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Reinhold Messner´s 80th birthday

Mountains, museums and the meaning of life

He is the most famous and successful living mountaineer in the world. He is also an author, adventurer, philosopher, museum founder and masterful marketer of himself: Reinhold Messner. The South Tyrolean celebrates his 80th birthday on 17 September 2024.

A small selection of Messner's records: He was the first person to climb an eight-thousander solo (Nanga Parbat, 1978). Together with Peter Habeler, he climbed Mount Everest in the same year without additional oxygen from a bottle. Two years later, he climbed it again alone, again without oxygen and as the first person to do so. And he was the first person to conquer all eight-thousanders, the fourteen highest mountains on earth.

Messner scaled all eight-thousanders in the so-called "Alpine style", i.e. without additional oxygen from a bottle, without a large team of porters and helpers, without prepared intermediate camps, ropes, pitons, etc. This purism is Messner's trademark. His maxim was to consistently do without bolts, oxygen masks and satellite phones, even on the most dangerous tours. He rejects high-tech aids such as the "high-altitude expedition mask"( DE202021101526U1 (1,08 MB)) or "high-altitude mask" ( WO002022200271A1 (1,61 MB),two of the more recent applications of this type). He passionately defends his philosophy and - as in other matters - does not avoid any debate.

Philosopher of the purist

Messner was practically born into mountaineering: As a five-year-old, he was already climbing a three-thousand metre peak with his father. He grew up with eight siblings as the son of a teacher in Villnöß. He later studied surveying at the University of Padua. At times he even worked as a maths teacher at a secondary school. His younger brother Hubert, a paediatrician, is currently a member of the provincial government, the South Tyrolean Minister of Health, so to speak.

Reinhold Messner decided early on against a bourgeois profession and in favour of a "life as a border crosser", as he says. From his home in the Dolomites, he conquered the most difficult walls in the Alps and then the entire world: he is the second person to have successfully climbed the "Seven Summits", i.e. the highest mountains on every continent (there are various definitions of which mountains are included; one of the most authoritative lists – the one that includes the difficult Puncak Jaya on New Guinea - comes from Messner).

Adventures in the extreme

Once Messner had satisfied his mountaineering ambitions, he sought out other adventures. Among other things, he crossed Antarctica, Greenland and the Gobi Desert on foot. He faced a completely new challenge as a politician: he sat in the European Parliament for one term as a member of the Green Party.

"You can only take off and fly in a headwind" is the key sentence in his latest book, which has just been published. In it, Messner draws lessons from the controversies that have accompanied him for decades. And there have been and still are many - from the tragedy surrounding the death of his brother Günther on Nanga Parbat in 1970, to the recent attempt to deny him a number of first ascents at the "green table" decades later, to the traumatic end of his second marriage.

The pugnacious celebrity is a genius of self-promotion: his countless books, lectures, expertises and advertising contracts have not only financed his adventures, but also earned him a considerable fortune. The fact that he recently transferred a large part of it to his children has brought him back into the media spotlight due to the resulting family disputes.

Given his enormous fame and marketing acumen, it is actually astonishing that he registered his own name and signature as a trademark only just a few weeks ago, on 1 August 2024 (EM 019062737, EM019062739).

Life's work and legacy: the MMM

Messner's experiences from the world's extreme regions, the experience of nature that is as grandiose as it is merciless and his encounters with the lives of indigenous mountain peoples inspired him to create his largest project, his "15th eight-thousander", as he says: the Messner Mountain Museum. This chain of museums in spectacular locations in his native South Tyrol is one of the most exciting in the world. The centrepiece is the mighty Sigmundskron Castle near Bolzano, the MMM Firmian. At Juval Castle, his own summer residence, Messner also allows guests to visit his private rooms and expedition cellars as well as numerous objects on the theme of the "Mountain Myth". MMM Corones, spectacularly situated on the summit of Kronplatz and built by the legendary architect Zaha Hadid, showcases traditional alpinism. Ortles, the underground branch on the Ortler, is dedicated to the themes of ice and glaciers. There, in Sulden am Ortler, Messner also breeds yaks and runs a restaurant ("Yak and Yeti"). Messner also supports museum projects in Nepal, for example on the history of the Sherpa.

The former extreme sportsman and radical individualist is therefore anything but retired. With his "Messner Mountain Heritage" (e.g. DE3020200047684), he works tirelessly to preserve traditional mountaineering. He and his third wife Diane also continue to fight for the preservation of nature and the way of life of mountain peoples.

Text: Dr. Jan Björn Potthast, Pictures: Getty Images Jakubaszek, DPMAregister, Tahsin Anwarali CC by-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons, DPMAregister

Last updated: 21 November 2024