Carlo Mauri

Carlo Mauri (1930 to 1982) was an Italian mountaineer and explorer born in Lecco. His early Alpine climbs included the first winter ascent of the Comici route on the north face of the Cima Grande di Lavaredo and the first solo ascent of the Poire on Mont Blanc. In 1956 he reached the summit of Monte Sarmiento in Tierra del Fuego, and in 1958, on Riccardo Cassin's Karakoram expedition, he and Walter Bonatti made the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV at 7,925 metres. He joined Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus-boat crossings of the Atlantic, Ra I and Ra II, in 1969 and 1970, and the Tigris expedition of 1977, and made documentary films for RAI. After a broken leg he became the first Italian to undergo the Ilizarov bone-lengthening operation, and he died in Lecco in 1982.