. It is split between the pre-north face era, when the main summits and easier ridges and faces were climbed, and the post-north face era, when it became one of the greatest prizes in mountaineering. At least sixty-four climbers have died while attempting the ascent.
Ivano Ghirardini website in French: Archived 2009-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
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