The fifth Lecco Spider on the summit of Cerro Torre in 1974

At 5 pm on 13 January 1974, Casimiro Ferrari, Mario Conti, Pino Negri and Daniele Chiappa stood on the summit of Cerro Torre.

Getting up there had proven epic, but getting down was not going to be easy, either: there were no rocks on the summit to make the rappels and they had to improvise a snow anchor of sorts. Using snow stakes and some etriers they built an anchor, looped the ropes around it and then buried it all with a lot of pressed snow: it really did look like a snowman!

Pino suddenly had a bizarre intuition: he took off his sweater and put it onto the snowman, then got Mario's helmet and put that on top, too. "Now - he said - the Torre has become a Lecco Spider, too!"

It is the euphoria of a long-awaited and now almost unexpected moment, but it is also a symbol: it is the fifth Spider on the summit, a tribute to the eight companions who came down to allow them to continue the climb, but who in reality are there and who will forever remain "Those of Cerro Torre".

by Serafino Ripamonti

MODIFY
The MOdiSCA (MOuntains of SCAtti) project was created in 2009 thanks to the Lario Orientale Valle San Martino Mountain Community, with the aim of safeguarding, conserving and enhancing the cultural heritage linked to the mountains of Lombardy. The MOdiSCA Conservation Archive currently contains approximately 5,000 photos, 30 historical videos, 12,000 scans from historical magazines and books, 30 filmed interviews with Lombard mountaineering figures, databases and 500 pages of mountaineering news. Every week a historical photo with a short story is published on the Facebook page.
Info: Osservarioalpinisticolecchese.com

Serafino Ripamonti
Since 1995 he has worked in the field of journalism and communication linked to mountaineering and outdoor sports. He has worked for specialised magazines, newspapers and press offices. His book "I Ragni di Lecco. A story through images" was released by Rizzoli in June 2020.