Walter Bonatti died yesterday at 81 years of age. One of Italy's greatest "old style" climbers, Bonatti is especially famous for the first ascent to the K2, the extremely hard to climb, 8611-meter-tall mountain in the Karakorum.

Bonatti was instrumental in the conquer of the second-tallest mountain in the world by bringing, in a heroic effort with the Hunza climber Mahdi, oxygen bottles to his teammates Lacedelli and Compagnoni, who ascended to the summit the following morning. The episode caused a diatriba which lasted fifty years, because after bringing the oxygen to the agreed-upon point Bonatti had to spend a night in open air at 8100 meters of altitude due to his teammates having moved up their tent.

For the forced bivouac, Mahdi lost toes and fingers. Compagnoni's explanation of having moved up the tent was to avoid a overhanging serac; however, it is likely he did so to prevent Bonatti from reaching the summit without oxygen, a feat that the strong climber could have indeed accomplished, overshadowing Lacedelli and Compagnoni's ascent.