Reinhold Messner keeps going! A Portrait …

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Reinhold Messner, along with Peter Habeler, made the first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1978 and he was first to climb the mountain free solo in 1980. Messner was also the first climber to ascend all fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters (26,000 ft).

Messner was born in 1944 and grew up in the Dolomites, South Tirol, Italy. He mastered his first summit at the age of five. Reinhold had eight brothers and one sister; he later climbed with his brother Günther and made Arctic crossings with his brother Hubert. By the time Reinhold and Günther were in their early twenties, they were among Europe’s best climbers. Mainly Reinhard broke several records and climbed many dangerous faces the first time.

Messner’s first major Himalayan expedition brought him to the summit of Nanga Parbat in 1970. Together with Günther he reached the summit via the unclimbed Rupal face, but he lost his brother and seven toes on descend.

After this event he turned to use the alpine style mountaineering also in the Himalayas with light equipment and a minimum of external help. This way he was much faster than other expedition and was able to climb the highest mountains on earth without supplementary oxygen. Peter Habeler and Reinhold Messner proved leading physicists wrong, who thought no men could survive without it at 8.000 meters.

Also, Reinhold Messner is one of the view adventurers of this time, who survived. This was not only luck, in fact he was able to walk through snow-storms, he was very robust and reacted quickly. But most of all, Messner was able to give up when weather conditions did not allow to continue climbing. Almost 50% of his expeditions ended unsuccessfully.

Being alive he could strive for new adventures after having finished with the Himalayas. He finished the Seven Summits as second person, reached both, the south and the north pole crossing Antarctica and Arctica on skies, together with fellow explorer Arved Fuchs, and he walked 2,000 km through the Gobi desert.

In order to finance his expeditions, he has written countless books about his experiences and spoken on many keynotes. As if that was not enough: After having finished his career as climber he was an Italian politician, and he also built six museums for mountain paintings. The painting “Second Step” of Juergen Staeudtner can be seen in his last one at Kronplatz, Italy.

 

This painting is part of the set Legends of Mount Everest with more portraits of climbers. Click for an extensive description.