The man who pioneered one of the most difficult and classic routes up Mount McKinley, opening the door to more technical and challenging climbs on North America's tallest peak, died at the age of 100 last week in Italy.

Riccardo Cassin, credited with a hundred first ascents from Alaska to the Himalayas, died last Thursday at his home in Piani Resinelli, a town north of Milan at the foot of the Alps.

The Cassin Ridge, the route he and five other Italians blazed up Denali's south face in 1961, bears his name. Until he came along, a southern ascent of the 20,320-foot mountain did not seem possible.

"What he did on the Cassin was years ahead of its time," said Brian Okonek of Talkeetna, who has worked as a guide on McKinley. "He took the techniques he learned in the Alps and went to the Alaska Range with them. He really pushed the standards.

"... It went a step beyond the type of technical climbing being done in the Alaska Range at the time. Once that door had been opened, people realized the potential and more and more hard climbs began being done."

Cassin's ascent up the steep, rocky, icy southern face made headlines when the party returned. President John F. Kennedy, a fan of mountaineering, sent a telegram congratulating Cassin and his party for their achievement.

"He was actually supposed to come visit me," Cassin said at age 99 during an interview with climbing.com. "But then the Bay of Pigs incident happened, and he had to stay."

Dave Johnston, who made headlines himself in 1967 when he and two others became the first to summit McKinley in the winter, remembers hearing about the climb when it happened and later reading about it in Life magazine. He still marvels over Cassin's bold and beautiful route.

"Oh my gosh, it's still a big deal," Johnston said. "It's the classic route on Denali. It's got probably the most beautiful line, just straight up the south face. The granite is excellent. It's got everything."

The route is basically a straight, steep line that Cassin and his group followed from the east fork of the Kahiltna up to what's called the Kahiltna Notch.

Most climbers on the route today bypass the rocky lower part of the route and instead start by going up the ice-filled Japanese Couloir, Okonek said.

"It's steep but straight-forward ice climbing. Cassin's route starts with a much more difficult rock climb," he said.

And today's Cassin Ridge climbers usually descend via the West Buttress route, Okonek said. Cassin and the other Italians went down the same challenging, technical route they came up, rappelling part of the way down.

"People very seldom come down that way now. Only if the weather pushes them down," Okonek said.

In the climbing.com interview from a year ago, Cassin described his McKinley adventure:

"Well, as with all my routes, I tried to find the most logical route, the least dangerous, and the one I was convinced I could finish without danger. (Don) Sheldon, the famous American pilot, sent me some pictures of the mountain from which I chose the way I wanted to go up, and then I did it.

"I did not know where the mountain was, but I knew there was a problem to be solved -- how to get on top of this imminent peak left undefeated by so many Americans beforehand. By the time the airplane took us to base camp, I had looked at the pictures so many times I had to correct Sheldon, because he landed at the wrong camp."

Cassin made his own pitons and started a climbing equipment company that still does business in Italy.

He was remembered in Italy this week as a man who helped transform mountaineering from a romantic 19th century challenge into a highly technical sport.

As a young man in northern Italy, Cassin began work as a blacksmith in the town of Lecco on Lake Como. Sunday outings with friends in the nearby mountains sparked his love for climbing over a six-decade career.

He and his companions were known as the Ragni di Lecco, "the Spiders of Lecco." They went on to pioneer daring routes that are still used today to climb some of the world's most treacherous peaks. The most memorable of all his first ascents was the climb up Denali's southern ridge.

Cassin continued to climb until the late 1980s, totaling around 2,500 ascents.

Daily News reporter Beth Bragg can be reached at bbragg@adn.com or 257-4335. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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