Goodbye Corrado “Korra” Pesce

We mourn the loss of our friend and long-time ambassador, Corrado “Korra” Pesce.

Korra was one of the strongest, most respected alpinists of his generation. Throughout his career, he continuously pushed alpinism to new levels in new places, from Chamonix to the Himalayas to Patagonia. He was a force in the mountains and it seemed nothing could stop him once he set his mind to it. Many climbers have been inspired by his lifestyle, his values and his deeply-grounded way of life. Everything he did, he did with his own signature style.

– The Black Diamond Family

The Climb, Accident and Rescue Attempt.

By Matteo Della Bordella

On the 28th of January 2022, Korra and his Argentine climbing partner Tomás Aguiló were hit by rock and ice during the descent and after completing a new route on Cerro Torre. Another Italian team with Matteo Della Bordella, together with David Bacci and Matteo De Zaicomo climbed at the same time on Cerro Torre via another route and they shared the rope on the upper section of the north face with Pesce and Aguiló. With kind permission Matteo provided this report about the ascent, the accident, the rescue of Tomás and the attempt to rescue Korra.

Tuesday 25th of January. It is 11:30 a.m., David Bacci, Matteo De Zaiacomo "Giga", and I (Matteo Della Bordella) set off up the east face of Cerro Torre, via the route established by Cesare Maestri and Toni Egger in 1959, up to the triangular snowfield. From here we climb another five pitches past committing slabs to reach the so-called "English box". Nothing but a few crumpled sheets of metal remain of the box, and nowadays this provides no form of shelter or place to bivy. We’ve brought our portaledge and we fix it and settle in for the night. As we climbed we’d seen Thomas Aguilo "Tomy" and Corrado Pesce "Korra" fix the ropes on the first pitches of their line, about 150 meters from ours, before returning to their tent.