Ivano Dibona: the brief light of a champion.
Ivano Dibona
Ivano Dibona (Cortina d’Ampezzo, June 1, 1943 – Cima Grande di Lavaredo, August 8, 1968) was a mountain guide and a member of the Scoiattoli di Cortina. Nephew of the legendary Angelo Dibona, he accomplished important Dolomite ascents and lent his name to the famous Ivano Dibona Via Ferrata on Monte Cristallo.
He lost his life at only 25 years of age, during an ascent of the Spigolo Dibona with Professor Antonello Muratori. In Muratori’s memory, a scholarship was established for University of Genoa students who are CAI members.
Today, August 8, marks the anniversary of the death of Ivano Dibona. To remember him and honor his memory, I wanted to write this article retracing his life, his climbs, and the legacy he left to the Dolomites.
Some men and names have left an indelible mark on Cortina d’Ampezzo. Ivano Dibona is one of them: a mountain guide, member of the Scoiattoli, and an exceptional talent raised in the shadow of the Tofane. Born in Cortina on June 1, 1943, into a family of great mountaineers, he was already a certified mountain guide at the age of twenty and a member of the Scoiattoli di Cortina—honors that speak for themselves about the precocity of his skills.
His story ended tragically early. On August 8, 1968, at only 25 years old, Ivano lost his life on the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, along the Spigolo Dibona route, while guiding a client: Professor Antonello Muratori, a lecturer at the University of Genoa and member of the CAI’s Ligurian Section. In Muratori’s memory, the Ligurian Section and his family established a scholarship for a University of Genoa student—also a CAI member—who had achieved the highest academic standing of the year (CAI source).
Ivano Dibona was a complete mountaineer, elegant in style and bold in his choices, capable of achieving first ascents and notable repeats at a time when the Dolomites were a proving ground for both technique and ethics.
In the early 1960s, his name appeared several times in the Scoiattoli’s register of first ascents: from Cima Belprà with Marcello Bonafede in 1963, to Monte Taburlo (1963), from the Torre Salvella on Antelao (1963) to the southeast face of Col Rosà (1966) and the south face of Monte Taè (1966). These pages depict a young man already mature in skill, able to move with ease on the VI-grade difficulties of the time
If his name is familiar today, even to many hikers, it is thanks to the Via Ferrata Ivano Dibona on Monte Cristallo: a historic First World War route, re-explored in the 1960s by Fredy and Ivano Dibona, later restored and reopened in 1970, dedicated to Ivano. It is an airy, panoramic ridge route, dotted with wartime barracks and ladders, traversing places where history has left deep marks and where mountaineering has found material for dreams.
In the story of Cortina’s mountains, Ivano belongs to a dynasty of excellence: his surname immediately recalls his grandfather Angelo Dibona, a legend of the Dolomites and European mountaineering in the early 20th century. That family thread—made of skill, the guiding tradition, and passion for the walls—explains why Ivano, in so few years, managed to leave such a recognizable mark.
© Laner Family Archive
Remembering him today also means reflecting on what remains after such a loss: the reminder of the responsibility of a mountain guide, a splendid yet risky profession; the lines he climbed with finesse and the living trace he left in the mountaineering community; above all, the ferrata on Cristallo that bears his name, leading countless enthusiasts along a ridge suspended between memory and beauty.
Years later, August 8 is not just a date. It is a moment of gratitude for what Ivano gave to his valley and the Dolomites: talent, style, courage. A young man who loved the mountains with intensity, and whom the mountains, too soon, took back. As long as there are routes to climb and ridges to follow, his name will continue to speak—with the simplicity of true things—to those who seek, on the wall, something more than just a difficulty to overcome.
