Lino Lacedelli (4 December 1925 – 20 November 2009) was an Italian mountaineer. Together with Achille Compagnoni, on 31 July 1954 he was the first to reach the summit of K2.
Early life
Lacedelli was born in Cortina d'Ampezzo. His climbing career began as a young teenager when he followed a mountain guide up a local summit. He soon came under the tutelage of Luigi 'Bibi' Ghedina, one of the best Dolomite rock climbers of the age. In 1946 he was accepted into the prestigious Cortina Squirrels club. Lacedelli was known for fast ascents of difficult routes, including: the Constantini-Apollonio South Face Direct (500 m V+ A2) on the Pilastro di Rozes (repeat with Ghedina); the first ascent of the Southwest Face of Cima Scotoni (Fanis Group) with Guido Lorenzi; first one-day ascent of the Solda Route on the SW Face of the Marmolada di Penia (with Lorenzi); and the fourth ascent of the Gabriel-Livanos Diedre on the Cima su Alto with Beniamino Franceschi.
In 1951, he achieved international recognition by completing, in the Mont Blanc massif, the second ascent of the Bonatti-Ghigo on the east face of the Grand Capucin with Bibi Ghendina in 18-hours, just weeks after the four-day first ascent. Despite his claims, Lino Lacedelli never made the second ascent of the Bonatti-Ghigo road on the Grand Capuchin. The team formed by Robert Paragot and Lucien Berardini made the second climb in 1953. The French mountaineers did not find the equipment supposedly left in place by the repeaters - Lacedelli and Ghedina - to abseil.
He became an obvious choice for the 1954 Italian Karakoram expedition to K2 led by Ardito Desio. The summit was not reached again until 1977.
After K2
thumb|right|Group of [[Chiltan Adventurers Association Balochistan with Lino Lacedelli and Gianni Alemanno at Concordia base camp 2004]]
Lacedelli ran the outdoor shop K2 Sports in Cortina, trekked to K2 Base Camp in 2004. In 2005, he was awarded Italy's highest honour, Knight of the Grand Cross. He died at age 83 on 20 November 2009 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the house he had lived his entire life.
Back at home, the summit team not only denied all charges, but Compagnoni counter-attacked Bonatti, accusing him of trying to sabotage their summit push and steal the top for himself. Bonatti, who made the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958, was ostracised from the climbing community and in 1965 gave up mountaineering. He wrote that on the night before the first ascent of K2, Bonatti and Mehdi had to endure a freezing, storm-swept bivouac high on the Shoulder of K2, while their companions Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli spent the night in a tent literally within hailing distance. As agreed beforehand, Bonatti and Mehdi had carried the oxygen bottles for the summit team who were waiting for them in Camp IX. But the top camp was placed in a higher location than Bonatti had expected, and when they couldn’t find the tent, they were forced to bivouac at 8100 meters.