“Gervasutti's Climbs was first published in English in 1957 and has long been an out-of-print prize for collectors of climbing literature. Gervasutti, a leading Italian alpinist of the 1930s, had been killed in 1946 attempting what is now called the Gervasutti Pillar on Mont Blanc du Tacul. The autobiography covers a whole mass of adventures across the Dolomites and Western Alps and contains an abundance of compelling reading.'
Geoff Birtles, 'Crags” 1979, June/July, No.19, p. 36
“The final chapter of Gervasutti's Climbs is an attempt to answer briefly the question climbers frequently ask themselves: Why? The summary answer, an interpretive effort to assign values to a man's life of climbing, falls somewhat short in that it issues from the 'contemplative side of mountaineering' in which Giusto Gervasutti does not fully believe. His real answers come through the philosophy in action which best emerges from the precise but not laboriously detailed accounts of his climbs in the Alps, Andes, and Dolomites.
Gervasutti's Climbs is in the best tradition of mountaineering autobiography and addresses every kind of climber, from the contemplative to the aggressive militant. It contains that 'certain measure of mystery and poetry' which Giusto Gervasutti so much admired while describing fully and precisely those exalted moments of intense feeling on ice, snow, and rock.”
Gary Harrison, “Climbing”, 1979, July-August, No 55, p. 38-40
Contents of Gervasutti's Climbs:
Foreword by Lucien Devies
One: Initiation
Cima Grande di Lavaredo—Cima Piccola di Lavaredo—Campanile di Val Montanaia—North wall of Monte Siera—Chamonix—Aiguille Verte—Grepon
Torn di Vajolet—Cima di Fiammes—Pic Gamba—Traverse of the Rochers de la Brenva—Traverse of the Aiguilles du Diable—Mont Blanc du Tacul—South ridge of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey— Attempt on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses—Grepon by the Mer
de Glace face
Expedition to the Andes—First ascents of the Picco Matteoda, Cerro Campione d'ltalia and another unclimbed peak
Tre Cime di Lavaredo—Campanile di Brabante—Second attempt on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses—First ascent of the east face of Mont Blanc du Tacul—First ascent of the north-west face of the Olan — Videsott route on the Busazza—Attempt on the south ridge of the Tone Trieste
First ascent of the east wall of Mont Emilius—Second ascent of the north face of the Grandes Jorasses—First ascent of Pic Adolphe Rey— Attempt on the east pillar of Mont Blanc du Tacul—Attempt on the Petites Jorasses— The Hirondelles ridge—Spigolo of the Cima Fiammes —La Guglia de Amicis—Via Comici on the Ditto di Dio—Civetta, Solleder-Lettenbauer route—First ascent of the south-east ridge of the Pic Gaspard
First ascent of the north-west wall of the Ailefroide
Christmas: solo ascent of the Matterhorn from the Italian side
Requin by the Mayer-Dibona route—North face of the Petit Dru
Bocealatte route on the east face of the Aiguille de la Brenva—Attempt on the Walker spur of the Grandes Jorasses—First ascent of the south-south-west face of the Picco Gugliermina
First ascent of the Piliers de Fresney route on Mont Blanc—Two attempts and first ascent of the east wall of the Grandes Jorasses
