Versante Sud Tu Non Conosci Tiziano climbing novel

Versante Sud Tu Non Conosci Tiziano is a book about the life of Tiziano Cantalamessa, one of the strongest climbers in the history of central Italy, often compared to Bonatti for his style and for the extremely difficult ascents.

He was "the man who always came back" and had an extra gear. As Alberico Alesi testifies: "Where others gave up exhausted, he just began to fight. One of the reasons I sometimes preferred not to go out with him, with all the affection I had for him, was because his presence nullified the problems".

This book, however, does not celebrate yet another climber, but tells us about a man, his relationship with others, and his way of conceiving the mountain, his irreverent, carefree, joyful style in living the adventure.

He ascends Fitz Roy, opens a route on Bhagirathi, only avalanches will push him back to Italy from an attempt at a new opening on the Rupal of Nanga Parbat. But as a good Ascolano, his chosen terrain was the Paretone of Corno Grande: it is there that from the early '80s he opens several new routes and accomplishes incredible link-ups, conceptually ahead by twenty years. He will not be stopped by the mountain but by a trivial work accident in 1999.