Geneva, Nov 04, 2023
LOT 242
ROLEX, SWITZERLAND, REF. 6098, OYSTER PERPETUAL, ALBERTO PARODI'S COMMEMORATIVE WATCH DONATED FOR HIS SUCCESSFUL PERUVIAN ANDES EXPEDITION, STAINLESS STEEL
CHF 5,000 - 10,000
EUR 5,300 - 10,600 / USD 5,600 - 11,100 / HKD 43,300 - 87,000
Sold: CHF 27,500
A fine and historically important, stainless steel, self winding wristwatch given to the Peruvian geologist Alberto Parodi for his successful ascent of Solimana (6323m) in 1952
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AAA |
Excellent |
Case: 3-8 |
Good Slightly scratched |
Movement: 3 * |
|
Dial: 3-7-01 |
Good Oxidized HANDS Original |
Brand Rolex, Switzerland
Model Oyster Perpetual
Reference 6098
Year 1952
Case No. 726868
Diameter 36 mm.
Signature Dial, case and movement signed
Notes
The 1952 Peruvian Andes Expedition
An international expedition to the Andes under the leadership of Piero Ghiglione, the well-known Italian climber carried out extensive mountain exploration in the Andes of Southern Peru in the summer of 1952 carried out in the company of the Austrian alpinist Mathias Rebitsch, the Swedish climber Anders Bolinder, the Peruvian geologist Alberto Parodi, and Felix Marx. The story of their climb is written in "The Mountain World" published in 1953 by the Swiss Foundation of Alpine Exploration (see below):
THE southern part of Peru is still today an immense field for the explorer and mountaineer, since a quantity of virgin summits is to be found there, many of them exceeding 6,000 m. (c. 20,000 feet) in height. The best existing geographical maps show the better known giants, but they lack every indication as to a great number of other summits. I had the opportunity to ascertain this on my first expedition to the region in 1950, and it was for this reason that I wanted to return to southern Peru in 1952. As a result of the exploration done during the earlier year, I was certain that entire chains do not figure in the geographical maps of the country, even the most modern ones.
An international expedition to the Andes under the leadership of Piero Ghiglione, the well-known Italian climber carried out extensive mountain exploration in the Andes of Southern Peru in the summer of 1952 carried out in the company of the Austrian alpinist Mathias Rebitsch, the Swedish climber Anders Bolinder, the Peruvian geologist Alberto Parodi, and Felix Marx. The story of their climb is written in "The Mountain World" published in 1953 by the Swiss Foundation of Alpine Exploration (see below):
THE southern part of Peru is still today an immense field for the explorer and mountaineer, since a quantity of virgin summits is to be found there, many of them exceeding 6,000 m. (c. 20,000 feet) in height. The best existing geographical maps show the better known giants, but they lack every indication as to a great number of other summits. I had the opportunity to ascertain this on my first expedition to the region in 1950, and it was for this reason that I wanted to return to southern Peru in 1952. As a result of the exploration done during the earlier year, I was certain that entire chains do not figure in the geographical maps of the country, even the most modern ones.
In the course of the expedition in question, we climbed two hitherto unclimbed giants, Solimana and Aussangate, as well as a virgin summit in the Coropuna group and two equally virgin summits in the absolutely unknown region of the Gayangate chain and of the Cordillera which stretches quite close to the great plain of the Amazonas, in a region equally unknown and never before traversed by white men. In this way we had been able to take a great step forward in the exploration of these wonderful Peruvian mountains, but great strides must still be made if we wish to come near to defining the orographic system of this marvelous territory.
From the summits attained during my climbs of 1950, I had several times observed various unexplored giants. However, the opportunity to climb them only came to me two years later, when with the help of two good comrades it was possible for me to make up a new expedition. These comrades were a young Swedish climber and engineer, Anders Bolinder, and the Austrian climber Mathias Rebitsch. I had got to know them at the Himalayan meeting at Munich at the end of September 1951.
At Lima we had the assistance of the representatives of our respective countries. On the other hand, the Peruvian Government departments had already been informed concerning our expedition; thus H.E. the Minister of the Interior, Don Manuel Callager, had announced our forthcoming arrival to the Perfects and Military Commanders of the two south Peruvian cities whence we should set out on our various expeditions, that is to say, Arequipa in the southwest and Cuzco in the south-east. The Italian Ambassador at Lima, Baron Enrico Bombieri, had assured us of all his support and so had the Director-General of the Peruvian railways, the engineer Romero Leith, the Director of the Geological Institute of Peru at Lima, Professor Jorge Broggi, and the Faucett Aviation Company. On 26th June Rebitsch and I left the island in a plane belonging to that company. Thanks to a fine clear morning, we were able to observe from close range the southern and western slopes of Solimana, and we drew from this the conclusion that it would be advisable to attempt the ascent of the mountain by the eastern slopes or, perhaps better still, from the north, where the snow-line would probably be higher. At Arequipa, at 7,500 feet, we met the geologist Alberto Parodi, a professor at the University there, with whom I had already been in correspondence from Europe. He willingly agreed to take part in the Solimana expedition, which rightly interested him because of its yet unknown geological structure.
The following morning, 10th July, we left our camp at an early hour, climbing not without effort, having regard to the altitude— and even more because this was the beginning of our expedition— the slopes of scree above the camp, and then slopes of snow. After crossing the first glacier, which was covered with pyramids of pinnacle ice, we were involved in a long ice-ridge which took us to a height of about 18,400 feet immediately below the very steep final face of Solimana. We were on a small plateau. After taking some nourishment we took a direct line up the face which rose above us for about 2,300 ft. at an angle in places of as much as 50 degrees. This face, which was partly of ice and partly snow, presented its greatest difficulties in its latter part, very steep and all of smooth ice; it was there, too, that we were at grips with a violent wind, which was the more difficult because we were now in shadow. At last, at half-past three, after having accomplished some acrobatic climbing, and having surmounted the only rock buttress (andesite) in the whole face, we emerged upon the north summit, that is to say the final spur, which was so thin that we had to move along it astride. The altimeter recorded 20,588 feet, and the thermometer 21.6° below freezing.
The following morning, 10th July, we left our camp at an early hour, climbing not without effort, having regard to the altitude— and even more because this was the beginning of our expedition— the slopes of scree above the camp, and then slopes of snow. After crossing the first glacier, which was covered with pyramids of pinnacle ice, we were involved in a long ice-ridge which took us to a height of about 18,400 feet immediately below the very steep final face of Solimana. We were on a small plateau. After taking some nourishment we took a direct line up the face which rose above us for about 2,300 ft. at an angle in places of as much as 50 degrees. This face, which was partly of ice and partly snow, presented its greatest difficulties in its latter part, very steep and all of smooth ice; it was there, too, that we were at grips with a violent wind, which was the more difficult because we were now in shadow. At last, at half-past three, after having accomplished some acrobatic climbing, and having surmounted the only rock buttress (andesite) in the whole face, we emerged upon the north summit, that is to say the final spur, which was so thin that we had to move along it astride. The altimeter recorded 20,588 feet, and the thermometer 21.6° below freezing.
Provenance
Property of the original family
Biography
Alberto Parodi was born in 1907 in Puno, a town on Lake Titicaca in Peru, located at an altitude of 3,812 m. above sea level where Father Costantino with his family had moved. Alberto studied in Puno at the "San Carlos" college and at the age of 20 he returned to Italy to study geology at the Milan Polytechnic. After graduating he stayed in Italy as a valid geologist, he was hired by S.A.P.I.E. on 14 October 1937 with an open-ended contract, he arrived in Jubdo (Ethiopia) on 06 January 1938 and assumed command of the geo-mining exploration. At the same column and under his guidance, was assigned the young graduate Alfredo Pollini,who arrived with him in Africa, who joined him in geological and mining research. Alberto and Alfredo worked on the alluvial prospecting of the Kapi hill and on the reactivation of the abandoned mine of Tullu Kapi. They carried out alluvial exploration of the Bir-Bir river basin and its left tributaries near Jubdo and similar exploration was carried out from the column in the catchment basin of the Uva and Kobara rivers right tributaries of the Bir-Bir. In the Alaltù area, Alberto Parodi excavated about 400 wells and explored the plateau on the left of the Didessa valley, studying its geological aspectsOn 15 October 1939 he was recalled to the officers' school in Addis Ababa for military instruction which, for various reasons of study and work, he had not been able to complete.Therefore he had to leave the field service with column No. 4, not without problems for him and the mining company. After completing the officer cadet course, he was called back to war as Second Lieutenant of the mountain artillery in the 140th battery of the LXXth Colonial Artillery Group under the 70th Brigade (139th and 140th batteries). He made the Somaliland campaign and in March 1941 he began the retreat with his unit, first on Harar, then in Galla and Sidama, passing south of Addis Ababa. Reduced to the bone by the desertions of the colored troops (the Group had only 70 men left), they had to surrender earlier. Alberto was captured on April 19, 1941 in Dire Dawa and imprisoned in Eldoret (Camp 356) in Kenya, (P.O.W. 9592), with his colleagues Alfredo Pollini, Mario Maschio, Pasquale Zugno and Giuseppe Puliga. It seems that, released after the end of the war, he had to wait for his repatriation to Italy, at the port of Mombasa, for about a year. Returning home at the end of 1946 he married Professor Eugenia Tamini (biologist at the University of Milan), his fiancée, who had been waiting for him. In 1947, due to the employment crisis in post-war Italy, he decided to move back to Peru where he became a university professor at the San Agustín University in Arequipa. He specialized in Structural Geology and Volcanology and in this university he was Director of the school of Geology. Alberto's wife also taught in the same university in the chair of Comparative Anatomy and Microbiology. The Italian Republic awarded Alberto, on 02 June 1965, with the signatures of Saragat and Moro, the honor of Official Knight of Merit of the Italian Republic. Alberto Parodi was a good mountaineer; between 1955 and 1965, together with Italian mountaineers (Piero Gillon and Mario Fantin), he made several ascents on at least 20 volcanoes above 5,800 m. above sea level In particular he studied "El Misti", volcano of Arequipa, writing several scientific notes. He also wrote about the astronomical observatory of Carmen Alto, recounting that while in captivity in Kenya, he read a book that spoke of the discovery, made from that very site by the astronomer William Pikering in 1898, of a new satellite of Saturn (Phoebe). Finally, almost blind, he wrote a work on Lake Titicaca on whose shores (Puno) he was born. He was an international consultant for several hydroelectric projects and Peruvian representative at the Smithsonian Institute of Vulcanology, presenting many projects on geothermal energy, until his death in 1999.