Alessandro Varchetta

In 1954, an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio set out to climb K2: the participants were recruited among some of the best Italian mountaineers and after undertaking a period of innovative training for that time, they left directly for the massif of Karakorum. Under the almost military command of Desio, Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli reached the peak. Walter Bonatti, twenty-three at the time, the youngest in the expedition, spent a night without shelter at an altitude of 8100 meters, after having carried oxygen bottles to Campagnoni and Lacedelli. The K2 conquest followed a trail of controversy, although returning home to Italy was triumphant: the Italian mountaineers succeeded in climbing K2.