WALTER BONATTI

15.09.2011

Legendary Italian mountaineer and Antarctican Walter Bonatti, has died in Rome at the age of 81. Bonatti’s visit to Scott Base in 1975 at invitation of the New Zealand Antarctic Programme was part of a series of expeditions which helped established the Italian Antarctic Programme. Following his visit he lobbied the Italian Government to join the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting and establish a base at Terra Nova Bay in the Ross Sea. Born in the northern Italian city of Bergamo in 1930, Bonatti is widely viewed as one of the world’s best mountaineers, having climbed peaks in the Alps, Himalayas, Patagonia and Antarctica.