PERSONALITIES - Bruno Detassis, ninety years old climber

“Where is the hut? Did you move it ?”, says joking Bruno close to the “XII Apostoli”. His eyesight has almost abandonned him in these years, a cruel joke of the destiny for a climber, but not his proverbial sense of humour, in spite of his ninetyone. We have just come with him to the altitude of 2489 meters, at the Pratofiorito valley, in front of Cima Tosa peak and the others peaks that close to the south the beautiful dolomitical paradise named Brenta Group. The altitude and the rugged nature select the feelings, even before of humanity. Only the strongerst, the truest survive. And so strong is the hug between Bruno, the old teacher, and Ermanno, the student, the friend who runs the XII Apostles hut, “one of the few who doesn’t talk very much, but one who acts”. This is not a common day: “Bruno is here with us, fellows!!”, says the young climber. This sunny day of august has attracted a band of mountaneers and climbers. Someone, looking at the face of that old man with glasses and a long white beard,who walks held up by the young manager of the hut, has recognized him and says to the one close to. “Don’t you recognize him?Yes, he is Bruno, Bruno Detassis! Here in the Dolomites there is only one Bruno, he is the history of these mountains, the climber, the soul of these mountains. And Bruno wasn’t here at the XII Apostoli since too much. Therefore today, the 8th of august, will remain noted down in the diary of the hut and, one of his photograph, for the umpteenth time, will be hanged soon at the walls. At the doorstep of the hut starts an applause. And the old man notes :”I know that you told them to clap their hands!” and then, as usual, leaned against the wooden parapet, he starts playing “morra” with Ermanno. The Salvaterra’s family has prepared a real welcome to his friend, with the simplicity that belongs to the mountain’s people: a tipical meat dish named “carne salada”, a birthdaycake with 9 candles, one for every decade, and one drink. “Happy birthday Bruno!” And then begin memories. “Bruno was great, because he did what he did before the rubbersoles came. The rich used to climb with felt soles. The poor had shoes made of rope by the mother, that at the end of the climb where to throw away”, remember Ermanno. “Otherways you climbed barefoot”, goes on Detassis. There were the heroic climbers of Dolomites. The thirties, the years that will be remembered as the years of the “libera” (free-climbing), that is the climb without using pitons the kind of climbs that Detassis used to do. “A piton every thirty meters, only to be safe in case of falls”, explains the climber. He used to create his pitons by himselves, as he was a blacksmith. Memorable are his first ascents to the north-east wall of the Brenta Alta peak, in 1934, the “Via delle Guide” on the Crozzon di Brenta the year after, and the north-west peak of the Croz dell’Altissimo, in the Brenta group, in 1936. Memorable is also the great deal of routes signed and the longevity of his carrier: at the age of 79 he has climbed for the 183rd time the Campanil Basso, to celebrate the 90 years from the first ascent. “Do you remember your motto, Bruno: "finding the easy into the difficult?”, asks him Ermanno. And he, very modest, remembers the defeats:”Like ones on the Marmolada, on the south-west wall, when due to a damaged tinned sardines, I felt sick”, a few steps from the top.“And then: is not right to say ‘that is the Detassis’s route’, but you should say the names of every climber, because the whole party is important, not only Bruno”. Inspite of the narcisism of the climbers! Have you ever been afraid of dying on the rocks? “No, never. If an exploit was too much for me, I wouldn’t have tried it. I always thought that the mountain is stronger than us. Therefore we have to respect it, take care: life before all”. And one who has lived in a german imprisonment camp and has seen so close to dead, knows very well the life’s value. That’s why Detassis has become Detassis, and is not one of some other alpine guides, with a wonderful curriculum and nothing else. He hasn’t written a book, like other climbers. Not a line. He has given them to Ettore Castiglioni, his special friend, author of one of the best books about the Brenta Dolomites: “He was so cultured! And had a so great sensitivity to the Writing”. Also therefore Detassis is not like the others. Few words: facts are important. Few pitons: holds are important. Few regrets: life has given us so much. In this way he doesn’t think like all the ones who believe that people who goes now in the mountain should be much cultured about mountain: for instance, to know the trees, the wood, the rocks. And what do you think about freeclimbng? “I think we talk about training, not mountaineering: but I speak only by hearsay”. This philosophy has made him became the “Brenta patriarch”. Bruno has always lived in the Brenta, at the hut or on a peak. Very fond of mountains and in love with his Nella, after 61 years wedding. “Mountains are all beautiful, but my Brenta is unique. And luckily cars are not allowed to drive up here, like somewhere else”. And even at this age, every 15 days he goes up till Brentei hut by cableway. He says he goes up by cableway to check if the goodslift is ok but “what do you think I can check with these blind eyes”, he says. He goes home, and that’s enough for him.

di ALBERTO LAGGIA

foto di Alberto Bevilacqua