Angelo Dibona, a great mountaineer
Angelo Dibona Pilato—1879 to 1956—the unrivaled symbol of Cortina d’Ampezzo’s Alpine Guides, is considered one of the 20th century’s best climbers.
In addition to being a Mountain Guide, Angelo Dibona became a ski instructor in 1911, along with Celestino De Zanna and Bortolo Barbaria, the first three ski instructors of Cortina d’Ampezzo.
During his fifty-year career, he accomplished an incredible series of new climbs throughout the entire Alpine range, from the Julian Alps to the Mont Blanc Massif and the French Dauphiné. He became so famous for his new ascents on the Pic Central de la Meije that today two entire walls of the beautiful mountain museum in Saint Christophe en Oisans are dedicated to the great guide from Ampezzo.
He climbed on Italian, Austrian, German, French, Swiss, and Slovenian mountains; he even experienced the cliffs of England and opened around seventy routes on rock and ice, reaching the edge of the sixth degree of difficulty and distinguishing himself for his courage and ease in moving on any terrain.
Angelo Dibona was not only the most famous Dolomite guide of his era but also, with Paul Preuss, the most crucial mountaineer of the period immediately preceding World War One. No contemporary climber rivaled the number and grandeur of his first ascents.
The ‘Dibona routes’ stand out for their ultra-elegance, demanding technical skill, and significant stamina from mountaineers. What’s truly inspiring is that Angelo Dibona accomplished his first ascents at an advanced age, a testament to his unwavering determination and love for mountaineering. Dibona’s unique instinct, a trait only found in those who have grown up in the mountains, further sets his achievements apart.
He undertook his first ascents only at a relatively advanced age. However, he possessed that remarkable instinct that only those raised among the mountains can develop. He could identify the most logical route for a climb simply by observing the shape of the walls without needing a written guide. Alpine literature held little interest; he preferred to rely on nature and his instincts. His keen sense of danger – falling rocks, avalanches, storms – allowed him to navigate many critical situations successfully.
I will not attempt to list Dibona’s many legendary first ascents here. Still, I note the route opened by Dibona and Luigi Rizzi with brothers Guido and Max Mayer on the ultra-high and daunting south-west face of Croz dell’Altissimo (Brenta) where Angelo, entirely in free climb, climbed sections of grade VI- in 1910 (YDS 5.9 – see UIAA rock climbing grades).
On the climb’s crux section, the famous “masso squarciato”—the “slashed boulder,” an overhang split in two by a crevice that protrudes several meters into the void—Dibona used two of his fifteen pitons.
Paul Preuss and Paul Relly, on 3rd August 1911, were the first to attempt it after Dibona. It is known that Preuss – the king of free climbing – took over two hours to get past this crux section, a cause of some irritation to him. Some eminent mountaineers consider it a VI-grade section. If this is true, the history of Dolomite mountaineering, which considers the first VI-grade to be Solleder on the Civetta massif in 1925, will have to be rewritten.
This 1000-meter-high rock face was the site of Dibona’s true tour de force. It is a shame that his successors did not follow in his footsteps on this route as far as purity of style is concerned (the second ascent by the great Preuss excepted) but used a multiplicity of pitons where he had used none.
Mayer said of him: “Dibona is not one of the best climbers in the Dolomites. He is the best climber in the world“.
In 1947 the Appalachian Mountain Club reported that Dibona was still doing “spectacular” rock climbs at the age of 65.
Piazza Angelo Dibona in Cortina d’Ampezzo has sported a bronze bust of the mountaineer since 1976, the work of famous Falcade artist Augusto Murer.
Rifugio Dibona, at the foot of Mt. Tofana di Rozes’ imposing south face, was called after this great man of mountaineering. I’m certain that Angelo would have appreciated the choice of place, halfway between the forests and the vertiginous rock faces.
Dibona’s mountaineering success did not lead him to repudiate his peasant origins. His was an independent character and he will certainly remain one of mountaineering’s greats.
Angelo Dibona’s first ascent
Angelo Dibona’s early climbing days are shrouded in mystery, known to only a few. As we remember him as one of the most talented European climbers of the 20th century, it’s intriguing to note that he is now almost better known abroad than he is at home. Let’s uncover the details of his ‘first ascent’ and shed light on this enigmatic period of his life.
As a boy, Dibona Angelo spent his summers in the mountains looking after cattle like many of his peers. It was perhaps 1891, and with his cousin Damiano, also later an Alpine Guide, Angelo was working as an assistant shepherd at Cason de Foses on pastures that had been used for sheep pastures for centuries.
One day, with little free time on their hands, the two boys made their way towards Mt. Rémeda Rossa, attracted by the cave visible above the pastures on a knoll overhanging Lago Gran. The cave was nicknamed “el buš de ‘l oro”—the gold hole—and the herdsmen believed it contained treasure.
Nobody had yet dared find out, however.
Curious, Angelo wanted to see for himself whether the rumors were true. So, he left Damiano on the grass and climbed up a long vertical rock face to the cave.
He immediately realized that there was no gold up there but scree, dripping water, and bird droppings and he decided to go back down. However, he immediately found himself in difficulty.
His cousin, who had watched the climb through a telescope, shouted to him to try to the right. Angelo crossed a slender, unstable ledge with handholds only, trembling with fear. After a few endless minutes, he succeeded in getting his feet onto a small grassy ledge before slowly returning to the bottom. It was his first climb; he was only twelve.
In 1907, after passing a course in Villach with flying colors, he obtained his Alpine Guide license and began his first climb. He immediately took on significantly difficult climbs, always as a lead climber.
In the years that followed, every time he passed by Foses, he must indeed have cast a glance at what climbers see as an uninteresting knoll, where he had taken the first steps in a long and brilliant career that crowned him king of the fifth grade across the mountains of Europe.
