From 1952 to 1955, he led 3 expeditions to the Karakorum Range and Hindu Kush. The first was a preliminary expedition; the second, the main expedition for the first ascent of K2 (8,611 m, second highest peak in the world); the third, for geological, geophysical and ethnographical researches. The results of the studies carried out during these expeditions have been published in many papers and more largely developed in 8 volumes of scientific character.