Source : ABC NEWS
Watching him traversing his way up the face of the limestone cliff overlooking the Queanbeyan River, it’s hard to tell that Armando Corvini has no fingers or toes.
In a sport famous for requiring strong fingers and forearms, Mr Corvini has had to re-learn rock climbing after a severe accident in the Himalayas that he says divides his life into two.
Armando Corvini has developed a new style of rock climbing since losing all his toes and fingers. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
The 85-year-old is climbing the wall with large pruning scissors clipped to his harness to trim the prickly blackberry bushes getting in the way of the young children he is teaching to climb.
The youngsters watch on in awe as Mr Corvini precisely picks out the next handhold and pulls himself up.
A week earlier, Mr Corvini led a group of about 40 students caving near Wee Jasper.
But while that was fun, rock climbing has always had his heart.
A love affair
Mr Corvini says his relationship with rock climbing “is almost like a love story”.
Now a teacher, Mr Corvini shares his passion for rock climbing with children. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
He first climbed as an 18-year-old with ten fingers and toes in the Dolomites near his childhood home of Trieste, Italy.
He knew immediately he was hooked.
“When I started climbing, I saw the light,”
he said.
Canberra Climbers Association vice president, and assistant belayer, Brian Mattick said in Italy, Mr Corvini was “climbing the hardest routes of the day”.
Canberra Climbers Association vice president Brian Mattick says Mr Corvini was tackling some of the hardest climbs in the Dolomites. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
“In those days you took a lot more risks than you do these days,” Mr Mattick said.
“They’re pretty ambitious ascents he was climbing.“
The flattest continent on earth
However, Mr Corvini left his mountaineering gear behind when he migrated to Australia in 1966.
“Armando, your climbing career is over because Australia is the flattest continent in the world and there are no mountains there,” he recalls being told by the president of his Italian alpine club.
Yet, when Mr Corvini discovered rock climbers in the Blue Mountains, his passion returned with fire.
He was soon attacking peaks in New Zealand and the Himalayas.
Armando Corvini ascending to Camp 1 on his Mt Pumori expedition in 1988. (Supplied: Armando Corvini)
He summitted the 7,161-metre tall Mount Pumori near the Everest region at the age of 49, before tackling several other Nepalese mountains taller than 6,000 metres.
As with all love stories, the more Mr Corvini fell in love with the mountains, the more he exposed himself to risk.
Armando Corvini became obsessed with summitting mountains overseas. (Supplied: Armando Corvini)
A frozen disaster
In 1994, Mr Corvini led a group of Canberra-based mountaineers on the first Australian ascent of the south and southwest ridges of the 6,812-metre-tall Ama Dablam in the heart of the Nepalese Himalayas.
Sir Edmund Hillary — the first man to summit Mt Everest — declared Ama Dablam “beautiful but unclimbable” in 1953.
Sir Edmund Hillary declared Ama Dablam “beautiful but unclimbable” in 1953. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
“Every mountain and every climb has its challenges,”
Mr Corvini said.
“But Ama Dablam was the hardest climb of my life.”
The trip encountered issues from the start.
Mr Corvini was forced to belay three people at a time and the planned five-day trip ran into 10 days.
“We ran out of food. The weather was terrible,” Mr Corvini said.
When the expedition returned to base camp and Mr Corvini pulled off his boots and gloves, his fingers and toes were badly frostbitten.
At the age of 56, he lost nine fingers and all his toes.
Armando’s love for high mountain peaks ended in disaster in Nepal. (Supplied: Armando Corvini)
He spent four months on the 10th floor of the Canberra Hospital thinking he’d never climb again.
“I remember looking out the window at Isaacs Ridge thinking ‘I wonder if I will ever be able to walk there one day’,”
he said.
“So, my first goal was to walk there.
“When I came out of hospital, I had to think about what I wanted to do with my life.”
Relearning to climb
After an 18-month recovery, Mr Corvini started volunteering as a gym instructor with the YMCA, coaching children with physical disabilities.
He noticed the centre had a climbing wall and began climbing every week. Soon, reluctantly, he agreed to become an instructor.
The next week, he nervously stood in front of a class of six students with what was left of his thumbs hooked onto his harness to hide his lack of fingers as he began his first ever lesson.
Everything was going well.
Then Mr Corvini pulled out some ropes to show the students how to tie knots.
Armando’s new climbing students were shocked when they first saw he didn’t have fingers. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
“When they saw my hands, their faces dropped. You can imagine what they thought about me,”
he said.
The next week he showed them how to traverse a wall and “from that time everything went extremely well”.
“Don’t look at me for style. I’ve got my own style of climbing,” he said.
Nowadays he says he often has cute interactions with young students asking about his hands. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
“Obviously I can’t do anything that is very smooth, but my hands are very strong.
“I’ve had two lives: my life when I was very strong and nothing would stop me and the second life when I’ve become visibly disabled.“
Passing on the love
He may no longer be able to tackle the most difficult routes at the crag, but Mr Corvini gets a new-found sense of joy from passing his love on to others.
He’s been guiding for more than 20 years, now runs his own outdoor adventure business and has just published a memoir of his adventures.
There’s no place Armando would rather be than belaying while his students learn to climb. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
Sitting on a rock belaying, neck cranked back watching one of his students climb in preparation to represent the ACT at the National Youth Climbing Championships, Mr Corvini is as happy as ever.
Assistant guide Penelope Jones said the children always love him.
Assistant guide Penelope Jones says everyone loves Armando. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
“Everyone loves Armando,” she said.
“He loves climbing and it’s infectious.
“Some people are afraid of getting old, but I always think if I’m old and like Armando, then that would be great.”
