A REVOLUTIONARY mountaineer who invented the five-fingered climbing shoe has plunged to his death after falling from a peak in Italy.

Married dad and mountain sports enthusiast Robert Fliri, 48, had been descending an ice wall at Tyrolean peak with two friends in Val di Mazia, Italy.

But he slipped whilst descending the 10,000-foot-high Punta d’Oberettes ice wall, falling more than 984 feet as his horrified pals watched on.

Rescuers spotted his body in a remote position and needed a helicopter to get him out and fly to a nearby hospital in Malles.

Married dad Fliri made a fortune from his FiveFingers climbing shoes created while he was still a student at design school.

Benno Simma, an Italian designer and artist, posted a tribute describing Mr Fliri as a “brilliant designer and enthusiastic climber”.

He said: “Now you continue to walk in the endless celestial pastures.”

Fliri went into partnership with Italian manufacturing firm Virbram who now sell the toe-hugging shoes for £130 each.

The inventor once said: “I am a son of the mountain, I was a lumberjack, and I have spent long periods on the farm of my grandparents.

“I have always sought more contact with nature, and so, a little at a time, I started walking barefoot, even in the mountains.”

The Vibram official website says the shoes are a “unique style of footwear”, which “immediately became popular with those who wanted the barefoot minimalist experience as well as protection and grip, without compromising sensory ground feedback”.

The “barefoot” shoes were worked on from 1999 until they went on the market in 2006.

Fliri’s brand was even named one of the best inventions by Time magazine in 2007.  

The shoes went on to be used at the New York marathon in 2009, and even found use among medical professionals rehabilitating patients in the UK.

In 2011, MailOnline revealed the Duke of Sussex had his own pair.