FAUSTO DE STEFANI
( alpinism/climbing )

Fausto De Stefani, mountaineer, popularizer and photographer, was born in Asola, a small town in the province of Mantua, in 1952.

At the age of 19 he devoted himself to mountaineering, starting to climb in the Brenta Dolomites and, within a couple of seasons, he was able to tackle the great 6th grade routes. In the following years, his attention turned to the Western Alps and to mountaineering on ice and mixed terrain at high altitudes.

In 1979, he began his first non-European expeditions: to Mount Kenya, where he climbed the Diamond Couloir and the Nelion and Batian peaks; in the Caucasus in the Mount Nakra group (4.700 m), where he completed the first ascent of the 'Italian Couloir' route.

In 1981 he was in Kyrgyzstan, in the Pamir area, climbing Pik Korzenzskaia (7.000 m) and two 6.000 m peaks, Pik Citiri and Pik Nkwd. Then he moved to Africa, to the Ruwenzori, where he opened the Seracs Route at Punta Alessandra (5.119 m) and later to Peru for the ascent of the North-West Face of Ausangate (6.370 m).

The meeting with the great 8.000 came in 1983. That year, De Stefani took part in the expedition led by Francesco Santon and directed for the North Face of K2, repeating the difficult route opened by the Japanese along the North Ridge. The climb was a success: first Agostino Da Polenza and Josef Rakoncaj and then De Stefani himself with Sergio Martini reached the summit without using supplementary oxygen.

The last feat that led him to climb all 14 of the 8.000 was in 1997, with the ascent of Kangchenjunga. He is the second Italian, after Reinhold Messner, and the sixth man in the world to have climbed all the peaks of the 14 world's highest mountains. However, this achievement will never be officially recognized because, due to difficult weather conditions and a mountaineer's protest, the evidence brought to confirm the summit achievement will never be considered sufficient.

His love for the mountains goes hand in hand with his concern for the environment, and for this reason, from the 1980s onwards, he carried out protests, for example against nuclear power stations and the overbuilding of alpine territories, supporting concrete projects such as 'Free K2', which involved him in the collection of waste abandoned on the side and at the base camps of K2. An activity desired by the 'Mountain Wilderness' foundation of which he is a founder.

Climbing puts him in direct contact with the local populations, who do not leave him indifferent to the social and health difficulties, so since 1996 with the association 'Senza Frontiere' he has been the promoter of the project 'Rarahil Memorial School, a school two steps from heaven'. A school in Kirtipur, a town in the suburbs of Kathmandu, Nepal, which is not only a place of learning, but also a place of continuity of craftsmanship, social and health center with a polyclinic dedicated to Giuliano De Marchi, his climbing partner and doctor, who died in 2009 following a mountain accident.

In addition to these initiatives abroad, De Stefani is also involved in Italy with activities to raise awareness of environmental issues and to bring people closer to the mountains, including the project 'La collina di Lorenzo', a nature oasis in Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mn), as well as countless conferences and photographic and educational exhibitions.