Muore Cesare Maestri, l’alpinista delle Dolomiti

Cesare Maestri dies at the age of 91, on 19/1/21, the famous Trentino mountaineer who climbed many peaks, including Cerro Torre, in Patagonia in the company of Toni Egger. Here is a small thought by Matteo Pavana, journalist and photographer for The Pill, who had the honour of meeting him a few months ago.

“I’ll let other people talk about what you were in the past. I wasn’t there and it wouldn’t make sense. What is certain is that those times must have been formidable, full of adventure, full. I envied your whole generation for the kind of exploration you experienced.

I got to know you late and briefly.
The time I came to visit you at home I found a lot of photographs hanging together with newspaper cuttings. Gian was helping you answer the phone because it was your ninetieth birthday. You couldn’t hear very well and you kept saying ‘thank you, thank you’, without being sure who you were talking to. While I was filming you stroked my face and squeezed my hand and said “I love you”. I didn’t expect it. I couldn’t answer you.
You had the same gnarled and curved hands as my grandfather Aldo. You reminded me a little of him and I couldn’t help being moved. The reverence for that great mountaineer that you were gave way to the tenderness of seeing you tired, confused and weak.
I wish I had known you before, but it would not have been the same.

I’m sorry to say this now that it’s late, but I love you too.
Bye Caesar.

Thank you Gian for being the person you are and for welcoming me into your home.”