Mountaineer Fausto De Stefani, 14 Eight-Thousanders, Builds Nepal School
Fausto De Stefani is the sixth person in the world to have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders, the second Italian after Reinhold Messner, but with a particular twist: he was born in the Mantuan plains, in Asola, 48 years ago, and continues to live among poplar groves and cornfields, even though his profession is mountaineering and sharing his love for mountains and nature through lectures and meetings.
De Stefani, who does not seek the summit for records, who does not want publicity because he considers mountaineering an intimate aspiration, and who also does not want to be a sponsored man sandwiching himself inside and outside, because he would have to give up his freedom, will be in Villa Carriola the evening after tomorrow, at 9 p.m., for an initiative of the Gem, the Gruppo escursionistico monte Baldo.
The mountaineer will tell about his life, his feats, and his new challenge: building a school in Kirtipur, near Kathmandu, for 700 children, at a cost around 300 million Italian lire.
“When I set my mind to something, I want to achieve it. I used to be much more reckless and made serious errors of presumption, which I paid for,” he says, showing his mutilated hands from frostbite during a youthful attempt to climb Everest, and thinking of his feet, most of the toes missing.
He faced death head-on on the last of the fourteen 8000-meter peaks he has climbed, Kangchenjunga, after falling six meters into a crevasse while returning from a reconnaissance tour, and getting out on his own after three hours: “The mountain is a school of life, it has taught me to be humble, bringing me back to the right dimension. It reveals your weaknesses deep within the folds of your soul.
When I emerged from that crevasse, it felt like being born a second time,” he admits. Three times a week, you can find him climbing Monte Baldo, which he considers his terrace, and in August alone, he calculated he had ascended a total of 43,000 meters of elevation on foot.
But he insists that “mountaineering is a philosophy of life, not a record.” “Climbing is an inner adventure, exploring oneself, knowing oneself. I find serenity both in the Himalayas and on Baldo, even though on high peaks, everything is amplified—the scenery as well as the emotions,” he recounts.
Up there, he truly feels free—he cries and shouts with joy, then descends to the valley, where a lump forms in his throat, the anger for how little he can do about the misery and injustice he sees, the degradation, and pollution eroding even the last paradises.
Since 1972, he has opened numerous ice and rock routes across the entire Alpine arc, and since 1979, he has tackled expeditions outside Europe in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. In 1983, he ascended K2, his first eight-thousander.
He describes himself as a naturalist-mountaineer, and the images he captures with his camera become documents to circulate in schools—from kindergartens to universities—as a game to discover and fall in love with nature, and as a call to wake up consciences from the sleep of indifference.
The Solidarity Project
And in this spirit, De Stefani, together with his Verona-based friend Fabrizio Zamperioli—aorthopedic surgeon and “lead climber” among other mountain enthusiasts—will make an appeal on Friday for the construction of the school in Nepal.
Those wishing to participate in the initiative can send contributions to the Fondazione senza frontiere, a non-profit organization managing the project, to bank account 8936/12 at Banca di credito cooperativo di Castel Goffredo (Mantova), code 5750, or to postal account 14866461 (specifying in the reason “school in Nepal”). (v.z.)