Mountaineer Viesturs renounces Guinness 8,000 m record

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 27 - Mountaineer Edmund Viesturs onWednesday renounced the record attributed to him recently byGuinness World Records as the first person to climb the world's14 mountains over 8,000 m.
   "I am firmly convinced that Reinhold Messner was the first toclimb all 14 eight-thousanders and that this should berecognised," said the American after the Guinness World Recordsdecided to strip Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner of thetitle following claims he had failed to reach the summit ofAnnapurna, in Nepal, in 1985.
   "Messner and the other mountaineers did everything they could toclimb the real peaks, to the best of their knowledge and in theconditions they found on site," added the 64-year-old.
   Viesturs said Messner was "our forerunner, not onlystylistically, but also physically and psychologically, climbingwithout supplementary oxygen".
   "Other climbers like me were able to follow in his footsteps bydrawing inspiration from him," he continued, adding that"climbing is a personal journey and should not be about lists orrecords".
   Speaking to ANSA on Monday, Messner described the decision byGuinness World Records to strip him of his title as "nonsense".
   "First of all, I have never claimed any records, so they cannotdisown me," said the 79-year-old, one of italy's mostillustrious extreme mountaineers.
   "Also, mountains change, like everything in nature. Especiallyon Annapurna, all it takes is for the snow cornice to collapseand the summit drops five metres," he added. (ANSA).