Lino D'Angelo farewell

Lino has left us, he was still young at 95 years of age. He’d always been young at heart and we will always remember him like this, we who have become old prematurely.

It’s as if Lino D'Angelo has just finished his last route. An enchainment of countless great climbs, the route of an entire lifetime. In truth he wasn’t weary in the slightest, but after so many years on the go he decided that enough was enough. It wasn’t tiredness therefore, simply the fact that the time had come to stop, to let others continue where he left off.

The history of climbing on Gran Sasso and Pietracamela was written and autographed by Lino, it was he who has paved the way, it is his routes that taught us how to climb. All Gran Sasso climbers have followed in his footsteps, often wondering how the hell Lino, that small yet strong alpinist, had managed to climb up there so many years ago.

I don’t want to list numbers, meters, grades and honors, Lino D'Angelo was above all these, he was and always remained the Aquila climber of Sivitilli days, the last true Eagle of Pietracamela. His death marks the end of an era thereofre, the one of heroes, real ones, without tricks and without cheating. As of today we are orphans, without a father to guide us forward.

We started climbing by repeating his routes, our improvements were measured against these benchmarks as we finally reached the best of our abilities. His routes were, and always will be, the testing ground for all those who climb on Gran Sasso, and I hope in the future everyone will continue to respect these wonderful lines, without changing their nature by adding bolts or crossing them with new climbs.

I vividly remember the celebration we organized for his ninetieth birthday, he was visibly moved and grateful for all that display of friendship. And it was impossible not to love Lino, his gentle manner, that of an expert father who guided many of us, novice youngsters, up his routes. His stories never smacked of arrogance, were never conceited, but instead were simple, marked by the desire to share a passion, unconditionally.

Lino D'Angelo was one of Central Italy’s greatest mountaineers, and only because he never tested himself against climbs in the Alps. Characters like Lino D’Angelo are just as great as even the most famous alpinists, but were sidelined due to the superficial nature of those who considered the Alps the center of everything. But no, in the Apennines, and more precisely on Gran Sasso, some special climbers became very great indeed. And it was at Gran Sasso that the first mountaineering club was founded, Aquilotti di Pietracamela, of which Lino soon became a reference point. The Aquilotti in fact were invented by Ernesto Sivitilli in 1926, before all other more famous clubs further north. And this group of early pioneers went on to add some fundamental chapters to the history of mountaineering.

Lino D'Angelo was perhaps the best, the most complete, the one who lived the longest. His early successes date back to the 1950’s, but it was in the ’70’s that he carried out his most important climbs, named after the club, followed by the year of the ascent. Hence Gran Sasso is dotted with countless eagles, from 1972 to 1981 and, if you bear in mind the historic routes of the fifties, these count for three decades of activity in all seasons, including legendary winter adventures on the north face of Monte Camicia.

Al of us, wishful alpinists of today, armed to the teeth with tools that help us climb, can only imagine what it must have been like to climb a mountain back in that era. And we can recall the stories told by Lino, full of wisdom and passion, never tainted by presumption but instead marked by humility. Which should always be the prime quality of a true mountaineer.

In knowing him we were under the illusion that he was immortal and, judging by what I witnessed recently, when he received an award by the Gran Sasso alpinists, he really did seem eternal, brilliantly lucid, his usual self. His plaque will be laid without him, but Lino will remain with us forever. In the mountains he has left us some concrete, tangible memories. And whenever we retrace his footsteps, it won’t simply be a repeat of one of his routes, but a mark of respect for the greatest.

by Roberto Iannilli