Pasturo: Danilo Ticozzi dies, the civil protection volunteer who collapsed above Alpe Cova
Danilo Ticozzi, aged 72, died on Sunday, October 11 while walking with a friend above Alpe Cova, on the Grignone slope. Mountain rescue volunteers, already in the area on an assistance service, attempted resuscitation using a defibrillator as well.
Translated from the Italian original. Leggi in italiano
Pasturo is mourning Danilo Ticozzi, who died on the morning of Sunday, October 11 during a mountain walk. The 72-year-old, a civil protection volunteer who lived in the village, was walking with a friend along the track above Alpe Cova, on the slope of the Grignone at about 1,400 metres, when he suddenly collapsed and did not get up again. This reconstruction is the one published by Il Giorno in its most detailed account on Monday, October 12, while Fanpage reported the same day a fatal sudden illness at about 1,400 metres on the slope of the Grigna Settentrionale.
The first reports on Sunday had spoken of a fall along the path. The fuller account of the following day, which named the victim and set out the sequence of the intervention, instead describes a sudden collapse, in line with Fanpage's version: this article follows the most recent and most detailed reconstruction.
The rescuers were already in the area
Help arrived within minutes. The mountain rescue volunteers of the Valsassina and Valvarrone station, of the XIX Lariana Delegation, were on duty in the area for the assistance service at the Memorial Sergio Longoni and quickly reached the spot where Ticozzi had collapsed. They attempted to resuscitate him, using a defibrillator as well, but nothing could be done for him.
According to Il Giorno's first report, the alarm was raised after 9 in the morning and the Como air ambulance also intervened, with a doctor, a nurse and a helicopter rescue technician in addition to the pilots. Despite the rescue attempts, the 72-year-old died at the scene and his body was recovered at altitude, in the mountain area between Lake Como and Valsassina.
A face of village volunteering
Ticozzi lived in Pasturo and was a civil protection volunteer: a rescue man, then, struck by a sudden illness on his home mountains, not far from paths he knew well. Il Giorno remembered him on Monday with a farewell that underlines the bond between the victim and the Valsassina volunteering community.
Ticozzi's death closes a difficult weekend for the mountains between Como and Lecco, where on Saturday, October 10, two hikers aged 62 and 58 lost their lives in two separate episodes between Val Cavargna and Eupilio. Three deaths in two days, in different circumstances, bring the question of mountain prudence back to the centre, even on routes considered familiar.
