On 31 July 1954 Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli reached the summit of K2, , for the first time on the 1954 Italian expedition to K2 but for over fifty years the 1954 Italian Karakoram expedition controversy dragged on concerning whether the official report written by the expedition's leader, Ardito Desio, gave a true picture of the expedition. That the climbers did indeed reach the summit was never in dispute.
Initially there were complaints from one of the members of the expedition, Walter Bonatti, about how he felt the report overlooked the importance of his and Amir Mahdi's roles in enabling the climb to be successful. Bonatti also complained about how he and Mahdi had been treated by the climbers who went on to reach the summit. Later Bonatti argued that the lead climbers' supplemental oxygen would not have run out before they had reached the summit, contrary to what they had stated.
As the years went by there was increasing support for Bonatti's claims and criticism of the Italian mountaineering authority, the (CAI), for its failure to deal with the matter. In 2007, after Desio had died, the CAI at last published a revised official account of the climb which generally found in favour of Bonatti's version of events. However, the CAI was then criticised for going too far in an attempt to placate Bonatti and his supporters.
Legal difficulties, 1954–1958 When Charlie Houston, who had led the 1953 American K2 expedition, attended the jubilant Italian celebrations for the successful climb he realised that behind the scenes things had not been happy. It soon got into the press that Desio had not been a popular leader – he had been self-centred and autocratic. Riccardo Cassin, who had been excluded from taking part, became involved saying Desio had not wanted to share the focus of attention with anyone else. While Desio was still writing his book legal problems started when he accused the expedition photographer of taking away the film of the expedition. Even after one of the scientists in the party admitted they had taken it through a misunderstanding, Desio did not withdraw his accusation until after he had been sued for defamation. Then the CAI successfully sued Desio for the return of some of the grant they had made and both sides went into print acrimoniously. Desio lost his battles and even had to hand back the trophy he had been awarded. Compagnoni then took the CAI to court to ask to be allocated some of the profits from the film Italia K2 which was drawing large audiences – he eventually lost the case in 1958. Bonatti had protested that the film understated (indeed omitted any mention of) the role he and Mahdi had played in carrying vital oxygen up for the summit party and about the emergency bivouac but in the end an acknowledgement was included in the distributed film.
Desio's 1954 account of the climb Desio wrote the first official account of the expedition in his 1954 book but this account was disputed over many years by Bonatti and, eventually, Lacedelli and others. That Compagnoni and Lacedelli had reached the summit of K2 was not in dispute – the issue to begin with was how the lead climbers had treated Bonatti and Mahdi who, high on the mountain, had been carrying up oxygen cylinders for them. Later there was a dispute about whether the oxygen had run out before or after they had reached the summit. Overall, Bonatti claimed Desio's book was neither accurate nor fair. The matter became increasingly controversial with a great deal of press criticism, often uninformed. Desio died in 2001 at the age of 104 and eventually in 2004 the Club Alpino Italiano appointed three experts, called "" (the three wise men) to investigate. In 2007 the CAI published K2 – Una Storia Finita (referred to as "CAI 2007" in this article) which included the report and accepted, and expanded on, its contents. In short, the CAI report accepted Bonatti's version of events.
Overall Desio's 1954 book was self-congratulatory in tone and emphasised the scientific work over the climbing. He credited Compagnoni and Lacedelli with writing the chapter about events high on the mountain although Lacedelli later said he took no part in writing the book. Desio himself had directed the climb from Base Camp – he only once went up as high as Camp II on the fixed ropes and never went onto the Abruzzi Ridge. He was in reasonably good radio contact with the climbers however. What follows here provides a summary of where Desio's account differs from the account given in the 1954 Italian Karakoram expedition to K2 article which is based on the CAI 2007 report.
Desio stated that Camp VIII was established just below . After going down to collect equipment and "two oxygen masks" from halfway down towards Camp VII (the height of which was not stated), Bonatti and Mahdi got back up to Camp VIII by noon on 30 July and then continued with Abram carrying the oxygen respirators towards Camp IX which had just been established at and where they were to spend the night. CAI 2007 reported that, whereas Desio had said the plan had been for Camp IX at , on 30 July this was reduced to to allow the oxygen sets to be carried there in one day. The report quoted Lacedelli as eventually saying Camp IX was actually at about and Bonatti and Mahdi's bivouac was at 8,100 m. Desio's book described how, as night fell, Bonatti realised he would not reach Camp IX so he called up to the assault team who told them to go down quickly to Camp VIII. However, Mahdi was unfit even to descend so they dug a snow hole for an overnight bivouac without a tent or sleeping bags. Mahdi had become severely frostbitten by the time they set off down together at dawn.
Early in the morning of 31 July, as soon as there was a glimmer of light, Compagnoni and Lacedelli emerged from their tent and were amazed to see a figure below them (they could not tell who it was) heading down the mountain. Starting at about 05:00 they went down to recover the respirators and started their climb at 06:15, now using supplementary oxygen. As they approached the summit their oxygen ran out unexpectedly early at a height somewhat above the altitude of Broad Peak but overcoming their despair they went on towards the summit still carrying their oxygen sets because it would have been difficult and dangerous to remove them. They did not want to waste time over this and they could use them as a substantial marker for the summit. They reached the summit at 18:00 and set off down after 30 minutes as the sun was about to set.
Compagnoni published in 1958 which accorded with Desio's version.
Bonatti's 1961 autobiography
When Bonatti returned to Italy he was disappointed he had not been in the summit party but he had no idea about the cause of the ostracism he would suffer from other mountaineers in the coming decades. Until Bonatti protested, the 1955 feature film had been making no mention of carrying up the oxygen cylinders or the overnight bivouac. Aware that there was whispering behind his back, in 1961 he published his autobiography, , which included his own account of the expedition. Over the next forty years he followed this up with a series of other books.
By 1961 Bonatti was a considerable mountaineering hero and his autobiography was well received but its revelations did not make a big impact at the time. Regarding the K2 climb, Bonatti gave an account from his point of view (which differed from Desio's) but did not directly attack anyone. Bonatti claimed that at Camp VII he had come to realise that Compagnoni had been appointed to lead the summit attempt, though no one had actually told him this. Camp VIII had been sited lower than planned at . On 29 July Compagnoni and Lacedelli intended to climb to pitch a small assault tent at about but without oxygen they could only dump their baggage at about before returning to VIII. Bonatti and three other climbers set off from Camp VII to VIII carrying a large amount of supplies and some oxygen cylinders but only Bonatti and Pino Gallotti got through, carrying all four loads of supplies but leaving the oxygen well below Camp VIII.
For 30 July it was agreed Compagnoni and Lacedelli would establish Camp IX at about though in the event they placed the camp at at a site that was difficult to locate or reach. Bonatti and Gallotti descended to attempt to bring the oxygen up past Camp VIII to the newly established Camp IX, a climb of at least . In fact, as they reached the oxygen, they met Abram and two porters climbing up so they all went up to VIII. By that stage only Bonatti, Abram and Mahdi could contemplate continuing to Camp IX. Eventually Abram had to turn back and darkness fell before Bonatti and Mahdi could locate camp IX.
They did not have sleeping bags or a tent and Mahdi was by now in a great panic, stumbling around the mountain slope – they would not be able to get back down to the lower camp and would have to endure an emergency overnight bivouac. Then a light shone a little above them and Lacedelli shouted to leave the oxygen and go down to Camp VIII. The light was turned off and, despite more shouting from those below, no more was heard from those at Camp IX. Bonatti considered the tent had deliberately been positioned to be out of reach. At dawn Mahdi raced down but Bonatti waited until 06:00, in full daylight, before descending, still with no sign of the higher tent or anyone in it. He heard a shout from above but still couldn't see anyone.
Summary of claims about altitudes of locations high on K2 Altitudes(metres) Tre Saggi(actual) Tre Saggi(intended) Desio/ Compagnoni Bonatti Camp VII 7,345 7,345 unstated 7,345 Dumped cylinders 7,375–7,400 - 7,525 7,437 Camp VIII 7,627 7,627 7,700 7,620 Bivouac 8,100 - unstated 8,100 Camp IX 8,150 7,900 8,050 8,120 Summit 8,611 - 8,611 8,611 Bonatti said he had to descend from Camp VIII to get the oxygen then the plan would have been to climb to Camp IX but, because it had been sited higher, a climb was needed.
Defamation of Bonatti and aftermath Defamation of Bonatti by Giglio On the tenth anniversary of the expedition the mountaineering journalist Nino Giglio published two articles in a Turin newspaper basing his reports on interviews with Compagnoni and Lacedelli and said to be in response to Bonatti's book. Giglio claimed that Bonatti had on the night of 30–31 July not been trying to help his companions but had been secretly trying to beat Compagnoni and Lacedelli to the summit. Moreover, he had deceived Mahdi into accompanying him on this unsuccessful attempt. He had used up some of the bottled oxygen he was supposed to be transporting to Camp IX which was why it ran out early on the successful summit attempt. After Bonatti had shouted up to Camp IX he had refused the offers of help from the lead party and he had descended to Camp VIII leaving Mahdi stranded at the bivouac site so that he got severe frostbite. Compagnoni was quoted as offering to bury the hatchet if Bonatti owned up. In the second article the expedition's liaison officer Mohammad Ata-Ullah was quoted as confirming that Bonatti had tried to persuade Mahdi into joining in with the scheme.