On February 22, 1965, sixty years ago, Walter Bonatti reached the summit of the Matterhorn after soloing a new route on the north face. Bonatti, “the world’s greatest mountaineer” was the headline in Paris Match, which devoted its front page to the Italian’s feat. And what a feat it was : Walter Bonatti bowed out of mountaineering that day, at the age of 35. Bonatti was to become a reporter for the far reaches of the world, but mountaineering was over. A grand finale for someone who chose to devote himself to the mountains, but not to lose his life in them.
In one of the photos taken by Paris Match reporter Philippe Le Tellier in 1965, all the equipment taken by Walter Bonatti to the Matterhorn is spread out on the ground, probably one of the first photos of its kind. On his big blue backpack sits a little white teddy bear. “Zizi” is the teddy bear of his friend Daniel Panetier’s son, who entrusted it to him before he set off for the Matterhorn. At the peak of his career, at the age of thirty-five, the great Walter Bonatti decided to call it a day.
Amid the piles of pitons and carabiners sits this little teddy bear : a talisman, a good-luck charm or someone, something human to hold onto before spending four days in the shadow of the North Face. An icy, cold, lifeless place, and it was here, to mark the hundredth anniversary of the