As of: February 14, 2024, 5:21 p.m
By: Moritz Bletzinger
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Garbage, feces and crowds of tourists have spoiled Mount Everest for him.
Mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner would not go back to the highest mountain in the world.
Munich – Mount Everest is more popular than ever.
Countless tourists cavort on the world's highest mountain in Nepal, and just last summer the authorities issued a record number of Everest permits.
However, someone who knows the summit very well is fed up with the wild goings-on in the Himalayas.
Crowds of tourists on Mount Everest: Reinhold Messner speaks of a “catastrophe”
“To Everest?
I wouldn’t go back,” says mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner in an interview with
Il Dolomiti
.
Together with Peter Habeler, the South Tyrolean was the first person to reach the highest peak on earth without additional oxygen.
Today he states: “The mountaineering of yesterday no longer exists.”
Reinhold Messner was on the summit of Mount Everest twice: Even if he were still physically able, a third time would no longer tempt him these days.
© Expa/Johann Groder/picture alliance/dpa/APA
The 79-year-old complains about garbage, feces and, above all, the excessive flow of visitors to Mount Everest.
Selfie tourism in a once almost inaccessible place.
Messner curses: “What we are experiencing on Everest is a real catastrophe.
In a society where you can buy anything, people are willing to pay to brag about having some kind of experience.”
Six million dollars for a trip to Mount Everest: Modern mountain tourism shocks Reinhold Messner
In fact, climbing Mount Everest has become an adventure for rich people.
One woman is said to have even paid six million dollars for promotion, Messner shakes his head.
He is certain that tourist mountaineers would never climb Mount Everest without today's expensive amenities - from oxygen to helicopters.
Meanwhile, parents are also dragging their children up the mountain, with age records tumbling.
Weeks after a four-year-old reached base camp with her parents, a father brought his two-year-old son into camp on his back.
Attention guaranteed on social media.
“That’s bad”: Messner complains about Instagram tourists and mountains of garbage on Mount Everest
All of this ruined the magic of the mountain for Messner.
He says: “You're really willing to do anything to get a nice photo to post on Instagram.
Check out the pictures of long queues.
Or the huge amounts of trash left behind at high altitudes.
That is bad."
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The photo shows a traffic jam on Mount Everest in May 2019. © AFP / HANDOUT
In fact, garbage on Mount Everest is a big problem; it is considered the highest garbage dump in the world.
At least there is now a new rule: mountaineers have to carry their excrement back to base camp.
Lots of tourists, lots of rubbish – but also traffic jams.
Long queues often form in narrow passages, which can be dangerous at 8,000 meters.
Yes, the mountain climbing of old is over.
(moe)