Cometa sull’Annapurna

Year: 2003 Format: 15.21 Pages: 178 Photos: col A splendid mountain, a great friendship and a tragic Christmas from the voice of the only survivor. Simone Moro is a high altitude mountaineer. In this book of his, the first he has written, he wants to tell the story of the 1997 Annapurna expedition which cost the lives of his two climbing companions and which saw him miraculously survive the avalanche which killed the others and caused him to fall for 800 meters. And so he starts from his childhood and tries to explain why he made the mountains his job, why climbing is his life and what reaching the summit means for him. He tells us about his experiences, his fears, his doubts and his great unforgettable friendship with Anatoly Bukreev, the great Kazakh mountaineer who died on Annapurna. Why was he there in the dead of winter? Why had they decided to tackle that face in such a hostile season? What was their goal? Simone tells, describes, explains. He makes us feel the cold and tiredness and then the loneliness and desperation of his descent after the avalanche, with his hands injured and useless, his tendons severed, and the feeling of not making it. But Simone feels the real pain when he can no longer hope for the safety of his two companions. His story, however, is a hymn to the mountains and to that friend who will always be alive in his heart.