DESIO Ardito) and SPOLETO (Aimone di Savoia-Aosta, duca di). La spedizione geografica italiana al Karakoram. Storia del viaggio e risultati geografici. Rome and Milan, Arti grafiche Bertarelli, 1936. 1 volume and an atlas in-4°, bound in publisher's cloth. Numbered first edition, illustrated with 253 figures and photographs in the text, 34 hors-texte plates and 4 maps and 5 panoramas in separate slipcases. An account of the 1929 Italian expedition to the Karakoram, led by the Duke of Spoleto. The members of this expedition explored the Baltoro glacier, the Sarpo Laggo and Urdock glaciers and the Trango and Panmah glaciers. Ardito Desio (Palmanova 1897- Rome 2001) is best known for leading the victorious expedition to K2 in 1954; he had already taken part in the Duke of Spoleto's Karakoram expedition in 1929. His account of the K2 expedition misrepresented the facts, ignoring the role of Bonatti and Sherpa Mahdi, who were forced to bivouac at over 8,000 metres by the assault team. The truth was not made official by the Italian Alpine Club until after the death of Desio, who had founded the Scientific Committee of the Italian Alpine Club in 1931 and was its first president until the end of 1945. The Duke of Spoleto (Turin 1900 - Buenos Aires 1948) was the great-grandson of the Italian king Victor-Emmanuel II and the great-great-grandson of the French king Louis-Philippe. A short-lived king of Croatia under the name Tomislav II during the Second World War (his reign was never effective), he had to go into exile in Argentina at the end of the war, where he died of a heart attack shortly afterwards. An important work on the exploration of the Baltoro region, uncommon in this complete version of the atlas. Perret, 1298 - Yakushi S311 - ACL p. 88