18/01/2026
Four years ago,Jan 19th 2021, legendary "Dolomites Spider" died at 91 years old.
"Maestri is best known for controversy surrounding climbs on Cerro Torre in Patagonia, but his other achievements in and around Europe make him a standout figure in world climbing. He climbed about 3,500 routes in his life, a third of them solo.[..]
In my personal journey reading and learning about this incredible, complex character, the following passage, from Maestri’s book, 2000 Meters of My Life, is how I shall remember him, as it captures both his divisiveness and passion:
I have always been an advocate of the principle according to which every mountaineer should be free to go to the mountains as he pleases: day or night, with pegs or without, to find God or deny him, for comfort or despair. By doing so we would have as many forms of mountaineering as there are people who go to the mountains and no single form would preclude or lessen any of the others.
The idea of “That is not mountaineering just because it is different from my defintion” is a very serious act of intolerance and presumption that humiliates the whole of our sport. …
Analyzing mountaineering, I tried to discover what were the evils that threaten it, realizing that they are the same ones that undermine our society: intolerance, ignorance, authoritarianism, bigotry. Today, the boundary between permissiveness and freedom is so blurred that it borders on abuse and arbitrariness.
… We are all driven by a single ideal, to make today’s society a set of men with the same rights and the same duties. That’s why I have climbed and why I continue to climb"
🔗link in bio for my full obituary