Armando Corvini is an 83-year-old rock climber and that is a story in itself, however, he also lost all his fingers and toes to frostbite – yet he continues to climb.

“There is no secret,” he laughs, “I just climb.”

The Deakin resident was born in Italy and grew up climbing the great Dolomites. He moved to Australia in 1967 – the flattest country in the world – and ironically, it was here that his mountaineering took off.

When we caught up for a chat, Armando was surrounded by mountaineering books and photos of his summiting successes. He had just been rock-climbing the day before at White Rocks near Queanbeyan.

“Climbing is a major piece of my life,” he says. “I’ve had a couple of falls but never broken anything.”

When he was 49, Armando went to the Himalayas to summit a 7,160-metre high peak, Pumori (in the Mount Everest region). But he wanted more.

“When you go there you get a bug for the mountains, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. So, when I came back, I wondered if I could do an 8000-metre mountain before I turned 60.”

In 1994, when he was 56, Armando led an expedition to the Himalayas with five other Canberrans. As a warm-up, he summited a 6000-metre peaks beforehand. They then needed to acclimatise so they tackled the south east ridge of Ama Dablam, in the Mt Everest region. It had only ever been climbed twice.

Unusually for the time of year (winter is usually dry), snow was falling heavily. What should have been a five-and-a-half day ascent turned into 12 days. Due to the steep ascent, the climbers couldn’t use tents and had to sleep out in the open.

“We were well prepared and very experienced mountaineers but the weather was against us,” Armando says. “All six of us suffered frostbite to a different degree. Because I was the leading leader, I got the brunt of the frostbite.”

Fast-forward to today, and Armando runs his own rock-climbing business, Guided Outdoor Adventures, sharing his love of the outdoors (rock climbing, abseiling and caving) with young people. He has the YMCA to thank for it.

“I have lived two lives, the first one is when I’m very, very bold, nothing will stop me. And then, the story that I really like is after my accident. When I came back from hospital, I had to retire from my business at 56 – I thought, what am I going to do with myself? I might become a volunteer.”  

While volunteering at the YMCA’s gym, helping stroke patients with mobility, he realised that his disability wasn’t so bad after all. He spied an indoor rock-climbing wall there and the climbing urge returned.

“Obviously I can’t climb the gradient that I used to climb,” he says. “If you see me climbing, you’d never imagine I have no toes and no fingers. I have my own style.”

To find out more, visit www.guidedoutdooradventures.net.au

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