There is no person all over the world fond of alpinism that does not know the great man like Riccardo Cassin.
With his name are associated enterprises and memories that put him rightly among the narrow circle of those who wrote the history of this fascinating sport.
Nowadays after some years and even if present materials allow quick and safe climbing, many routes traced by him during the thirties are still test bench for those who practice this discipline.

The alpinist Riccardo Cassin is indissolubly linked to the figure of the man Riccardo Cassin.
The great determination, the spirit of sacrifice, the strength and the courage of the man who goes to the mountain is the same that follows him in his daily life.



Native of Friuli (he was born in S. Vito al Tagliamento on 02.01.1909), he was a young boy when he moved to Lecco looking for a job, after his father's death.
The economical and political situation of that moment were not so optimistic but it is in such occasions that comes out the strong will to reach his own aims: he worked twelve hours a day, attended the evening school and in few time he became workshop foreman and director of a company of electrical system.
But the love for the mountain had already bloomed and with he started with his friends the first excursions on the Resegone, the mountain that crowns the city of Lecco.

He began his first climbs on the Grignetta mountain: first on easy routes, but then quite soon on absolutely untouched routes.

Every moment stole to his job was devoted to the mountain, "great teacher of life".

Among the numerous new climbs on the surrounding mountains we shall cite only those one on the Costanza tower of the Grignetta mountain, on the Medale Crown, and on the impressive southern wall of the Sasso Cavallo.

The spaces for a young man so strong and so determined became narrow and that is why he got acquainted for the first time with the Dolomites.
There also Cassin repeated at once the climb routes of some "sacred monsters" of that time, but quite soon he began to climb on his own untouched routes: in 1934 with Vitali and Pozzi he climbed on new route on the south-east wall of the Piccolissima Lavaredo, the following year was a year of an absolute masterpiece: he climbed with Ratti on the exposed and attractive south-east edge on the Torre Trieste.

But he was unsatisfied with his great enterprise and especially with the fact that some German alpinists had tried to climb the northern wall of the Cima Ovest of Lavaredo: Cassin together with his faithful friend Ratti rushed to participate in this great new challenge that would made them winners but only after their staying on the wall for 60 hours and after having overcome extreme technical difficulties and faced the fury of the elements that had broken out.

These climbs will be called the triptych of the North of Cassin completed in 1937 with new scenery: from the pale mountains to the wild Val Bondasca near Switzerland, the aim was the untouched north-east wall of the Pizzo Badile, a wall of granite thousand metres high, set in a severe and glooming surrounding.

Together with Cassin, Ratti and Esposito from Lecco, other two men from Como, Molteni and Valsecchi, who had reached the longed wall some hours before them, joined the company. In the evening during the first camp on the wall, Molteni asked to Cassin to climb roped together.
The second day of climbing was full of great technical difficulties worsen by the absolute isolation and the frequent stone shower falling down from the overhanging edge.
During the night of the second camp broke out a terrible rainstorm that put to the test the five alpinists and first of all Molteni and Valsecchi, already terribly tired by the efforts of the climb.
The third day they won the wall after they had been climbed for a lot of hours under the rain, that first transformed into the hail and then into an abundant snow.
The descent down the Italian side was hard because of the cold weather, poor visibility and quick light diminishing: Molteni and Valsecchi physically and psychologically tired out did not reach their salvation.

The 1938 is associated with the third North, the one that ended the triptych with a route that covered again the whole Alps: after the Dolomites the most difficult of the central Alps is the turn of the Mont Blanc and especially of its cold and majestic North wall of the Grandes Jorasses.

The route engraved in Cassin's thoughts is the shortest route to the Walker peak.
Together with his friends Esposito and Tizzoni it is one of the unforgettable: eighty-two hours on the mountain, among them thirty-five spent climbing on ice granite and blocked with snow and ice cracks that make the climb harder and requires the use of cramps.

The Cassin activity was braked by the war events that led him to the front line to defend his country.
His climbs on the whole alpine arc however went on regularly.

The bitter exclusion of the expedition to the K2, was a little bit relieved by the decision of the general direction of the C.A.I. in 1958 to entrust him with the guide of a second Italian expedition to the Karakorum.
The aim selected was the untouched wall of the Gasherbrun IV, colossus that misses only twenty metres to the height of eight thousand.
The great experience accumulated during more than thirty years of extreme alpinism is the guide for Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri from Lecco.

The Gasherbrum IV is Italian.
Up to now this peak has been climbed by less than ten men.

The wisdom of Riccardo Cassin is important for another great success of the italian alpinism.
In 1961 with the expedition called "City of Lecco", Riccardo Cassin with his apprentices Alippi, Airoldi, Canali, Perego and Zucchi reached the peak of the highest mountain of the North America: the McKinley Mountain (M 6178), along the south wall.

A great success for the Spiders of Lecco, they also would receive a telegram of congratulations by the President Kennedy.

The Cassin activity on the mountains all over the world seemed endless: from the Himalaya to Alaska, from the Caucasus to the Andes where he guided an expedition to the 6126 metres of the Jirishanca.

In more than two weeks from the installation of the camp base all the members of the expedition reached the peak.

In 1975 Cassin was called to guide an expedition whose aim was one of the greater Himalayan challenges unsolved: the south wall of the fourth higher mountain of the world, the Lhotse.
The incredible technical difficulties together with constant dangers of enormous avalanches did not allow the victory.

The mountaineering of Riccardo Cassin has gone on during the years: in 1987 the unforgettable feat in Val Bondasca to remember the 50° anniversary of the climb to the Badile.
At the age of 78 years old Riccardo climbed for the umpteenth time his route, along the line he had created, together with his friends climbed mindful of those moments so beautiful and difficult, thinking of his friends who were not with him any more.

He is the history of alpinism that makes no difference between good and no good alpinists, but that joins all those that as Riccardo have loved the mountain without reserve.

Riccardo Cassin is the honorary president of the C.A.I. section of Lecco, of the Spider (Ragni) group, academician of the C.A.I., climbing national instructor, honorary member of the Italian Alpine Club, of the French Groupe Haute Montagne , of the American Alpine Club, of the Club Academico de Montanismo Espanol, of the Swiss Alpine Club, Bregaglia section.

He was awarded with four gold medals due to his athletic value, in December 1971 they conferred upon him the honour of Commendatore della Repubblica and in 1976 the honorary citizenship of Lecco.

He was designated Grande Ufficiale della Repubblica.