More than once in his life, Reinhold Messner no longer believed he would grow old. The worst was in 1970 on Nanga Parbat, the “mountain of destiny for the Germans”. His brother Günther died while descending the eight-thousander in the Himalayas. He himself, just 25 at the time, had seven of his toes frozen in the cold. Messner crawled down on all fours until he could no longer do so. Farmers found him lifeless in the rubble.
“That was my first near-death experience, more intense than ever before. You realise that you are going to die. And that it is not a bad thing at all.” Today (September 17), after becoming the first person in the world to climb all 13 other eight-thousanders and also returning from all the other often dangerous tours, the South Tyrolean is now actually turning 80 years old.
“I don’t consider myself old”
But he doesn’t want to leave it at that. “Of course I’m becoming more clumsy, slower, more forgetful. I stumble now and again,” Messner told the German Press Agency at his Juval Castle near Merano. “But old? I don’t see myself as old.” Then he falls silent and looks down into the valley from his bench.
His voice has become more fragile, but he is still fit. Just this summer, he and his wife, who is 35 years younger than him, circumnavigated Kailash, the holy mountain of the Tibetans, which took them both up to almost 6,000 meters. He could have climbed even higher, but the summit of Kailash is off-limits for religious reasons. The “King of the Eight-Thousanders” now wants to spend his 80th birthday in the mountains, just the two of us. “Diane and I will celebrate in a small mountain hut at an altitude of 2,000 meters.”
Bitter dispute over inheritance
This is connected to the dispute over his inheritance, which he is currently having with his second ex-wife and four children in public. Messner himself brought his anger to the world in an interview in the “Apotheken Umschau” newspaper. He now deeply regrets having left a large part of his millions of dollars to his family while he was still alive. They then got rid of him and kicked him out, without giving any reasons.
The South Tyrolean, who grew up with eight siblings in the Villnößtal, never avoided arguments. He gave up his job as a math teacher after a year to concentrate on climbing. But there were also arguments on the mountain or after the descent. “My father always said: ‘Can’t you be quiet and have a good life for yourself? Why do you always have to cause trouble?'” The answer: “Because that’s how I am. To adapt? Never.”
1978 for the first time on the highest mountain in the world
The hippie climber who climbed the great Alpine walls alone became the most famous mountaineer in the world. He conquered Mount Everest for the first time in 1978, together with Peter Habeler, without bottled oxygen, although doctors had strongly advised against it. Two years later he conquered the highest mountain in the world alone.
And he carried on, eight-thousander after eight-thousander. On October 16, 1986, Messner finally stood on the summit of Lhotse, Everest’s neighbor, which was the last of the 14 he had missed. A record for eternity. When there were no more goals for the solitary climber at high altitude, he crossed Antarctica, Greenland and the Gobi Desert.
Particularly large fan base in Germany
His fan base is particularly large in Germany – which is also due to his ability, unlike many other climbers, to tell gripping stories about his successes and his defeats too. The man with the Himalayan stone around his neck – bought on the descent from Everest for 1000 dollars – turned mountaineering into philosophy.
When Saturday night shows were still important, Messner was a regular guest. On “Do You Understand Fun?” the TV people managed to create a TV classic by flying a kiosk with souvenirs and even some of his books to the Matterhorn. Messner worked himself up into a holy rage about mass consumption in the mountains until he finally understood.
Also part of pop culture
He has now written almost 100 books. The most recent is called “Headwind”. Messner also continues to appear on talk shows, give lectures and make films. After advertising cars, walking sticks and watches, he now works in outdoor clothing – which doesn’t stop him from mocking the people in pedestrian zones who are dressed like they’re on their way to Everest.
In fact, the generation of Messner admirers has grown old with their idol. Most have forgotten that he served one term in the European Parliament for the Italian Greens. The German rapper Soho Bani recently introduced him to a new generation. His hit “Bergsteigen” begins with the line: “And I feel like Reinhold Messner. I go up with the people of yesterday.”
Mountain tours with Merkel and managers
There is something to that. When Angela Merkel is in South Tyrol, Messner still goes on tours with the former chancellor. His old rope team with former German top managers, the “Similauner”, is still there. However, he has stopped climbing, and not just because of the pictures of the traffic jam on Everest, for which huge sums of money are paid to climb.
“Climbing today is a sport that takes place in air-conditioned rooms, on 15-meter-high plastic walls,” complains Messner on the bench in front of his castle. “In every larger village there is a climbing hall. It’s a completely different world. It has nothing to do with mountaineering. I was lucky back then: my style of mountaineering would no longer be relevant today.”
Death as a life theme
And then he returns to the topic that has preoccupied him for more than half a century, since the drama with his brother on Nanga Parbat. “Great mountain climbing is basically only possible where there is a risk of death. The classic mountaineer goes where no one else is. There are people who describe falling as the most beautiful death.”
And after that? “For me there is no life after death,” says Messner. “We disappear when no one thinks of us anymore. Then there is nothing left.” He has already registered with the Italian authorities where his ashes will later be placed: in Juval Castle, in a Buddhist tomb made of stone. Right next to his bench.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240917-930-234587/1
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