No Picnic on Mount Kenya

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

1953 First Edition USA
Author	Felice Benuzzi
Original title	Fuga sul Kenya
Language	English
Genre	Narrative history
Media type	Hardback and Paperback
Pages	239

No Picnic on Mount Kenya (Italian: Fuga sul Kenya) by Felice Benuzzi is a mountaineering classic recounting the 1943 attempt of three escaped Italian prisoners of war to reach the summit of Mount Kenya. It was first published in 1947 in Italian and in 1952 in English. The 1994 film The Ascent is based on this book.

Detained at P.O.W. Camp 354 near Nanyuki, Kenya, Felice Benuzzi from Trieste, together with two fellow-prisoners Dr. Giovanni ('Giuàn') Balletto from Genova and Vincenzo ('Enzo') Barsotti from Lido di Camaiore, escaped in January 1943 and climbed Mt Kenya with improvised equipment and meagre rations, two of them reaching a point on the north face of the Petit Gendarme, at about 5000 metres, high up the NW ridge. After an eventful 18-day period on the mountain (24 January – 10 February), and to the astonishment of the British camp commandant, the three adventurers broke back into Camp 354. As reward for their exploit, they each received 28 days in solitary confinement, commuted to 7 days by the camp commandant in acknowledgement of their "sporting effort".

From the flyleaf of the 1952 William Kimber edition of the book:

Benuzzi, of Italian-Austrian parentage, initially wrote his account in both English and Italian from 1943–1946, while still in P.O.W. camps. The Italian version, with a marginally more detailed text, was first published in 1947 as Fuga sul Kenya – 17 giorni di liberta [:Escape on Kenya – 17 days of liberty] (L'Eroica, Milano). The Italian edition has as an Appendix (headed 'L'ignoto') a fuller version of the English Chapter 4, 'The Unknown', a digression that gives background historical information on the mountain. It also includes three sketches in black & white and four maps by Benuzzi, including a map of the peaks area showing his route up the NW ridge. The Italian version was translated into French and published in 1950 as Kenya, ou la Fugue Africaine [:Kenya, or the African Escape] (Arthaud, Paris; with black & white illustrations, including Benuzzi's sketch of the trio's base-camp in the Hausberg Valley, with the peaks in the background and the ascent-route marked). The 2nd Italian edition (Tamari, Bologna, 1966) has on the front cover, in colour, a reproduction of Benuzzi's watercolour of the mountain seen through the camp fence. 'Fuga' and 'Fugue' may also carry a secondary meaning, referring to the 'music' of the giant heather described in the book. 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. (Benuzzi's flag and message-bottle left on Lenana had been retrieved by English climbers; they were returned to Benuzzi who donated them to the Museo della Montagna, Torino.)