Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from South Tyrol, whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history.
He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and for being the first climber to ascend all fourteen "eight thousanders" (peaks over 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) above sea level). He is the author of at least 63 books (in German, 1970-2006), many of which have been translated into other languages. Reinhold Messner grew up in Villnöß and spent his early years climbing in the Alps and fell in love with the Dolomites. Since the sixties, and inspired by Hermann Buhl, he was one of the first and most enthusiastic supporters of alpine style mountaineering in the Himalayas. His first major Himalayan climb in 1970, the unclimbed Rupal face of Nanga Parbat, turned out to be a tragic success. Both he and his brother Günther Messner reached the summit, but Günther died two days later on the descent of the Diamir face. Reinhold lost six toes, which had become badly frostbitten during the climb and required amputation. Reinhold has been severely criticized for persisting on this climb with an insufficiently experienced Günther. In the 1970s, Messner championed the cause for ascending Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, saying that he would do it "by fair means" or not at all. In 1978, he reached the summit of Everest with Habeler. This was the first time anyone had been that high without bottled oxygen and Messner and Habeler proved what certain doctors, specialists, and mountaineers thought impossible. He repeated the feat, without Habeler, from the Tibetan side in 1980, during the monsoon season. Messner today carries on a diversified business related to his mountaineering skills. From 1999 to 2004, he held political office as a Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Green Party (Federazione dei Verdi). He was also among the founders of Mountain Wilderness, an international NGO dedicated to the protection of mountains worldwide. In 2004 he completed a 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) expedition through the Gobi desert. He now mainly devotes himself to the Messner Mountain Museum, of which he is the founder. In 2003 Messner started work on a project for a mountaineering museum.
What he presents:
Moving Mountains
Riskmanagement