Somerset West resident, Carl Fatti, a retired doctor, mountaineer and adventurer “who died doing what he loved most”, was someone who made a difference in many people’s lives.
Described as a “mountain climbing legend”, the 72-year-old ophthalmologist tragically died last Sunday afternoon, January 12, while ascending Muizenberg Crag with two friends after a piece of rock reportedly came loose.
A total of 25 Mountain Club of South Africa members had assisted in a rope-based, technical cliff extraction near Boyes Drive, moving him off the cliff face and to a more sheltered area, where a helicopter could fly him off the mountain, but he died soon after from multiple injuries.
Graeme Addison said on Facebook, Dr Fatti “was an indefatigable adventurer and finally his daring has caught up with him. To die doing what you love is not a bad way to go although he had plenty of life left in him.
“All his friends and the mountaineering fraternity will mourn his passing.”
In 2017, Dr Fatti and his wife Anna, a retired teacher, volunteered their skills to a community hospital located in the Moditlo Private Game Reserve, a purpose-built centre near Hoedspruit in Limpopo, for a year.
Despite his retirement in 2012, Dr Fatti said at the time he still felt he needed to give back and extend his service in the field.
Dr Fatti has a daughter, Isabella, who graduated as a doctor at UCT in 2015.
