OBITUARY

ING. PIERO GHIGLIONE

PIERO GHIGLIONE

FEW mountaineers have had as wide and varied experience of the great mountain ranges of the world. Mountains to Piero Ghiglione were his life. He had climbed on all the continents of the earth and his successes on high mountains ranged from South America to Africa and from Australia to the Himalayas. Perhaps his greatest contribution to mountain exploration was in South America with eight expeditions to his credit. As early as 1934 he was in the Karakoram Himalaya taking part in the first ascents on Queen Mary Peak and Golden Throne.* In all, he took part in four major Himalayan expeditions. In all his varied and wide experience on mountains, only on one expedition was there a great tragedy, that on Api in 1954 when all his three companions were lost, one whilst crossing a torrent and the other two high on the mountain. In no way was Ghiglione to blame for this loss.

In the last year of his life before his tragic end in a motor-car accident in Italy he celebrated his 77th birthday by a new route on the Congo side of Alexandra Peak of Ruwenzori; and in the same year travelled north with an expedition to Greenland. His stamina and physical ability for a man of his age made Piero Ghiglione a legendary figure in the world of mountaineering. It is true that he was sufficiently blessed with the financial means to be able to travel at will, but travel he did, and that at an age when most men are thinking of a life of quiet and ease. He always maintained the enthusiasm and love of adventure of men many years his junior.

Piero Ghiglione was my companion on expeditions to Disteghil Sar in the Karakoram range in 1957, and in the Everest region in 1958. We had also climbed together and roamed amongst the hills of England and Scotland. Never have I met a man I respected more for his undying love of mountains. Piero Ghiglione was a unique character amongst mountain men.

Alfred Gregory

*Baltoro Kangri.

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