Toni Gobbi
Toni Gobbi’s 56 years of life were totally conditioned by being an Alpine Guide.
He abandoned the city to live in Courmayeur, he abandoned his profession as a lawyer to accompany clients up Mont Blanc.
He was an excellent alpinist: the Hirondelles Crest on the Grandes Jorasses with Francois Thomasset during the winter of 1948, the crest of the South of the Aiguille Noir du Peuterey with Enrico Rey during the winter of 1949, the Via Major on the Brenva of Mont Blanc with Arturo Ottoz during the winter of 1953 and was the first ever to climb the Gran Pillier d’Angle with Walter Bonatti in 1957. He was the first to reach the summit on the main peak of the Paine Grande in Patagonia with Camillo Pellisier and Pierino Pession in 1956 and was the deputy expedition leader in the national Gasherbrum IV expedition in 1958 with a large group of Italian guides.
But what he was most known for was his organisation and modernisation of the profession. Firstly by renewing the rules of the Courmayeur Society of Guides and then as director of numerous training courses for the Guides, then from 1960 to 1965 he was President of the “Committee for Guides and Porters in the Aosta Valley! And then finally, President of the “CAI National Guides and Porters Consortium”. Lastly he invented and developed over 20 years, from 1950 to 1970, the idea of “weekly high mountain ski touring” taking keen alpinists from all over the world into the mountains when they were at their most beautiful: covered in snow. The numbers shock even now with more than 100 weeks spent on Europe’s mountains, roughly seven hundred thousand vertical metres and something like eight thousand kilometres off-piste. Two expeditions to Greenland, one in Caucasus and one planned in Iran. More than 300 clients.
He worked with Renato Petigax, Giulio Salomone, Angelo Pizzato, Luigino Henry, Franco Garda, Lorenzino Cosson, Oliviero Frachey, Giorgio Colli, Corrado Passera, Mario Senoner, Carlo Rungaldier and many other Alpine Guides. Having cited so many guides let’s hear the words of a client: “I will always remember meeting Toni for the first time. It was a pleasure to meet an educated man, with a background in humanities and the certainty that he represented experience and security along with an iron will and the constant attention of a valley guide. He gave an idea of total tranquillity as if he had always thought of everything and would be able to deal with anything. Finally one realised that he was born to lead this was recognised by anybody meeting him, as even the most reluctant, placed blind faith in him”
He lived believing that the future of the profession of the Alpine Guide lay in modernisation: we want to make this award to an alpinist who keeps this dream alive.