No picnic on Mount Kenya
April 11, 2020 10:20 PM Subscribe
It was 1942, and Felice Benuzzi was bored out of his mind. A year in a POW camp in British Kenya had drained the Italian civil servant and amateur mountaineer’s sense of purpose. So, he hatched a plan that would become one of the purest adventure tales in history: break out of camp, climb Mt Kenya (Wikipedia), and break back in again. (BBC Travel) But first, he had to make the climbing equipment and plan the path (Internet Archive)* for himself and two other madmen, Giuàn Balletto and Enzo Barsotti.
* The map is from No Picnic on Mount Kenya (Wikipedia). Three copies are currently available to borrow from the Internet Archive.
The Wikipedia article on the book notes that "the French edition helped inspire Roland Truffaut's August 1952 expedition to Mt Kenya, described in From Kenya to Kilimanjaro (London, 1957), during which the home-made crampons and other equipment of Benuzzi and Balletto were retrieved from Hausberg Col. These were later donated, with Benuzzi's permission, to the Musée de La Montagne, Chamonix."
The adventure story was adapted in a 1953 episode of Robert Montgomery Presents (IMDb), and then again in 1994 in the film The Ascent (clips on YouTube, 2:49), which is described on IMDb as "a highly fictionalized real-life adventure of an Italian soldier who escapes a British prisoner-of-war camp to climb the challenging 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya and plant the Italian flag on the summit."
* The map is from No Picnic on Mount Kenya (Wikipedia). Three copies are currently available to borrow from the Internet Archive.
The Wikipedia article on the book notes that "the French edition helped inspire Roland Truffaut's August 1952 expedition to Mt Kenya, described in From Kenya to Kilimanjaro (London, 1957), during which the home-made crampons and other equipment of Benuzzi and Balletto were retrieved from Hausberg Col. These were later donated, with Benuzzi's permission, to the Musée de La Montagne, Chamonix."
The adventure story was adapted in a 1953 episode of Robert Montgomery Presents (IMDb), and then again in 1994 in the film The Ascent (clips on YouTube, 2:49), which is described on IMDb as "a highly fictionalized real-life adventure of an Italian soldier who escapes a British prisoner-of-war camp to climb the challenging 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya and plant the Italian flag on the summit."
Oh, I've been meaning to get this book for years (it was always in the old A Common Reader catalog).
posted by Chrysostom at 11:07 PM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 11:07 PM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
My Dad fought nazis across North Africa and up Italy to Trieste .... the war was a VERY SERIOUS THING, he would turn off the TV when Hogans Heroes came on because it wasn't serious enough about the war.
But he was also a mountain climber and absolutely loved this book, I guess they were his kind of people
posted by mbo at 11:39 PM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
But he was also a mountain climber and absolutely loved this book, I guess they were his kind of people
posted by mbo at 11:39 PM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
There's a great episode of Do Go On on this guy!
posted by mdonley at 12:07 AM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by mdonley at 12:07 AM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
There's a great episode of Do Go On on this guy!
Also Futility Closet.
posted by myotahapea at 5:16 AM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Also Futility Closet.
posted by myotahapea at 5:16 AM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Very cool and I love the idea that most of the joy is in the planning.
My grandfather joined the British artillery at the outset of the war, came through Dunkirk, Italy and ended his service running a POW camp for Italians someplace in (north?) Africa. By his accounts to me, they had a great time and played lots and lots of football. The war was winding down and nobody wanted to escape. The prisoners were being used as forced labour to build an airport that served no immediate military objective but was instead some kind of off-the-books construction project of British Airways. One of the things he liked to reminisce about was the chapel the prisoners were given permission (but very limited materials) to build. He said they filled jerrycans with sand and used them as bricks, then stuccoed it and did some marvelous artwork inside to finish it off. He still talked about it in his 90s.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:36 AM on April 12, 2020 [8 favorites]
My grandfather joined the British artillery at the outset of the war, came through Dunkirk, Italy and ended his service running a POW camp for Italians someplace in (north?) Africa. By his accounts to me, they had a great time and played lots and lots of football. The war was winding down and nobody wanted to escape. The prisoners were being used as forced labour to build an airport that served no immediate military objective but was instead some kind of off-the-books construction project of British Airways. One of the things he liked to reminisce about was the chapel the prisoners were given permission (but very limited materials) to build. He said they filled jerrycans with sand and used them as bricks, then stuccoed it and did some marvelous artwork inside to finish it off. He still talked about it in his 90s.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:36 AM on April 12, 2020 [8 favorites]
I am friends with Benuzzi’s granddaughter. She was DELIGHTED to see his story pop op on the BBC website.
posted by hanov3r at 3:07 PM on April 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by hanov3r at 3:07 PM on April 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
I read the book a long time ago. That book is so fucking bonkers that it left me with a lifetime deficit of evens.
Thanks for the reminder.
posted by medusa at 7:09 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
Thanks for the reminder.
posted by medusa at 7:09 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
I well remember the book as a young man. It made me want to visit Kenya (which I was able to do much later).
posted by lungtaworld at 7:32 PM on April 12, 2020
posted by lungtaworld at 7:32 PM on April 12, 2020
Man, could there be a book more welcome in times like these?
posted by gottabefunky at 10:20 AM on April 13, 2020
posted by gottabefunky at 10:20 AM on April 13, 2020
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posted by logopetria at 10:49 PM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]