Giusto Gervasutti

Giusto Gervasutti, born on April 17, 1909, in Cervignano del Friuli and died on September 16, 1946, on Mont Blanc du Tacul, was an Italian mountaineer who opened numerous routes in the Alps, such as the northwest face of the Ailefroide and the Olan (considered at the time to be the biggest problem in the Alps after the Grandes Jorasses). Gervasutti discovered the mountains at a very young age in the Carnic Alps and the Dolomites, where he forged his temperament as a top-level mountaineer. At sixteen, he began climbing seriously, quickly linking increasingly challenging routes, and then settled in Turin in 1931, which definitively opened the door to major climbs in the Western Alps. His first significant achievements were the south face of the Marmolada and the first ascent of Monte Siera above Sappada, which established his skill on rock faces. In 1932, he discovered high-altitude winter climbing on the Nordend and the Matterhorn, laying the foundations for a style characterized by speed, commitment, and a quest for difficulty in the most challenging conditions. Very quickly, Gervasutti tackled the major problems of the era: in 1934, he opened the northwest face of the Olan, then considered one of the greatest alpine challenges after the Grandes Jorasses, followed by the northwest pillar of the Ailefroide Occidentale in 1936, often cited as one of the most beautiful lines in the Écrins massif. He also made the first ascent of the northeast couloir of Mont Blanc du Tacul and…