Emilio Comici

Emilio Comici was an Italian mountain climber and caver, born in Trieste in 1901 and nicknamed the Angel of the Dolomites. He made more than 200 first ascents in the Eastern Alps, above all in the Dolomites and the Julian Alps, and helped open the era of sixth grade climbing, then the highest grade thought humanly possible. He developed multi-step aid ladders, solid belays, the tag line and the hanging bivouac, techniques that shaped big wall climbing. Before climbing he spent ten years caving near Trieste and set a world depth record there. In 1932 he moved to Lake Misurina, where he opened a climbing school, and he died in a fall in October 1940.