Gasherbrum II, Italian Women’s Altitude Record. Our expedition, for reasons of permissions, consisted of Gabriel Slovina Ubaldini, Valerio Bruschi, Enrico Mutti, my wife Goretta and me, but Goretta and I actually operated completely independently of the others. After arriving at Base Camp at 5100 meters on June 12, we reconnoitered to Gasherbrum La but were stopped there by bad weather. We were on the 1956 Austrian route. The weather cleared on July 5 and the next day we set out for Advance Base at 6000 meters. We continued from there alpine-style. On July 7 we bivouacked at 6500 meters, on the 8th at 6900 meters and on the 9th below the rocky final pyramid at 7400 meters. Strong winds kept us storm-bound all the next day and on July 11 we two reached the top at 4:30 P.M. My wife was not really a climber before and had worn crampons only on a couple of occasions. She had accompanied me to Base Camp on other expeditions, but now she is the first and only Italian woman to have climbed so high. The other members of our group attempted the same route. Gabriel Slovina Ubaldini reached the summit with porter Mohammed Ali an hour after us.

Renato Casarotto, Club Alpino Italiano