Bad Tölz: Mountain legend Reinhold Messner reports on the glory and sorrow of his career

Created: 09/24/2022, 07:36

Reinhold Messner gives an autograph to Birgit Zauner from Kochel, who presented a postcard from 1970 to her family with the signatures of the expedition members.

© Rainer Bannier

Bad Tölz – organizer Steffen Heyn has invited the South Tyrolean mountaineer Reinhold Messner to the Tölz Kurhaus for the fourth time for his “Wunderfalken” series.

Demand was high – visitors queued up.

The 78-year-old Reinhold Messner shows hardly any signs of exhaustion.

In the past he was not only loved, but also rejected because he often polarized and did not spare undesirable developments in alpinism from criticism, just like other actors in the scene and never avoided arguments, today he has become more affable and milder.

What has remained is a gifted narrator who can formulate print-ready and arouse emotions.

Reinhold Messner soloing on the summit of Nanga Parbat in 1978. © Reinhold Messner

The death of brother Günther on Nanga Parbat is still on Reinhold Messner's mind today

In this respect, the South Tyrolean teacher's son, who as a climber and high-altitude mountaineer, globetrotter, author, mountain farmer, lord of the castle and founder of six alpine and ethnographic museums, has achieved something special everywhere, is simply one of the best.

His lecture focused on the tragedy on Nanga Parbat, which he climbed in 1970 with his younger brother Günther as his first eight-thousander.

The fact that he died on the descent still worries him to this day.

Ascent to Nanga Parba: at 8,125 meters, the ninth highest mountain on earth.

© Organizer/Reinhold Messner

Messner knowledgeably embedded “his story” of this terrifying eight-thousander, which rises above the valleys like no other isolated and breaks off on all sides with huge walls, in a large portrait of the mountain giant: After an initial attempt by the Englishman Alfred Mummery in 1895, they were Germans , who attacked the mountain several times between 1932 and 1937 via the northern Rakhiot flank, which was unsuccessful and costly, which is why it was stylized as the "German Mountain of Fate".

In 1953, Hermann Buhl made the legendary solo effort across this flank during an expedition led by Karl Maria Herrligkoffer.

Reinhold Messner: "An attempt to descend on the same route would have meant a safe crash.

We were trapped”

He also organized the 1962 expedition, in which three German alpinists reached the summit for the first time via the Diamir flank (west side) and also the 1970 expedition, in which the summit was climbed via the south-facing, 4,500 meter high and extremely difficult Rupal face.

For a long time afterwards and in many respects, there was bad blood about the circumstances surrounding this tightly managed large-scale expedition.

One lesson that Messner learned from this was that from then on he only organized “small private expeditions without a chain of camps” himself.

Reinhold Messner © Organizer

When Messner and his brother, 25 and 24 years old, reached the summit on June 27th after a daring ascent without rope equipment, “their desperation was great: Günther got altitude sickness, an attempt to descend on the same route would have meant a safe fall.

We were trapped."

In desperation, they decided to attempt the descent through unfamiliar terrain via the less steep Diamir Face.

"A chaos route," admits Reinhold.

It almost ended well: Günther was buried by an ice avalanche at the very bottom of the wall.

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Reinhold Messner came under pressure to justify himself: Herrligkoffer, who had secured all marketing rights from the expedition members with a gag contract, spread stories that, for Messner, amounted to "conspiracy theories and character assassination".

The mortal remains of Günther were released by the glacier below the Diamir flank in 2005, confirming Reinhold's assurances about the joint emergency descent.

He said goodbye to his brother with a dignified cremation on site.

The experiences on his "Key Mountain" brought Messner fame and great suffering.

"After long mountain rides, joy always comes when you return to civilization," assures Messner.

In the second half of his life, he made it his mission to promote understanding for mountain people and their cultures.