Giusto Gervasutti (17 April 1909 – 16 September 1946), was an Italian mountain climber, Alpini officer and skier.
Gervasutti, also known as "Il Fortissimo" ("the hardest", "the roughest"), was born in Cervignano del Friuli. He started climbing at the age of 16 years. In 1931, he moved to Turin to study at the local university.
Together with other well known climbers of the time he climbed the most difficult and sought-after faces in the Western Alps. His first notable success was the first repetition of Karl Brendelet's and Hermann Schaller's difficult climb on the south ridge route of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey one year after them. Further he completed some first ascents of reliefs in the Dauphiné Alps, for example the North West of the Pic d'Olan and the North West of the Ailefroide. During a visit in Chile in 1934, he climbed some five-thousanders. Also notable would be his ascent on the south west edge of the Picco Gugliermina, which he mastered together with Gabriele Boccalatte in 1938. His masterpiece was the first ascent of the difficult east wall of the Grandes Jorasses, together with Giuseppe Gagliardone in 1942, while he served as a military officer in World War II.
Wikipedia
Gervasutti's most significant ascents in the Alps
Sperone Est-nord-est - Cima di Valbona - (Masino-Bregaglia) - 15 giugno 1933 - Prima salita con Renato Chabod e Alfredo Corti. 400 m/D+
Cresta Sud - Aiguille Noire de Peuterey - 2-3 agosto 1933 - Seconda salita con Piero Zanetti
Parete Ovest e cresta Sud-ovest - Torre Re Alberto (Masino-Bregaglia) - 6 ottobre 1933 - Prima salita con Aldo Bonacossa (a detta dei primi salitori, sulla improteggibile placca sommitale, Gervasutti superò il più difficile passaggio della sua carriera - VI)
Couloir Gervasutti - Tour Ronde - 27 luglio 1934 - Prima salita con Renato Chabod, 300 m/AD parete ovest
Couloir Gervasutti - Mont Blanc du Tacul - 13 agosto 1934 - Prima salita con Renato Chabod. 700 m D-
Parete Nord-Ovest - Pic d'Olan - 23-24 agosto 1934 - Prima salita con Lucien Devies, 1100 m/TD
Spigolo Sud - Punta Allievi (Masino-Bregaglia) - 16 settembre 1934 - Prima salita con Carlo Negri e Aldo Bonacossa, 500 m/TD
Spigolo Ovest - Pic Adolphe - 16 luglio 1935 - Prima salita con Gabriele Boccalatte, Nini Pietrasanta, Renato Chabod (anche prima ascensione del Pic Adolphe)
Cresta Sud - Pic Gaspard - 30-31 agosto 1935 - Prima salita con Lucien Devies, 700 m/TD
Via Devies-Gervasutti - Ailefroide Occidentale - 23-24 luglio 1936 - Prima salita con Lucien Devies, 1050 m/TD+ parete nord-ovest
Via Gervasutti-Boccalatte - Punta Gugliermina - 17-18 agosto 1938 - Prima salita con Gabriele Boccalatte, 600 m/V+ Spigolo sud-ovest
Via Bollini-Gervasutti - Monte Bianco/Pilone Nord del Freney - 13 agosto 1940 - Prima salita con Paolo Bollini della Predosa, 700 m/TD
Via Gervasutti - Grandes Jorasses - 16-17 agosto 1942 - Prima salita con Giuseppe Gagliardone, 550 m/ED, parete est
Via Gervasutti - Pic Adolphe - agosto 1944 - Prima salita con Gigi Panei, 250 m/TD+ Parete sud
Via Gervasutti - Petit Capucin - 16 agosto 1946 - Prima salita con Carlo Arnoldi e Giuseppe Gagliardone, 250 m/V+ parete est
“There is no such thing as objective mountaineering, there is only a form of activity, generically termed mountaineering, which enables certain people to express themselves, or gives them a means of satisfying an inner need, just as there are other forms of activity and other means by which other people may try to attain the same ends.
“Of course, since the need is completely different for each individual, we have many forms of mountaineering. It may take the form of a need to live heroically, or to rebel against restraint and limitation: an escape from the restricting circle of daily life, a protest against being submerged in universal drabness, an affirmation of the freedom of the spirit in dangerous and splendid adventure. Or it may well be the pleasure of physical fitness and moral energy, elegance of style and calculated daring; ordeals gaily faced with friends themselves as firm as rock, the hard life of the high huts, the happy relaxation on remote pastures as one smokes a pipe or sings mountain songs. It may be the search for an intense aesthetic experience, for exquisite sensations, or for man’s never satisfied desire for unknown country to explore, new paths to make. Best of all, it should be all these things together.”
Giusto Gervasutti was a landmark figure in the world of Italian mountaineering in the 1930s and 1940s; he left his mark on the world of mountaineering, including his route through the East of the Grandes Jorasses. Shot mainly in the Dolomites and in the Monte Blanc chain, this film was made for the centenary of his birth and commemorates his life and feats with footage of some of his most well known routes, first-hand accounts and interviews with people who knew and studied him. The aim is to portray the life of a lone and tormented mountaineer who sought “a happiness that was always just out of reach”, one unknown in the valley when he was far from his mountains
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