“Gnaro" King of 8000

Silvio Mondinelli was born on 24 June 1958 in Gardone Valtrompia, in the territory of Brescia, but his life is destined to go on elsewhere. In 1976 joins up the Guardia di Finanza and two years later is transferred to Alagna Valsesia, near Vercelli.
   
The mountain becomes then his big passion to the point that he decides not to go back to Brescia: the Mount Rosa becomes his home and his gym, the launching pad towards the world highest peaks. After a great deal of climbs to the Alps, in 1984 he left for his first international expedition.
    
The first trail is the north side of the Puscanturpa, where he opens a new route: an inviolate face, called the Eiger of South America for its verticality and difficulty.
    
In 1993 starts the series of 8000 metre: at first the Manaslu, climbed from the south face. The year after it’s the time of the Lhotse, but even reaching the altitude of 8,000 metre, the bad weather prevents him getting to the highest peak. Finally, only in 2006, twelve years later, joining the expedition of Mario Merelli, he will reach the sum on May 15.
     
In 1996 he climbs the Shisha Pangma: it’s his third 8000. On January of 1997 he conquers the Aconcagua (6,962 metre): in this occasion he commits his first heroic rescue, recovering the mountaineer friend missing.
     
Once going back home he takes a rest for months, then in autumn he leaves again towards the Cho Oyu: he is already at the camp II when the base camp gives news of a mountaineer blocked at 7,000 metre. So the “Gnaro” gets down, founds, rescues, and brings him to the camp base. Then he resumes climbing, and on October 15 it is his fourth 8000 metre peak.
  
At this point the Everest is waiting for him. The first attempt is in '99: he defies the north face of Tibet but fails because of the bad weather. However, during the descent he performs the umpteenth rescue at 8000 metre, that one of a Russian mountaineer, and brings back to the camp site the bodies of his two mates.
       
In 2000 the second attempt, from the north face of Tibet again. This enterprise made history as one of his hardest’s: at 8,600 metre he stops because of a violent thunderstorm, being forced to descent to 8,200 metre. In the meantime the Spanish climbers that he should have meet here don’t come, so Mondinelli goes looking for them and once founded, together they go up again to the camp II. But it won’t end here: few days after he climbs up again the 8,600 metre to rescue a woman blocked because of the bad weather and exhausted by hard work.
        
His memorable year is the 2001: he goes back to the Everest on spring, and climbing from the South face of Nepal, this time he succeeds and summits the fifth 8000 metre peak.
     
Within a month he leaves again for his first enterprise in the Karakorum: since the Gasherbrum II and the Gasherbrum I share the camp base, he decides to defy both of them. They are the sixth and the seventh 8000 metre peaks respectively.
    
The Gnaro is not tired yet, and on October 12 he summits the eighth 8000 metre peak: the Dhaulagiri, 8,163 metre.
   
A year later it’s the time of the Makalu: ninth 8000 metre peaks. Then on 2003 he reaches the top of the Kanchenjunga: 8,586 metre.
   
In 2004 Mondinelli participates in the project "Everest - K2 2004, 50 years later", which foresees the climbing of both the mountains. Thus the most pitiless mountain is his new conquest.
  
The following year it’s the time of the "killer mountain ", the Nanga Parbat. The expedition is organized by a Spanish tv for the programme "Al filo de lo Impossibile". Gnaro, sole Italians of the expedition team, wins over his twelve 8000 metre peak.
   
The next success is the Annapurna, summitted on 2006. Now his aim is near: to climb the Broad Peak. The expedition leaves in the middle of June of the same year, and the mountaineering world follows the event with lots of fibrillation. Finally, a month later, on July 12, he summits the peak, the last one, a big success.
   
The challenge started fourteen years ago draws to an end among tears and intense happiness. Silvio Mondinelli is the sixth man on the Earth who has summitted all fourteen 8000 metre peaks without oxygen. An enterprise even more memorable for the friendship and courage demonstrated in the last rescues and for being at the end of the human’s tether. 
   
Tanks to his spirit of endurance, in the latest years the Gnaro has getting closer to local populations met during his expeditions: he has given them help in real terms, by funding the construction of a school and a hospital.
     
Great exploits those of Mondinelli, always with a smile on his lips and a flash of irony in the eyes: his characteristic mark.