Walter Bonatti passes away at 81

The world's climbing community has lost its ultimate reference for excellence:

a young Walter Bonatti
Photo by explorersweb.com  

The legendary climber represented, though his climbs and his life, the highest values in Alpinism. The north faces, the solo climbs, the first ascents and the exploration - Bonatti's resume is a compilation of ingenuity, elegance, courage, innovation, honesty and constant challenge, in the search for the raw beauty of pure climbing.
Sumarizing, Walter Bonatti reached out for the uttermost difficulty, the unexplored, the impossible. His name is written forever on many of the most beautiful mountain faces of the world: from the East Face of the Grand Capucin (opened in 1951) to Gasherbrum IV's Shining Wall (1958) or the Cima Ovest di lavaredo (winter 1963). Pitch by pitch, he opened new routes and showed the way to a new generation of climbers. Or so he wished. Or so the entire climbing community wished, as they mourn today.

RIP, Walter Bonatti.