Reinhold Messner | Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/","20200917235421","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1600386861"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic&display=swap" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">  <title>Reinhold Messner | Academy of Achievement</title> <meta name="description" content="Hailed as the greatest mountaineer in history, Reinhold Messner rejects such titles, but the record of his achievement is incontestable. Time and again, he has challenged and surpassed the supposed limits of human strength, courage, and endurance, overcoming seemingly insuperable obstacles to reach the most exalted places on Earth. A pioneer of high-altitude climbing in the Alpine style, without porters or any of the other appurtenances of expedition-style mountaineering, he is the first man in history to reach the summit of all the world’s mountains of over 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). In 1978, he and a climbing partner reached the summit of Mount Everest — the tallest mountain on Earth — without the use of supplemental oxygen, defying the conventional wisdom of mountain lore and medical science. Two years later, Messner repeated this feat singlehanded — the first man to reach the summit of Everest alone. Since then, he has traveled on foot across the entire breadth of Antarctica, traversed the Gobi Desert of Mongolia unaccompanied, and solved the mystery of the Yeti — or “abominable snowman” — said to haunt the Himalayas. Through his books, films, and the Messner Mountain Museum in South Tyrol, Italy, he shares the majesty and wonder of Earth’s most inaccessible places and the exhilarating experience of a life lived at the limit."/> <meta name="robots" content="index, follow"/> <meta name="googlebot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <meta name="bingbot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Reinhold Messner | Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="Hailed as the greatest mountaineer in history, Reinhold Messner rejects such titles, but the record of his achievement is incontestable. Time and again, he has challenged and surpassed the supposed limits of human strength, courage, and endurance, overcoming seemingly insuperable obstacles to reach the most exalted places on Earth. A pioneer of high-altitude climbing in the Alpine style, without porters or any of the other appurtenances of expedition-style mountaineering, he is the first man in history to reach the summit of all the world’s mountains of over 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). In 1978, he and a climbing partner reached the summit of Mount Everest — the tallest mountain on Earth — without the use of supplemental oxygen, defying the conventional wisdom of mountain lore and medical science. Two years later, Messner repeated this feat singlehanded — the first man to reach the summit of Everest alone. Since then, he has traveled on foot across the entire breadth of Antarctica, traversed the Gobi Desert of Mongolia unaccompanied, and solved the mystery of the Yeti — or “abominable snowman” — said to haunt the Himalayas. Through his books, films, and the Messner Mountain Museum in South Tyrol, Italy, he shares the majesty and wonder of Earth’s most inaccessible places and the exhilarating experience of a life lived at the limit."/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2019-02-13T03:37:49+00:00"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MESSNER-Feature-Image-3-Recovered.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@achievers1961"/> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@achievers1961"/> <script type="application/ld+json" class="yoast-schema-graph">{"@context":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/#organization","name":"Academy of Achievement","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/","sameAs":["https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-academy-of-achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChe_87uh1H-NIMf3ndTjPFw","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://twitter.com/achievers1961"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/12.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Academy of Achievement"},"image":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/#website","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/","name":"Academy of Achievement","description":"A museum of living history","publisher":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/search/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MESSNER-Feature-Image-3-Recovered.jpg","width":2800,"height":1120},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/#webpage","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/","name":"Reinhold Messner | Academy of Achievement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2019-01-30T04:24:57+00:00","dateModified":"2019-02-13T03:37:49+00:00","description":"Hailed as the greatest mountaineer in history, Reinhold Messner rejects such titles, but the record of his achievement is incontestable.\u00a0 Time and again, he has challenged and surpassed the supposed limits of human strength, courage,\u00a0and endurance, overcoming seemingly insuperable obstacles to reach the most exalted places on Earth. A pioneer of high-altitude climbing in the Alpine style, without porters or any of the other appurtenances of expedition-style mountaineering, he is the first man in history to reach the summit of all the world\u2019s mountains of over 8,000 meters (26,247 feet).\u00a0 In 1978, he and a climbing partner reached the summit of Mount Everest \u2014 the tallest mountain on Earth \u2014 without the use of supplemental oxygen, defying the conventional wisdom of mountain lore and medical science. Two years later, Messner repeated this feat singlehanded \u2014 the first man to reach the summit of Everest alone. Since then, he has traveled on foot across the entire breadth of Antarctica, traversed the Gobi Desert of Mongolia unaccompanied, and solved the mystery of the Yeti \u2014 or \u201cabominable snowman\u201d \u2014 said to haunt the Himalayas. 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role="document"> <div class="content"> <main class="main"> <div class="feature-area__container"> <header class="feature-area feature-area--has-image ratio-container ratio-container--feature"> <figure class="feature-box"> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image feature-area__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MESSNER-Feature-Image-3-Recovered.jpg [(max-width:544px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MESSNER-Feature-Image-3-Recovered-1400x560.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MESSNER-Feature-Image-3-Recovered.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Reinhold Messner</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Greatest Mountaineer on Earth</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-59849 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-explorer careers-mountaineer-sports"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">The higher the mountain, less emotions. There is no place for emotions. There’s only the decision, 'Now finally, I am able — I am free — to go down.' We force ourselves against our instinct of survival, our strongest instinct. An egotistical instinct is our instinct of survival. We have it. </h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Life at the Limit</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 17, 1944 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_59931" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59931" style="width: 884px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59931 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59931 lazyload" alt="" width="884" height="715" data-sizes="(max-width: 884px) 100vw, 884px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6.jpg 884w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6-380x307.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6-760x615.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59931" class="wp-caption-text">1970: The Messner brothers, Günther (left) and Reinhold, on Nanga Parbat, Pakistan. They reached the summit of Nanga Parbat together but were separated during their descent. Günther died when he was swept away by an avalanche. His body was found 35 years later, in 2005.</figcaption></figure> <p>Reinhold Messner was born in South Tyrol, a mountainous region of Northern Italy.  The town where Messner was born is known as Brixen in German and Bressanone in Italian.  He grew up in the neighboring municipality of Vilnöß, called Funes in Italian.  He was one of nine children — eight boys and one girl — of a village schoolteacher who was himself an enthusiastic mountain climber.  South Tyrol was formerly part of Austria and the majority of the population is still German-speaking. The Dolomite mountain range, a southern extension of the Alps, runs through the region, and at an early age, Messner began climbing mountains with his family. At age five, he had already ascended a peak of 3,000 meters. At 13, he was attempting difficult peaks in the Dolomites with his younger brother Günther.</p> <p>The Messner brothers pursued the traditional climbing practice known as alpinism, in which climbers travel with a minimum amount of equipment, rather than the “expedition style” in which advance teams plant caches of supplies along the more accessible stages of the route.  As a teenager, Reinhold Messner subjected himself to a grueling regimen of physical exercise to build strength and agility for the increasingly ambitious climbs he aspired to.</p> <figure id="attachment_59943" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59943" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59943 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59943 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1454" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1-380x242.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1-760x485.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59943" class="wp-caption-text">The Himalayas view of Mount Nanga Parbat (8,126 meters high). Nanga Parbat is located in the Northern Areas of Pakistan and is the western bastion of the Himalayas. It is the ninth highest mountain in the world and the second highest in Pakistan after K2. It has staged some of the greatest Himalayan ascents of all time, from Hermann Buhl’s solo first ascent in 1953 via the Upper North ridge, to Günther and Reinhold Messner’s first ascent of the Rupal Face in 1970 via the South-Southeast Spur, and Messner’s solo climb of the Diamir Face in 1978. (© Uwe Steffens)</figcaption></figure> <p>Reinhold and Günther were inspired by the example of Hermann Buhl. The Austrian Buhl was among the first mountaineers to apply alpine techniques to the Himalayas, the highest mountains on Earth.  Buhl made history in 1953 when he reached the summit of Nanga Parbat, a Himalayan peak that had claimed the lives of 31 climbers before him.  In the book he wrote about his experience, Buhl decreed that the southern — or <em>Rupal</em> — face of the mountain, a sheer wall of rock and ice, could never be climbed by a human being. To Reinhold Messner, this became an irresistible challenge.</p> <figure id="attachment_59934" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59934" style="width: 2064px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-59934 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-59934 size-full lazyload" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-weight: bold; font-size: 1rem;" alt="" width="2064" height="2790" data-sizes="(max-width: 2064px) 100vw, 2064px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl.jpg 2064w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl-281x380.jpg 281w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl-562x760.jpg 562w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59934" class="wp-caption-text">Austrian mountaineer Hermann Buhl, considered one of the best alpinists of all time, on Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world. In 1953, the summit was reached by 29-year-old Buhl, climbing alone summit day.</figcaption></figure> <p>In 1953, Hermann Buhl, alone and without supplementary oxygen, made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat – the ninth-highest mountain in the world, and the third 8,000-meter peak to be climbed, following Annapurna and Everest. Starting in his teens, Messner worked as a guide for less experienced mountaineers. By his 20th birthday, he had led over 500 ascents in the Dolomites. Over the course of his career, he would identify as many as 700 new routes to the range’s peaks. Reinhold Messner studied architectural engineering at the University of Padua but spent much of the academic year climbing the campus’s brick walls with his brother to refine their climbing skills. In his 20s, Reinhold drew attention in the mountaineering community for reaching some summits from previously untried approaches, and others in winter, when conditions are most difficult.  In a few years, he had climbed the highest peaks in the Dolomites and the Swiss Alps, many in the company of his brother.  He supported himself by teaching math in a local school while Günther worked in a bank. On vacations, Reinhold traveled to the Peruvian Andes and met other members of the international mountaineering fraternity, but his heart was still set on the Himalayas.</p> <figure id="attachment_59939" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59939" style="width: 2211px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59939 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59939 lazyload" alt="" width="2211" height="791" data-sizes="(max-width: 2211px) 100vw, 2211px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978.jpg 2211w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978-380x136.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978-760x272.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59939" class="wp-caption-text">On May 8, 1978, Reinhold Messner and his Tyrolean countryman Peter Habeler were the first ever to reach the top of Earth’s highest mountain — Mount Everest, 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) above sea level — without supplemental oxygen; Messner and Habeler are greeted by their wives at Munich-Riem Airport. (Claus Hampel and Getty Images)</figcaption></figure> <p>In 1970, Reinhold and Günther Messner set out to meet the challenge Hermann Buhl had set years before. They joined a German team attempting to climb the southern approach — the Rupal Face — of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, a 15,000-foot wall regarded as the most difficult ascent in the world.  For 40 days, the team labored up the treacherous face of the mountain. Alone among their party, Reinhold and Günther reached the summit but were unable to return by the way they had come. Exhausted and delirious, they attempted to descend by the mountain’s western — or Diamir — face, and Günther disappeared in an avalanche.</p> <p>Unable to find his brother, Reinhold was rescued six days after reaching the summit, but severe frostbite required the amputation of most of his toes. He eventually recovered from his injuries, but with his maimed feet he was unable to continue the style of rock climbing he had mastered in the Dolomites.  Undeterred, he decided to pursue climbing at the highest altitudes, where surfaces of solid ice posed a different challenge than climbing on bare rock.</p> <figure id="attachment_59947" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59947" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59947 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59947 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1630" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083-380x272.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083-760x543.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59947" class="wp-caption-text">1980: Reinhold Messner points to a photo of Mount Everest at a press event after his unprecedented solo ascent.</figcaption></figure> <p>In the early 1970s, Messner sought new mountaineering challenges around the world, traveling to Persia, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, and East Africa. With a climbing partner, Peter Habeler, he set new standards of speed in ascending some of the highest peaks of the Alps.  In 1972, he reached the summit of Manaslu, in the Nepalese Himalayas, from its previously unmapped south face, although two of his fellow climbers were lost along the way. Messner returned repeatedly to Nanga Parbat, attempting to reach the summit from the Diamir Face, on which his brother had perished, hoping to find Günther’s remains, but he was repeatedly forced back by avalanches.</p> <figure id="attachment_59950" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59950" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59950 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59950 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="3505" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover-247x380.jpg 247w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover-494x760.jpg 494w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59950" class="wp-caption-text">1982: <em>Crystal Horizon: Everest — The First Solo Ascent</em> by Reinhold Messner. A vivid account of Messner’s solo Everest expedition, <em>The Crystal Horizon</em> also reflects on how he explored his innermost thoughts while facing the most extreme physical challenge he had ever encountered. The furthest point for mind and body, he calls his crystal horizon. Inspired by the legendary mountaineers George Mallory and Maurice Wilson, Messner embarked on a year-long journey through Tibet to the glittering light and rarified air at the roof of the world. (The Mountaineers)</figcaption></figure> <p>Climbing the world’s highest peaks requires most climbers to carry supplemental oxygen.  In 1975, Messner and Habeler climbed Gasherbrum I in the Himalayas without the oxygen masks that previous Himalayan climbers depended on, the first time a peak of over 8,000 meters (more than 26,000 feet) had been climbed in the alpine style, without bottled oxygen.  In 1978, Messner and Habeler set out to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen.  Many mountaineers and physicians believed it was impossible for climbers to survive at the highest point on Earth without supplemental oxygen, but the pair succeeded.  Reinhold Messner recounted the experience in his book <em>Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate</em>.</p> <p>Following his success at Everest, Reinhold Messner finally succeeded in climbing Nanga Parbat singlehanded from the Diamir Face.  It was the first time a solo climber had made an ascent of more than 8,000 feet from a base camp without assistance.  He established a new route up the mountain, which has no climber has yet repeated.  The following year, he led a team of six climbers to the summit of K2, the second tallest mountain in the world.  In 1980, he achieved the most remarkable exploit of all, the first solo ascent of Everest, a feat he achieved without oxygen during the hazardous monsoon season.</p> <figure id="attachment_59953" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59953" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59953 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59953 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1498" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540-760x499.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59953" class="wp-caption-text">Reinhold Messner calls the South Face of Dhaulagiri, Earth’s 7th highest mountain (8167m), the “Dead Zone.” After his solo climb of Mount Everest, in one season Messner climbed Kangchenjunga, Gasherbrum II, and Broad Peak. In 1985, he climbed Annapurna and Dhaulagiri in Nepal. (Photo credit: Bojan Brecelj and Corbis via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure> <p>Messner’s hard-won triumph on Everest brought him international renown and lucrative publishing contracts, but he continued to set extraordinary goals for himself.  In 1982, he reached the top of three more Himalayan peaks — Kangchenjunga, Gasherbrum II, and the Broad Peak — becoming the first person to summit three mountains of more than 8,000 meters in a single season.  At this point, Reinhold Messner had established an uncontested reputation as the world’s greatest mountaineer.  The German director Werner Herzog featured Messner in his film <em>The Dark Glow of the Mountains</em>.  In 1984, Messner climbed from Gasherbrum I to Gasherbrum II — two peaks of more than 8,000 meters — without returning to base camp.  In the following years, he reached the peaks of Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Makalu, and Lhotse. By 1986, he had climbed all 14 of the world’s peaks that stand more than 8,000 meters above sea level, an achievement entirely without precedent.</p> <figure id="attachment_59956" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59956" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59956 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59956 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="2782" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover-311x380.jpg 311w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover-623x760.jpg 623w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59956" class="wp-caption-text">1987: <em>All Fourteen 8,000ers</em> by Reinhold Messner. In 1986, Messner and Hans Kammerlander climbed Lhotse, the world’s fourth highest peak, making Messner the first person ever to climb all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks. In this book, Messner recalls the fourteen mountain peaks and expeditions that ultimately made him both famous and controversial. In candid detail, he describes the defining events and incredible difficulties of the climbs — how he persevered through the hallucinations, storms, debilitating fear, and the deaths of climbing mates; why he was accused of stepping over dead bodies to reach a summit; and what moments made a climber’s life worth its agony.</figcaption></figure> <p>In the 1980s, the newly crowned “King of the 8,000-Meter” continued his explorations of Tibet and Bhutan, and climbed Mount Vinson in the Antarctic.  In Tibet in 1988, after years of searching, he observed a rare species of bear <span style="font-size: 1rem;">that is the probable source of the legend of the</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;"> </span><em style="font-size: 1rem;">Yeti</em><span style="font-size: 1rem;"> </span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">or “abominable snowman.”  Because the bear tests the snow with its </span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">forepaws before placing its hind feet, it leaves only hind leg footprints, which then appear to be those of a two-legged creature.  </span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">In 1990, Messner crossed the entire continent of Antarctica — 1,740 miles — traveling over the South Pole on skis rather than with a snowmobile or dogsled.  In the following decade, his travels took him from Siberia to the Andes.  In 1993, he crossed Greenland on foot. The documentary film </span><em style="font-size: 1rem;">Portrait of a Snow Lion</em><span style="font-size: 1rem;"> — a French-British co-production — featured Messner and his exploits.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_59958" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59958" style="width: 4955px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-59958 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-59958 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="4955" height="3414" data-sizes="(max-width: 4955px) 100vw, 4955px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy.jpg 4955w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy-380x262.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy-760x524.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59958" class="wp-caption-text">1989-90: Würth-Antarktis Transversale expedition. Reinhold Messner during the Antarctic crossing, conducted on foot with Arved Fuchs. Messner and Fuchs traveled 2,800 kilometers in only 92 days. (Mauritius Images and Alamy)</figcaption></figure> <p>Reinhold Messner has written dozens of books describing his experiences, including <em>The Crystal Horizon</em> (describing his solo ascent of Everest), as well as <em>All Fourteen 8,000ers</em> and <em>My Quest for the Yeti</em>.  A passionate environmentalist, he was elected to a term representing Northeast Italy in the European Parliament as a member of the region’s Green Party.  He served a full term from 1999 to 2004, advocating for conservation of the natural world, sustainable development, and a focused response to the dangers of climate change.</p> <p>In the first years of the 21st century, Messner filmed a television series, <em>Wohnungen der Götter</em> (“Homes of the Gods”) for German television, introducing a mass audience to the spiritual traditions associated with the world’s mountains.  In 2004, he crossed Mongolia’s Gobi Desert — 1,250 miles — on foot.  The following year, an unprecedented heat wave melted a bank of snow and ice on the Diamir Face of Nanga Parbat, exposing the remains of Reinhold Messner’s brother Günther.  For years, some veterans of the 1970 expedition had questioned Reinhold Messner’s account of his brother’s death, but the location of Günther’s body confirmed the substance of Reinhold Messner’s recollection.</p> <figure id="attachment_59965" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59965" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-59965 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-59965 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1486" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811-380x248.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811-760x495.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59965" class="wp-caption-text">June 26, 2004: Reinhold Messner hikes alongside camels on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Just the day before, he had completed a five-week solo hike traversing the Gobi Desert. Messner has been described by writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer as the “Michael Jordan of mountaineering and adventuring.” (Getty Images)</figcaption></figure> <p>In 2006, the celebrated mountaineer opened the Messner Mountain Museum, dedicated to propagating knowledge of the beauty, history and natural science of Earth’s highest places. The museum has facilities at six different locations, dealing with different aspects of mountain studies: man’s relationship with the mountains; the art and spiritual lore of the mountains; geology; the history of mountaineering on ice; the mountain peoples of Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe; and the practice of alpine-style climbing.</p> <figure id="attachment_59967" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59967" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-59967 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-59967 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="3460" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover-250x380.jpg 250w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover-501x760.jpg 501w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-59967" class="wp-caption-text">2014: <em>Reinhold Messner: My Life at the Limit</em> is a conversation between Messner and interviewer Thomas Hüetlin, an award-winning German journalist. It reveals a more thoughtful and conversational Messner than one would find in his previous books, with the “talk” between Messner and Hüetlin covering not only the highlights of Messner’s climbing career, but also his foot treks across Tibet, the Gobi, and Antarctica; his five-year stint as a member of the European Parliament; his encounter with and study of the Yeti; and thoughts on traditional male and female roles.</figcaption></figure> <p>A 2010 film, <em>Nanga Parbat</em>, dramatized the events of the 1970 ascent.  Among the more than 60 books he has published to date are <em>The Naked Mountain</em>; <em>Free Spirit: A Climber’s Life; </em>and <em>My Life at the Limit</em>.  Now in his 70s, he no longer undertakes the feats of high-altitude endurance he performed in his youth, but he continues to enjoy an active outdoor life and is producing films to bring the glorious sights he has seen to a worldwide audience. Reinhold Messner was married to Ursula Demeter from 1972 to 1977. Since 2009, he has been married to Sabine Stehle. He has four children, at least one of whom is now following in his adventurous footsteps.</p> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1987 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.explorer">Explorer</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.mountaineer-sports">Mountaineer</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 17, 1944 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p>Hailed as the greatest mountaineer in history, Reinhold Messner rejects such titles, but the record of his achievement is incontestable. Time and again, he has challenged and surpassed the supposed limits of human strength, courage, and endurance, overcoming seemingly insuperable obstacles to reach the most exalted places on Earth.</p> <p>A pioneer of high-altitude climbing in the Alpine style, without porters or any of the other appurtenances of expedition-style mountaineering, he is the first man in history to reach the summit of all the world’s mountains of over 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). In 1978, he and a climbing partner reached the summit of Mount Everest — the tallest mountain on Earth — without the use of supplemental oxygen, defying the conventional wisdom of mountain lore and medical science. Two years later, Messner repeated this feat singlehanded — the first man to reach the summit of Everest alone.</p> <p>Since then, he has traveled on foot across the entire breadth of Antarctica, traversed the Gobi Desert of Mongolia unaccompanied, and solved the mystery of the Yeti — or “abominable snowman” — said to haunt the Himalayas. Through his books, films, and the Messner Mountain Museum in South Tyrol, Italy, he shares the majesty and wonder of Earth’s most inaccessible places and the exhilarating experience of a life lived at the limit.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/bZ-jDv0C8yo?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.01_01_19_13.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.01_01_19_13.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Life at the Limit</h2> <div class="sans-2">Bozen, Italy</div> <div class="sans-2">August 22, 2018</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>There are so many firsts in your career. Why do you think you have been so successful doing things that others barely dared attempt?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/F2Cj4Uhl8IM?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_24_04_20.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_24_04_20.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: I think that I have only one thing which many other climbers do not have. I had the opportunity in my 15th year to learn naively to survive in the mountains, so it became an instinct. When I was 20, and I met famous climbers — before we went, my brothers, all of them climbed. My younger brother was an extreme climber like me. We became really top climbers. We had no opportunities to know famous climbers because we came out of a small hidden valley in the Dolomites — and seeing some other climbers but not being at least able to speak with them because we had a great respect.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p>But when I was 20, I met the first famous Austrian climber. He was seven years older than me, and he had the knowledge, much better than me, and we climbed together. And I learned many things from him. Maybe it was one safety fact that I survived later. And in this period, I understood quite quickly that there are perfect rock climbers, good Alps climbers, but they don’t have my instinct. They could not see from far away where is the good line, where in the rock it’s not good, when a cloud told me now the weather is getting better and better to go down. All the ideas for first climbs I did in my life, more than 100 for my expeditions, are coming all out of this head.</p> <p><strong>Where did you get these ideas for what you wanted to try next?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/bFulDqZvS_I?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_26_03_08.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_26_03_08.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: After doing 15 years of climbing in the Dolomites at home— on smaller walls but also on difficult walls — I was able to do the most difficult routes in the Alps, the Mont Blanc area and the Dolomites. And I tried to do the most difficult routes. And afterwards, I went further and said, “The climb was yesterday.” Hermann Buhl and Walter Bonatti said, “This route is impossible.” And I said, “Let’s look.” For example, a typical example, when Hermann Buhl climbed Nanga Parbat in 1953, it was one of the greatest achievements ever in alpinism. In 1953, he went up on the eastern ridge — not so difficult in many parts. And he could see, in diagonal vision, the south face of Nanga Parbat. And he wrote in his book, “This wall is so steep and so high — it’s the highest wall of the world — that never anybody will do it.” And this was the motivation 17 years later to go there and try.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_60022" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-60022" style="width: 1946px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-60022 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-60022 lazyload" alt="" width="1946" height="2878" data-sizes="(max-width: 1946px) 100vw, 1946px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186.jpg 1946w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186-257x380.jpg 257w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186-514x760.jpg 514w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-60022" class="wp-caption-text">September 10, 1980: Reinhold Messner, during a press conference, after summiting Mount Everest solo — without any supplemental oxygen, porters, or climbing partners. Messner’s solo ascent to the summit was accomplished via a new and more difficult northwest route and during a monsoon. (Photo by Frank Leonhardt via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>So many people have died on Nanga Parbat and the other peaks you’ve climbed. Why do you think you survived?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/EHIwez-_UNg?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_06_01_06.Still018-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_06_01_06.Still018-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: If I would look to the most able alpinists, traditional alpinists of the last 50 years — most of them I know personally — 50 percent, exactly 50 percent died on the mountains and 50 percent survived. So this is the proof this is not ability only. This is also luck. The avalanche didn’t touch me on Nanga Parbat. I was a little bit ahead of my brother. But why? Not because I was ahead but because I was looking for the route and he was waiting to get the sign from me that “Okay, we can go further.” So it happened.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>How do you overcome your limits from the day before?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/geIird_wLq0?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_43_44_08.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_43_44_08.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: You did a good climb and you have the grade of difficulties because this is in the description. So you know, “These difficulties I can handle, I can manage.” But next time, you try to do a little bit more, a higher wall, a more difficult wall. And in the end — I went from the Alps to the Himalayas — especially because I lost my toes partly in the tragedy on Nanga Parbat, losing also my brother, and I was not able to climb anymore like before. Never ever after ’69 — this was my best year, ’68-’69, as a rock climber — I could approach the difficulties I did before. And losing this ability, I lost also interest and enthusiasm for this activity. So after a while of discussing with myself, I decided to expose myself to the high altitudes, to try to become a high-altitude climber. I was beginning by zero, learning from other ones, seeing how they handle it. And I changed the whole high-altitude alpinism.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>How did that tragedy affect you?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: It affected a lot because it was the necessity to leave climbing at all or to change activity. It was the first time when I was forced — in this case, I was forced to begin a new life. And today, looking backwards, I have the feeling I had 20 years of difficult climbs on rocks, on ice, especially in the Alps. And I was on a high level when this tragedy put me out of this career of this activity. And I was beginning a new life. It was my second life in high altitude.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/FDefQ8RkWz4?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.01_03_22_04.Still017-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.01_03_22_04.Still017-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I learned slowly. First, I learned to be in small groups, to do difficult routes in small groups without tents, without Sherpas, without oxygen, and so on. I needed a long time to be able to climb an 8,000-meter peak solo. Because being solo, you cannot divide fear, you cannot divide the work you have to do up there. And the solo climb of Nanga Parbat in ’78 is much more important than the solo climb of Everest because it was the mountain where I learned it. And especially, I did a totally new route on a high wall on Nanga Parbat, and the first time — not only for me, for the whole climbing community — somebody did an 8,000-meter peak solo. And the problem was not a technical problem, not a logistical problem. It was a mental problem — to be able to handle, to be on the end of the world in very dangerous situations by yourself, not being able to speak with anybody, not being able to exchange experiences, not being able to divide fear. If you are together, fear is only half. If you are with one man, only half. If you are three, it’s only a third.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_60029" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-60029" style="width: 2702px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-60029 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-60029 lazyload" alt="" width="2702" height="1799" data-sizes="(max-width: 2702px) 100vw, 2702px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724.jpg 2702w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-60029" class="wp-caption-text">1991: Reinhold Messner on Austria’s Similaun in the Schnalskamm group of the Ötztal Alps. The Similaun, at 3,606 meters (11,831 feet), is the sixth highest mountain in Austria. Messner was commissioned to take one of the first photographs of the mummy known as “the Iceman,” found in 1991 in a snowdrift on Similaun. (© Getty Images)</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>How do you get over the mental fear of being five miles up in the air?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ImhjcrVP5hc?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_46_29_27.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_46_29_27.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: In the Alps, I had problems to do solo climbs in the night. Normally, we begin in the night. If it’s dark, the danger is not more, but we cannot see the danger. In the night, if a stone is coming, I cannot see it. I cannot escape. During the daytime, I can look — the stones coming, stone falls, very big danger — and in the last moment, I can go apart. In the night, this is not possible, so the fear is much bigger. Only in ’69, I was able to do solo climbs without anything, difficult solo climbs. Also, bivouacking, sleeping in the middle of the wall. But on an 8,000-meter peak, it’s not only night, it’s not only one night up there. It’s a few nights. You are much more away from safety. We human beings are all made for searching for safety. In the last 10,000 years, human beings did only work for growing safety. In the cities, in communities, in the states, and so on. I don’t think that they really found more safety because now we have a technology which is able to kill us easily, all of us.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>When you were at the base of Mount Everest, preparing for the first solo ascent, what was going through your mind?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/UYLxJnWTyOI?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_49_42_01.Still013-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_49_42_01.Still013-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: When I was beginning the solo ascent of Mount Everest, it was after two and a half months being there — because I tried just a month after reaching the base camp, but it was monsoon time. So many snow was in the mountain — very big danger for avalanches. So at 7,000 meters, I decided to go down. I went further north because there the monsoon could not reach the mountains, and I could still train and acclimatize. And when the monsoon stopped for a while — it was a monsoon break — I went back to the base camp. I was prepared mentally. I was prepared physically perfectly, and I started being able, with my rucksack, to be out dark [sic], self-sufficient for more or less ten days.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_60036" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-60036" style="width: 2833px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-60036 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-60036 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2833" height="1058" data-sizes="(max-width: 2833px) 100vw, 2833px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764.jpg 2833w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764-380x142.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764-760x284.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-60036" class="wp-caption-text">The Mount Everest range at sunrise. On May 8, 1978, 33-year-old Reinhold Messner and 35-year-old Peter Habeler became the first to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. In 1980, Messner repeated the feat solo.</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What was in your rucksack?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Everything to survive: a cooker for melting snow; some food but not many; a small tent; a mattress; a meter of rope, two meters of rope, to belay myself for a moment on the mountains; a piton, a rock piton; and an ice tool. Naturally, the ice axe, I had in my hand, the crampons I had on my shoes.</p> <p><strong>Did you bring anything for good luck?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: No, no, no. I’m not believing in these things.</p> <p><strong>How much did it weigh?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: More or less 20 kilos.</p> <p><strong>It’s hard to imagine how dark and cold it must get.</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/wcG_kbWBi2M?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.01_01_46_01.Still016-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.01_01_46_01.Still016-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: I started in darkness — but only the first night — because from the base camp onwards, I knew more or less the terrain. So I could start at midnight, and I had a headlamp, and I could orientate. But higher up, where I did not go before, I went only when the daylight was coming. I was melting snow in the tent. The most important thing up there is that we are drinking because we lose a lot of humidity and water with our very difficult, very strong breath. We are breathing like dogs up there, running dogs. We are hyperventilating. You have to do it because there’s less oxygen.</p> <p>In reality, the pressure in the air is much less than at home. And on the Everest, this is the limit people can stay on. And I could not take oxygen bottles. I would never be able to carry them by myself. You have to know that in the ‘70s, the oxygen equipment for one man on Everest had the weight of 50 kilos.</p> <p>So they needed a lot of helpers to bring all this stuff up there. And the first expeditions, when the British and Americans went — and also the Indians, in the ‘50s and the ‘60s, went to Mount Everest — they needed hundreds of porters. They needed tons and tons of materials because also, for the porters which you use, and they help you higher up, you need logistics. You need tents, and you need food, and you need cookers, and so on. And if you go alone, you need only the minimum of necessity, but you have to learn to handle it. And the problem is not a technical one. The north side of Mount Everest is not difficult for a good climber. You can fall also there, but only if you are really stupid, you can fall there.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_60042" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-60042" style="width: 2941px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-60042 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-60042 lazyload" alt="" width="2941" height="1349" data-sizes="(max-width: 2941px) 100vw, 2941px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2.jpg 2941w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2-380x174.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235421im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2-760x349.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-60042" class="wp-caption-text">2015: The MMM Corones, sitting at the top of Mount Kronplatz, one of the most popular ski resorts in the Italian Alps. Designed by architect Zaha Hadid, it is the brainchild of mountaineer Reinhold Messner. Inaugurated in July 2015, the Corones — the Latin word for “crown” that is also the Italian name of the mountain — offers stunning views of the surrounding Dolomites and is dedicated to traditional alpinism; Reinhold Messner, at the inauguration ceremony of the MMM Corones, refers to his museum as “my 15th eight-thousander.” (Courtesy of MMM Corones)</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>When you keep going higher and higher and you’re over 8,000 feet up, what’s it like to breathe in that thin air?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/v92xjIXcN8Q?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_00_54_05.Still019-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_00_54_05.Still019-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: The thin air makes, first of all, that you are becoming slower and slower. The higher we go, less pressure is in the air, so no more oxygen is coming to our energy in the blood. And the sugar in the blood is the energy. We need oxygen to burn it, like to burn wood. If you go at 8,000 meters, you cannot make fire with wood. It’s not possible. There’s not any more burning. The oxygen is missing. And if there is not enough oxygen for your energy, which you have in your circulation of blood, you are doing one step and you do a rest, and another step and you do a longer rest, another step and the longer rest again. So you’re becoming infinite slowly.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>How does it affect you mentally?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: You’re becoming — not without willpower, but with less and less and less willpower. Also, your capacity to decide. Decisions are very important, what you do, go left, right, go down.</p> <p><strong>How do you overcome that?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: You’re like a zombie up there. Only if you know to handle mountaineering like in sleep, or the same as in sleep, you are able to survive up there. So you need a long, long experience.</p> <p><strong>When you get to the highest point on Earth, what does it feel like? What emotions do you feel?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235421if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/9fwj12GS5MI?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_49_21_08.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Messner-Reinhold-2018-MasterEdit.00_49_21_08.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Reinhold Messner: The higher the mountain, less emotions. There is no place for emotions. There’s only the decision, “Now finally, I am able — I am free — to go down.” We force ourselves against our instinct of survival, our strongest instinct. An egotistical instinct is our instinct of survival. We have it. Who is telling me that he’s not egotistical is sick. We are all egotistical. And the human race is still alive because we are egotistical. Otherwise, I would do the first mistake and I would die out there. This instinct is keeping alive my body, my mind. But I go against my instinct higher and higher. My instinct is, in the last part, every step, saying, “Let it go down. It is too dangerous. You’ll go more and more in danger.” And on the summit, we are far, far away, farthest away from safety. So there is only the necessity, an inner necessity given us by this instinct of survival to go back.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>You’ve been called “the king of all climbers” and the most famous mountaineer in the world. What do you think makes you so remarkable?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: First of all, I’m not a king, and I would not like to be a king. I’m called “the king of the 8,000-meter” because I climbed them all and a few of them twice. I’m not a special person. I’m a normal person, but I had the opportunity in my life to make many experiences on the edge of the possibilities in the mountains — in Antarctica and Greenland, in the big deserts — and having this opportunity to go in the places where wilderness is still there. And I try to understand what’s happening with our nature. We have a nature in us — if we expose ourselves in the big nature, where it’s danger, where it’s loneliness, where it’s silence — and these feelings, for the normal people, they are gone. So many people are coming to see my museums, to listen to my lectures, to read my books because they hope to get something which they cannot get anymore. In the cities, they have no silence. The time is very, very cut. If I go to Antarctica, time is becoming endless. You know, midland in Antarctica, you have the feeling you are on a different star, on a different world, and time is not anymore existing. Time is only a measurement we invented.</p> <p><strong>What is it about pushing the limits that attracts you? Is it doing what nobody has ever done before?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: No, no, many people are doing this. This is a beautiful sport. Traditional mountaineering is not what’s happening in the gym, with indoor climbing walls. They are on artificial walls. It has nothing to do with traditional alpinism.</p> <p>Alpinism has a tradition of 250 years, not more. Before we had the mythological time when people did not really go, and there were many stories about gods sitting on the mountains in the Greek philosophy. Also, in India, people have the feeling that Shiva is sitting on a high mountain, a holy mountain. In Tibet, they have holy mountains. This period is gone. Maybe somewhere in East Africa, with the <em>Indios</em> in South America, with the Sherpas in Nepal, with the Tibetans in Tibet, there is still a religious feeling between men — human beings — and the mountains.</p> <p>But since 250 years, we have mountaineers, and this was beginning with scientists. They came especially from Britain, also from the European cities, to study the mountains. After the illumination (the Enlightenment) and with the beginning of the industrialization, people were open-minded enough, and they had the money to come to the Alps and conquer the Alps. In 1786, the Mont Blanc was conquered, and this is the birthday of traditional alpinism. And from this moment onwards, alpinism is evolving only in one direction: possible or impossible. That’s the question: possible or impossible? And each young generation tried to make possible what the old generation defined impossible.</p> <p><strong>In 1980, you climbed Mount Everest solo. That’s one of the greatest feats that a human being has ever accomplished. What preparation goes into an achievement like that?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I had preparation for at least 30 years. My first steps, I did as a five-year-old boy in the Dolomites with my father and my mother and my older brother, climbing the first 3,000-meter peak, let’s say 10,000 feet — a climbing mountain but not a difficult one, an easy one. It’s the first step for the know-how I have today — also for the overview I have today. And in the first 15 years, I was climbing at home on smaller walls. But my capacity, my power, my agility, my knowledge was growing year by year, and I was doing always something more difficult. I tried to overcome the limit of yesterday, and next day, again overcome the limit of — my limit. There are two limits. There’s <em>my</em> limit, and this is changing. In young years, the limit is growing, growing, growing, and afterwards, up to a certain age, the limit is getting down. Today I can never again do what I did for 15 years.</p> <p><strong>Did you always know that you would be able to achieve what you have done?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I could not know when I started that I could do it, but I knew 17 years past, so we have new equipment, we have a bigger knowledge because knowledge is growing with all alpinists together. We put our experiences together, our knowledge together. Also, if I don’t know certain alpinists, I get information from them, so knowledge is growing. Also now, I’m not putting in any knowledge anymore, but my son is today on a difficult wall in Switzerland, and he will put some new knowledge in because he’s one small part — millions of people are going to bring knowledge and know-how together for the next generations.</p> <p><strong>You’ve said that your son is out climbing today as we sit here. Don’t you worry about his safety?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: He’s not yet 30, he’s 27. But anyway, he’s mature. He’s doing his life. I was much more emotionally involved when he was 16, 17, when he was beginning to climb. He began very late, and he was not even so much into climbing because he had a few problems. It was the abyss and so on. Now he’s climbing on a very high level, but danger is there. But if I would steal him this possibility, as the father telling, “You should not do it,” I know exactly this is so dangerous. He could not do his life. When I was 16 — my brother was 14 — we were beginning to do extreme climbing, very young. And at three o’clock in the morning, we started at home. Our mother made us breakfast, and we put the rope and the pitons, and we went. And she never said, “Don’t do it. This is dangerous.”</p> <p><strong>Don’t you think that’s remarkable?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: That’s very remarkable because she was full of fear. But she also knew that if we would not do it, if we would be forced to leave this enthusiasm for climbing, we could never become strong characters. It’s not possible. You need the freedom to do what you like to do. And in this case, it’s very difficult for a mother, especially. In these circumstances, I have also to say that what we are doing is very egotistical, and we cannot take the responsibility in front of our parents, in front of our brothers, and so on. But if somebody is doing it, this is his fault or her fault, not mine.</p> <p><strong>Was there something in how you grew up or something your parents did that gave you this ambition to go beyond normal limits?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: No, not either, myself. I was only going in very small steps — every weekend, a little bit more higher, a little bit more difficult. And up to the age of 22, 23, 24, with the clear view, “I’m doing what the people of yesterday could not do.” In ‘68, I did my most difficult climb in the Dolomites, and for more than ten years, nobody could repeat it. So somebody thought it’s not possible to see past there, impossible that somebody pass there. And I was very proud because I said, “Okay, the climbs stopped on my limit now.” But after ten years, with new shoes, with better training, with new knowledge, people did it. And now this is a difficult <em>passage</em>, we call it, but it’s one of the <em>passages</em>.</p> <p><strong>George Mallory said he tried to climb Everest “because it’s there.” Why do you climb?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: This is an answer for one man for one mountain. Mallory went on Everest in ’21 and they did not either really try. But he was the key figure in this expedition. He found the route. He went up to 7,000 meters to the north wall and he could see this is possible. The ridge afterwards is possible. But he did not know if the summit ridge is possible, and he wrote in ’24 to his wife, before dying, “I will do it this time if, on the summit ridge, there is no vertical step which is stopping me,” which happened later on. Exactly this happened later.</p> <p>Mallory went the second time on Everest in ’22 when they really were prepared to do the summit. And this British expedition was very focused on reaching the summit because Brits had to hide something. They tried many times on the north wall and failed. But the Brits were the leading conquerors of the world, not only for the colonies, but also for summits and so on. And they tried to go to the South Pole first. They tried many times. And on the end, a Norwegian man did it — Amundsen — and Scott came too late, one month too late.</p> <p>Now the Brits changed Mount Everest from a mountain to “the third pole.” They called it, “This is the third pole,” to prove that they are able to reach first one pole. And in ’24, they tried a third time, and Mallory was in America before going to the third expedition, and a journalist asked him, “Why are you going the third time on Everest? You did it. You failed once. You failed the second time. Why do you go a third time?” And he answered, “Because it’s there.”</p> <p><strong>Some people say you are the greatest mountaineer of all time.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: No, no, no, no, no. There will be great mountaineers again.</p> <p><strong>But you’ve had enormous success.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I had success. I did a lot of adventures. And especially, I did it in many fields. I was a rock climber. I was an alpine climber. I was an altitude climber. I did the traverse of Antarctica, a fact that we could not do. I crossed also Greenland a long way and then many, many things.</p> <p><strong>But not everything you tried succeeded.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Right, I failed many times.</p> <p><strong>So when did you know it was time to turn back?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: One-third of my big adventures failed. Normally, I have a good feeling to see something is not functioning: the path is not good enough; the weather is not allowing; I am not in perfect shape, and so on.</p> <p><strong>Is it instinct again?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: It’s instinct, yeah. It’s more instinct. It’s not coming from pure knowledge or calculation. There’s no calculation.</p> <p><strong>You get a feeling?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I get a feeling: “Now we are on the edge. We should go back in our situation.” I am not every day in the same shape over every year.</p> <p><strong>There was a decade when so many people had died on the 8,000-meter that people said the chances were high that you would die.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: And this was very interesting that 8,000-meter climbing was successful in the ‘50s and the beginning of the ‘60s. Then famous climbers went to the Himalayas with national expeditions paid by the nations, paid by the alpine clubs, and they did the first ascents. And all the nations where they had climbers tried to do the 8,000-meter peaks.</p> <p>So the first ones were French people. And the French people, after the Second World War, were the leading climbers worldwide. So they did also the first 8,000-meter peak. The second 8,000-meter peak was done by the British (English) — and the English, they had the biggest experience. And they were forced to do it because the Swiss people tried it; they went very high. So they got a permit, and they knew, “This time we have to do it, otherwise we lose our reputation.” The next one was an Austrian, again an alpine climber, Hermann Buhl at Nanga Parbat. Afterwards, we had again British, French again, Americans on Gasherbrum I, Chinese on the last one because it was in Tibet. They didn’t give a permit to foreigners or they did it by themselves. The Japanese did an 8,000-meter peak. And these were the nations. They had history before the Second World War.</p> <p>In the ‘70s, the whole thing changed. In the beginning of the ‘70s, my generation went to do the difficult routes, not anymore the summits. We reached on the end the summit, but the summit was only the end. We tried to do the most difficult routes.</p> <p><strong>But during this time, mathematically speaking, if you climbed 8,000-meter peaks ten times, you were just about guaranteed to die.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Yeah. For me, the guarantee to die was 99 percent. I had to die. But I am the exception. I was lucky. I was prepared. I had this opportunity to learn in my young years and so on.</p> <p><strong>Some people might say, “That’s crazy.”</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: No, that’s not crazy. I was very well organized in my things. I am an exceptional worker, not only a risk taker. And I was not in competition with anybody. Many people died because they were in competition. For example, the Polish climbers, the Czech climbers — not the Russians — the Russians could go on their own mountains in Crimea and the Khinjan. But the Polish, the Czechs, the Hungarians, they could not go. The Slovenians. They were in these communist systems. They could not go to the 8,000-meter peaks. When they could go, they went in so high-risk. More than 80 percent of the leading Polish climbers of the ‘80s died on the high peaks — also Kukuczka, the best one, died. And now again the Slovenians are the best climbers of the world. This small country, there is between them a hard competition, and they had not a chance to express themselves in the great years, in the ‘50s and the ‘60s, beginning of the ‘70s, when I had my opportunity.</p> <p><strong>Do you feel an adrenaline rush after a big successful climb?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: The adrenaline is stronger when you start, not in the end. In the end, you’re calming down, especially if something has happened. If nothing has happened, everything is running after your plan, which you started to prepare years before.</p> <p>In ’78, in May, after Everest, being back in Katmandu, capital of Nepal, I went to the government to ask for a solo permit on Everest. And they said, “No chance. It’s forbidden.” I cannot get a permit. Afterwards, I went to China — to Beijing — to ask the Chinese because Everest is a border mountain, to get the permit, and they give me immediately a permit to go. It was costly, but anyway, I got the permit. And I had more than two years to prepare mentally for Everest alone. And in these two years, no day passed without thinking a moment what I do when, what I take with me, which route I will exactly go.</p> <p>Generally, before going, I know where, generally, I go. In detail, I do it from the base camp with binoculars, without binoculars. And afterwards, step-by-step, but these are the very small details. And on Everest, searching for the route, for the way, is easier than in the Dolomites because in the Dolomites you have vertical walls, and you can’t see from below — especially in early winter — with the binoculars. There’s a little bit of snow. Where there’s a little bit of snow, there’s a hold. But in detail, you cannot say if you’re really able to hold yourself on this small hold. So you have a general route in your mind. It’s like a picture in your mind. And you know, during climbing, where you are now in the route, which is here. You are in reality and here. This should match perfectly. And so you know now you have to go to the right, on the right side. But how you handle it in the next minutes or hours — sometimes you need hours for five meters.</p> <p><strong>Early in your career, you lost some of your toes, is that right? How many toes?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Seven, partly.</p> <p><strong>I think some people would have stopped then. Why did you keep going?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Because I had the possibility to go further, and I understood quite quickly when in high altitude, the shoes are so heavy and so isolated that I can go also quite well without those. I did more than 100 expeditions without these seven toes. I did only two expeditions before going to the big mountains.</p> <p><strong>Does it hurt?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: It hurts sometimes, a little bit. It’s part of my life, like I have this nose; I have no toes — or missing seven toes. Not totally missing them — some are totally gone — the left foot, only one toe is left. And on the other one, parts are cut off. So for rock climbing, I need different shoes.</p> <p><strong>If it wasn’t competition with somebody else, what was the drive that made you do something where you had a 99 percent chance of dying?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: The knowledge that life is great if you go further to invent something and to do it. This is the key. This is the key that generates my life. One key is that I am fighting to be a self-sufficient person who can do what he likes. I don’t like anybody around me telling me, “You should not do this and you should do this. And you should go down there.”</p> <p><strong>What do you feel at the top of Mount Everest? There are billions of people on Earth, and for one moment, when you are on top of the world, five miles up, you’re the only one up there. You’re literally higher than all of us. Can you tell us what kind of feeling you have at that moment?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Nothing. You have the feeling you are going in, in a situation. I sat down and I was very tired. Sitting and resting, and after a while, I had the power to get up for going down. This was all. The big emotions are coming when you go back to life, when you hear the first water running. Up there is no running water.</p> <p><strong>What does it feel like when you come back from the mountaintop? What are the emotions?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: You come back to life, to be alive. Up there you are so exposed. You’re on the limit of exposure, to less oxygen. It’s very cold. No water. You have to make water. There’s snow — okay, ice. You can make water. Food is not so important. But coming back, you have the warmth of the sun. The sun is warm down there. Up there, the sun is not giving energy. You have people around you. You have birds around you. You have insects around you. You are in the middle of the life. And this is the strong moment. And this moment is like to be reborn. But in this case, not your mother gives you life — but you, by yourself, you’ve conquered your life back. You went in an area — in a world — which is not made for human beings, and you feel it every second. This is not made for us. But if you come back to the place which is made for human beings, you are reborn, and you have totally life before you. And with all your fantasy and energy, you start the next project, for having again this feeling of being reborn.</p> <p>But if you do something your whole lifetime, normally it is becoming boring because after a while you know how to handle it. So after the 8,000-meter peaks, I decided, okay, that’s enough now. I would not like to repeat myself once more and once more, and look how the people are clapping if I climb one more 8,000-meter peak. I decided to do something new. And I was totally unable to handle this new thing, and I had to learn. The best part is always the beginning. The beginning and maybe after one or two years, when you are able to handle it, you can understand the problems. And you can begin to go above what was done before you — to go in unknown areas.</p> <p><strong>One of the things you’ve done that’s so fascinating is your search for the Yeti. </strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: First of all, you have to understand that the Yeti is a legend. The Yeti story is a legend. And in Asia, where this legend was growing and taught from generation to generation, it’s a legend. It was living in the north foothill of the Himalayas. And on certain places, the people went from the north to the south, and with the people came also the legend from the north to the south. And the local people are not calling this strange being — this big beast or whatever you call it — “Yeti.” The word “Yeti” is an invention of a British journalist. He put a few words together, and he came home and said, “In Himalaya, there’s a Yeti. This Yeti is the snowman.” So the people are thinking he’s a man, a hairy man, the snowman. But this is all wrong.</p> <p>And I could brief that proof, that the Yeti legend is still existing, and many people in the Himalayas heard about it, while none of them have seen ever this beast, this creature. And this is all of it. But there is an animal, which is the base of this Yeti figure. We call it Yeti figure, but they call it different. And I did the book, how I found out and how I did. Now American genetic specialists, they proved it genetically that this special bear — it’s a special bear — is the base of this legend. And around this bear, they told stories a little bit differently. But I found, in the eastern part of the Himalayas and in the western part, where there are totally different cultures and languages and religions, the same story. So we know it was once in the whole Himalayas.</p> <p><strong>When you saw this bear, what did it look like?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I have seen it very late in the evening, not in the dark. I could still see something. And I could not say afterwards, after seeing it, this was a bear because it was in the woods, and I was searching for the route. And I could see this creature, which disappeared immediately, and only when I could see the footprints because it was standing in the mud, maybe 20 meters in front of me, not so far, and he disappeared in the dark woods. And I could see in the mud the footprints, and I remember immediately the footprints I have seen from (Eric) Shipton on snow. And so I said, “That’s the same footprints.” And from this moment on, I was searching, and I was searching for ten years to have the clear answer. Before, if somebody’s reading my books, I say in one of my books, “The Yeti story is the pure invention. Maybe a mother, for giving a goodnight story to the children, invented the story.” But afterwards, I understood that it’s a real being, which is the base for the legend.</p> <p>This animal is only around in the night. During the day, you can never see it. So in the night, what do you see? A beast going on two legs. On the snow, you see only he’s crossing the Himalayas on snow passes, 6,000 meters high. Only this animal can do this. And he is going on the snow that you see only the back foot. Why? He’s going, he or she, and putting the foot on the snow. And if the snow is firm, no crevasses below, instinctively this animal knows, “Okay, this is firm.” He puts the back foot exactly in the forefoot for being safe. So you see the footprints of a giant — big footprints. But you see not the front foot of a bear because the front foot of a bear, you see immediately that it’s a bear. But the back foot is like the human foot. So you see in the snow the footprints of a giant.</p> <p>Genetically, he had to learn because if the bears, for 100,000 years, made a mistake, and they would fall in crevasses, they could not survive. They had no children. They had only the bears they were. They learned, they had children, and genetically, slowly, slowly, it became part of the bear’s knowledge, instinct of the bears, to know the mistakes and to put exactly proof. And afterwards, he can put the other foot, which has all the weight.</p> <p><strong>Which was more difficult, crossing the Gobi Desert or crossing Antarctica?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Antarctica is more difficult because in Antarctica you need a lot of stuff. There is nothing. You cannot buy anything. In Gobi Desert, there are living some people, not everywhere. This is part of the logistics that you study before, where these nomads are living. So the nomads are giving you water. Nomads are always very great-hearted. They give away everything. All the nomads — <em>I</em> was a nomad for <em>them</em>. I was coming with my rucksack and sleeping there. None of the nomads in Mongolia and in the Gobi Desert put me out of their <em>yurta</em>, of their houses. They’re not having houses. They are just round closed houses, perfect houses. And I could sleep there. I could eat with them. They give me water. And I knew every time I find a <em>yurta</em>, a clan — 20 people, normally, with their goats and their horses — I can find help and I can find food and water.</p> <p><strong>Let’s talk about these beautiful museums you’ve built. How long did it take?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: For 15 years, I was doing these museums. I was inventing them. My family was absolutely against it because they were worrying that I’ll lose all my money and all my property. And after a while, I understood I can handle it. On the beginning, I did not know. And I was beginning this thing with my own castle. I bought it more than 30 years ago. There I made a museum, a very simple thing, to see how a museum would function. I am not a museum director. I am not a specialist. But I was doing it in practice to see how it would function.</p> <p>After seeing this would probably function, it should also function economically. It means if I don’t get the money in which I need to bring this up, I have to close it. We are one of the unique museums, between Hamburg and Napoli, not getting any subventions. We do it freely, which means free market. And when I was beginning this big museum, these six houses, I invited three chief directors of museums: one from Munich, one from Zurich, one from Roma. And we made a brainstorm. I told them this is my project, and they said, “You are crazy. No chance. This is a province, a small province — much less people. And you cannot make six houses. If you do it with your own money, do one house with six stores. You need one ticketing, one group for cleaning; you need one telephone lady, and so on. But if you have six museums, we will never handle it.”</p> <p><strong>Why did you have to do six at once?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I had decided to make a center. We are here in the center. Here is the whole bureaucratic part. And five satellites around, where I put special issues, special themes, like rock, ice, holy mountains, mountain people, and traditional alpinism. And I put all these museums in places where nature outside is combined with the theme I have inside. So all the mountains outside are part of my museums. I stole them. I stole beautiful mountains. And this is the success we have.</p> <p><strong>What do you think about the development of mountain tourism — on Everest, for example?</strong></p> <p>You know what’s happening today. They prepare Everest for tourists. They make up a <em>piste</em>. It’s tourism. Okay, I’m not criticizing it. More than 100 Sherpas in the springtime go to Mount Everest. No tourists are there, so no clients. And they prepare from the base to the summit a <em>piste</em>, with ropes left and right that you cannot lose your way, with bridges on the crevasses, with ladders on vertical pieces. In the camps are doctors, cooks, helpers, oxygen bottles. Up to the summit, there’s a rope there. You can hold yourself with special machinery. And part of these climbers are going with the Sherpa. The Sherpa is carrying the oxygen, and they have a tube, and they are using the oxygen. And in this way, Everest is becoming a trekking mountain.</p> <p><strong>You served a term in the European Parliament. Which is harder, politics or climbing mountains?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Politics is a totally different thing. Politics is the art of persuasion, the art of compromise. In a democracy, if you are not able to compromise, democracy is impossible.</p> <p><strong>Are you a good compromiser?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: As a politician, yes. But mountaineering is a totally different thing. We are two people. We are alone. We are three people. And there you need decisions. But our system is a basic democratic decision process. In reality, we are behaving like anarchists. You know that “anarchism,” if you translate the word from the Greek language, from the old Greek language, means only “No power to nobody.” And this is the perfect democracy: No power to nobody. So nobody has power to dictate to the lower people and not to the upper people. They are all on the same level. But this is only possible in very small communities. Only small communities are functioning in this way, in this anarchistic way. Big communities, it’s not possible. You need rules. And it seems that our democracy, especially with the American president, is not any more functioning. He’s not voted by the people. He’s doing what he wants. He’s not working with the parliaments. He’s not having the same system like Putin or like the Chinese. But probably, we will follow the vertical democracy in the future — which is not anymore a democracy — with a few people deciding and the others are following.</p> <p><strong>You’re almost 74, but you look about 50. How is that possible given the amazing, punishing feats that you’ve accomplished — walking across Antarctica, walking across Greenland? Why do you think you look so young?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I think I look quite young because I have still a lot of hair, and because I have still the possibility and the energy to follow my dreams. It’s a kitschy word, but in the meanwhile, I know that looking backwards to your successes is boring. Hopefully also in five years, hopefully also in 15 years, if I’m still alive, the art of living stays in realizing — step-by-step, now and here — your dreams.</p> <p><em>Gelungenes leben</em> in German. <em>Leben</em> is “life” and “successful” — “it was successful.” This is the boring thing. But the success realized in this moment makes you forget everything. Also, the question: Why are we here? What is the sense of us? Because what I did is totally useless for human beings, totally useless. But it was for me the most — it was infinitely full of sense because <em>I</em> give the sense. Nobody else. No God, no religion, no priest, no Pope gave me the sense. I have to find the sense every time. And it’s very easy if you have projects, if you have ideas, and you are trying to fulfill them. For this, I try — just 35-40 — to give away all the bureaucratic work. I’m not doing it. I would kill the bureaucrats if they block my stuff. It happened many times.</p> <p>I have a secretary, and she’s doing all my bureaucratic work. I call her if we have a problem with a film matter, for example, to go further with financing. I call her only: “We still have enough money in the bank to do this?” And she says yes or no, and I do or not, very simple. But I am not looking to any accounts, and I’m not interested at all how many money I have in the bank, what is costing this or that. I’m only trying to realize my ideas.</p> <p><strong>Whenever you do one of these extreme adventures, like traveling across Antarctica, do you learn something about life?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Yes. I wrote a book when I was having my 70th birthday — I published it on my 70th birthday — with the title <em>About Life</em>. It’s not about climbing; it’s about life. And there, I have 70 chapters where I tell what I learned doing these expeditions — these climbs — for life, generally. And I begin, and I say, “Everything is in our genes — all the rules. And we cannot escape them.” But in the normal life, being part of seven-and-a-half billion people, this is not anymore functioning. We are not functioning following our own rules. We are functioning following the rules of the politicians and the religions. But if I go out of this world, if I put me freely in a totally different situation, where no other people are going and where I am by myself with a few friends, with a few local people maybe, I have the possibility to know about these human rules, given us by hundred thousands of years in the genetic chain. We have it in the genetic chain.</p> <p><strong>By 1980, you were already the most famous mountaineer in the world. Why did you keep climbing?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Because it’s absurd. It’s absolutely absurd. “Absurd” is an international word. In German, we say <em>absurd</em>, in Italian, <em>assurdo</em>. This is a very important philosophy. You know Camus, the French writer. He was writing a story about Sisyphus.</p> <p>The life of Sisyphus is typical of an absurd life — a mythological life, naturally. And on the film they made on my life, <em>La mia vita</em>, on my life, I told them to begin with one sentence of the <em>Sisyphus</em> of Camus, and also the end. And the first thing is that — I don’t mean all in all the sense — I think you should also read it in French for having exactly the philosophy. But he’s saying, more or less, there’s no sense to go up and down a mountain, rolling up a stone, and the stone is rolling down, and rolling it up again. But on the end, he’s saying in his book — it’s a small book — but you should imagine Sisyphus as a happy person.</p> <p><strong>So this made you happy?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Yeah. Life is absurd. There is no doubt. Because we don’t know what’s happening. We have a certain period of possibilities to stay on Earth and to express ourselves and to enjoy life, whatever — not enjoy or enjoy life — but anyway, what’s afterwards, this is unknown.</p> <p><strong>Are you a happy person?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Most of the time, yes, especially if I have the possibility, without any bureaucracy, without any people around me that try to stop me to do what I am forced to do and what I like to do. At the moment, I am living my seventh life. I was beginning it not yesterday — a year ago, more or less. And in the seventh life, I am trying to take in my hand the narrative — you know the word “narrative” — of the relationship between men and mountains; men — human beings — and mountains.</p> <p>My interest is here, on one side, is human nature. In us are all the rules, genetically put in, which are important for let surviving the single person and let surviving the whole humanity. In reality, we do not need any rules. All religion rules are invented by human beings. All gods are invented by human beings. This is proven. There is no god which is not invented by human beings. But this is not telling that there is no energy above our possibility to think, to see, to touch.</p> <p><strong>How do you keep the mental map of the mountain in your head when you’re going into thinner and thinner air where it’s harder to think?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Only if you are a climber being able also — being asleep — to handle it.</p> <p><strong>How do you sleep when you’re climbing a mountain?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: In Everest, I slept in a tent — a small tent. I give the order to a factory to make my tent very light.</p> <p><strong>How cold is it?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: We have a sleeping bag. It’s cold. We are not sleeping up there. We sleep a little bit. We wake up, we sleep a few minutes, we wake up. And it’s important to keep yourself quiet, like meditating, to keep yourself quiet.</p> <p><strong>Are you a good meditator?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I think so because my view is also that action and meditation is the same. Action with full concentration, with forgetting everything else, only becoming the next step, becoming the next hold, becoming the summit — this is the same like meditation. And if you say it as a mathematic — mathematic is the highest philosophy — possibility. You know what is a vector. If you put one vector in this direction, this is meditation. The other vector on the opposite side becomes action. For normal people, it’s exactly opposite. And if you let them go with velocity infinite, they meet again because the whole thing is a circle.</p> <p><strong>Milarepa, the Tibetan poet, is one of the people that you often quote. And one of the things he’s famous for saying is: “When you run after your thoughts, you’re like a dog chasing a stick. Instead, be like a lion, who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower.” What did you like about that?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I like generally Milarepa because he was able just — not in young years; he had difficult young years. But on the end, he accepted that life is absurd, and he was living in these caves in the Himalayas. This is true. This is not fiction. He was really existing, and his writings are still existing, and we can read them. And he was like Bob Dylan, I would say, more or less, because he was a songwriter, and he was singing himself these songs. But he had no public. And this is different from Bob Dylan. He was singing by himself in a cave in the Himalayas — or in front of a cave in the Himalayas.</p> <p><strong>Do you think people should spend more time alone?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Yes. People should stay alone for a while. They should stay in silence. They should stay in infinite rooms, like deserts, to be prepared for the life after death.</p> <p><strong>Do you like to be alone?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I think that going in alone in a desert is going like in what is happening after our being on this earth. We have a certain period. Each of us has a certain period on this earth. And afterwards, we are disappearing from here. But we will not have anymore. Everything will be <em>aufgelöst </em>(dissolved).</p> <p><strong>After life.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: With the death.</p> <p><strong>It’s not the end.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: It’s not the end. It’s exactly the opposite. This is the infinite in time. But infinite and zero is the same. This is a game. Infinite and zero is not a difference. It’s the same. So our time is becoming zero or infinite.</p> <p><strong>How does it help to prepare for that?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: And it’s totally silence. To go, you go alone in the Gobi Desert. Yeah, listen.</p> <p><strong>It seems like you’re interested in Tibetan spirituality, Buddhism. You have Tibetan prayer flags here.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Yeah, yeah, yeah.</p> <p><strong>Do you believe in God?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: No.</p> <p><strong>What do you believe in?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I respect what is above our capacities. We are human beings and we are human beings because we have not divine capacities. I told you before that all gods are invented.</p> <p><strong>But you’ve been up and seen some of the most gorgeous things.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: That’s enough for me — these gorgeous mountains, these gorgeous areas. That’s enough for me to respect the nature as a divine dimension. But above this, we don’t know anything. But religions were invented — do you say it like this? — more or less three-and-a-half thousand years ago because it was necessary. The groups of people became so big that it was not anymore possible to handle them — only with their own inner nature.</p> <p>So Moses, for example: Moses went up to Sinai — I went also up to see — and he found these stone plates with the ten rules. And he brought the rules down and said, “I was up there, and God gave me these rules.” And afterwards, he said, “And no one of you Israelis go up there. That’s forbidden. Don’t go up there.” Because otherwise, going up, they could see that up there, there is nothing. There’s only his invention — very simple. That’s the proof. And it’s very important that in the Bible, it’s written he’s telling the people, “No one is going up there. It’s forbidden.” He was very clever.</p> <p><strong>You’ve said, “The wonderful things in life are the things you do, not the things you have.” Could you talk about that?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Yeah, having things is boring. I told you before, I have no idea what I have. This museum, I built up, and it was the making, the inventing, the building, the working on it —for 15 years, I worked on it. And when it was finished, just on the last one, my daughter — she studied art history and economics — she helped me to finish it, to do it, the installation. You know, to put a picture here and there. And it’s a very difficult museum, done by Zaha Hadid, a famous architect. She was helping, and at the end, I said, “Now you understand, more or less, how I was doing these things. If you like, you can have it.” But no, it’s a responsibility. To have it is not important. It’s a responsibility.</p> <p><strong>What are you going to devote this next chapter of your life to?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I’m doing these films. I’m a storyteller, using words and books, using my words on the stage. Yesterday evening, I had here a talk around the fire — beautiful — all this to communicate. I’m sitting near a fire, 500 people around, and I tell them a few stories, actual stories. And afterwards, they have the possibility to put in questions. So small children and old people, everyone is putting in these questions, and this is the first type of communication of adventurers. Adventurers 50,000 years ago, in the Stone Age, they came home from a hunt, for example, and they told to the others what happened, sitting near the fire and eating the meat they brought.</p> <p><strong>There’s this image of Reinhold Messner as the romantic solo adventurer…</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: No, no, no. I am going sometimes as a solo but not many times. I prefer to go with partners or with a partner — ladies.</p> <p><strong>But you like to be alone.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: But not forever, from time to time.</p> <p><strong>And then last night you had 500 people around the fire.</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Yes, I had also thousands, yesterday morning. I was in Zurich to do a lecture before a thousand people. It’s a different kind of communication. Doing these lectures, where I’m on stage alone and I tell my vision on motivation or whatever, I’m like a teacher in a class. But I tell to the people in the beginning, “Don’t take home any of my experiences. Don’t use them. This is too dangerous. These are my experiences. I can give you my experiences.”</p> <p>If you build a hotel, if you have hotel people, with the system I built my museum, you will surely go bankrupt. I was able, in this case, to act between this, between being bankrupt and success, and it was a very fine knife line. Like on the Nanga Parbat solo climb, I put in all my money, all my time, all my enthusiasm, all my knowledge, risking to die quite quickly — going on the edge. But I succeeded. I came back again, and it was a great success. I could sell a book. I could sell some lectures. And with this money, again, I did something.</p> <p>On the end, when I finished with these adventures because I became too old, I still had the knowledge how to handle, to sell my — not the primary work. The primary work, I do for nothing. I was never paid for an expedition. But I was able, selling the second products — like a book, like a lecture — to auto-finance my expeditions. I was not dependent on an alpine club, not on the state. I had never to go to a politician to say, “I need money because I would like to do a great deal in Antarctica.” I was free in my doings, and for this, I needed money. And I needed more and more money in my life because my projects became bigger and bigger. And this is the profound fact of it.</p> <p>And many climbers, they are envious against me because they see how I handled my life — that after one life, I found another opportunity, another motivation. I found another possibility to express myself. And I had always also the money. I could never go to a bank and say, “I would like to cross Greenland the long way. Please give me $100,000. I need them for starting.” They would say, “You are crazy. How are you guaranteeing that the money is coming back? You will disappear up there.”</p> <p><strong>You’ve had the most exceptional life. For other people who hope to be exceptional, what would you tell them?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: To start with the feet on the ground and not say to be exceptional. I am not exceptional. I am a totally normal man, but I was freely following my dreams.</p> <p><strong>What’s the most fun you have these days?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Enjoying the ideas which come. Three days ago, I sat together with somebody. He told me a story, and immediately, I know, too, this is a story for a film. It’s lying on the street. I don’t know if I have time to realize it. I put down a few words to remember exactly what is this. And I put, in the meanwhile, just a few papers together which I found about this story. It’s a mountain story. It’s a great mountain story. It happened between 1902 and 1918 — end of the First World War — because it has to do with the war, mountains and war, and climbing.</p> <p><strong>So you’re saying the fun is the next challenge?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: The fun is to find a next goal, a next challenge. I wrote once — but this is too pathetic — “If I don’t have any more ideas, I’ll kill myself.” But I’m sure that I will have ideas up to the end of my life. Probably I will not have, on the end of my life, the life to do this and this, and I will leave some projects for others.</p> <p><strong>What is so powerful about ideas?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Because it’s the only thing we are able to let go of things in us — if an idea is becoming our idea, if we are identifying 100 percent with the idea, if the idea is part of us. So it’s the motor to give us the energy, the happiness, the joy of realizing it. If we are only doing something which others are telling us we should do, we are only helping them to fulfill their idea.</p> <p><strong>Here in Europe, people have seen you on TV because you’ve been the face of all kinds of products like milk or sports equipment. People know you. What’s it like to be famous?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: Being famous has two sides. You are exposed. It’s more difficult to live. And you have also some help because if I go to somebody to get a passport in Italy, probably I can get it quicker. And this being famous means if I write a book, I sell more books than others without this fame. This also helps. But the rest is also a big chest on your shoulders. Today especially, everybody is coming to do a selfie and photographs, and if I’m working and being concentrated, I cannot either speak with people because I’m thinking of what I’m doing.</p> <p><strong>In 100 years, how would you like to be remembered?</strong></p> <p>Reinhold Messner: I have no wish to be remembered. I will be remembered, I know it. I’m leaving 50 books, at least. Some of these books will be interesting in 10 or 20 years. I don’t think that all my books are understood today. And the museum is not speaking about myself. I use my knowledge to speak about —generally — about traditional mountaineering, about what’s happening if men and mountains are meeting. I would like to have, at least during my lifetime, the narrative of mountaineering in my hands. And I think we have it.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Reinhold Messner Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>16 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.80921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6.jpg" data-image-caption="1970: The Messner brothers, Günther (left) and Reinhold, on Nanga Parbat, Pakistan. They reached the summit of Nanga Parbat together but were separated during their descent. Günther died when he was swept away by an avalanche. His body was found 35 years later, in 2005." data-image-copyright="1970: Günther (left) and Reinhold Messner in the Nanga Parbat ." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6-380x307.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/reinhold-messner-gunther-messner-nanga-parbat-6-760x615.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3523131672598" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl.jpg" data-image-caption="1953: Austrian mountaineer Hermann Buhl, considered one of the best alpinists of all time, on Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world. Nanga Parbat was climbed for the first time in 1953 by a German expedition led by Karl Herrligkoffer. The summit was reached by 29-year-old Hermann Buhl, climbing alone on summit day." data-image-copyright="Hermann Buhl at Nanga Parbat" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl-281x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hermann-buhl-562x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.35789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978.jpg" data-image-caption="On May 8, 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the first to climb to the top of Mount Everest, Earth’s highest mountain — with a peak at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) above sea level — without supplemental oxygen; Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler are greeted by their wives at Munich-Riem Airport. (Claus Hampel/Getty)" data-image-copyright="side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978-380x136.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/side-by-side-Reinhold-Messner-Peter-Habeler-1978-760x272.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.63815789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1.jpg" data-image-caption="The Himalayas view of Mount Nanga Parbat (8,126 meters high). Nanga Parbat is located in the Northern Areas of Pakistan and is the western bastion of the Himalayas. It is the ninth highest mountain in the world and the second highest in Pakistan after K2. It has staged some of the greatest Himalayan ascents of all time, from Hermann Buhl’s solo first ascent in 1953 via the Upper North ridge, to Günther and Reinhold Messner’s first ascent of the Rupal Face in 1970 via the South-Southeast Spur, and Messner’s solo climb of the Diamir Face in 1978. (Uwe Steffens/Getty)" data-image-copyright="The Himalayas View of Mount Nanga Parbat (8126 meters high), the westernmost point of the Himalaya mountains - undated" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1-380x242.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-540705093-1-760x485.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083.jpg" data-image-caption="1980: Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner points to a photograph of Mount Everest after his unprecedented solo ascent. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="wp-1980---GettyImages-72204083" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083-380x272.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1980-GettyImages-72204083-760x543.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5384615384615" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover.jpg" data-image-caption="1982: <i>Crystal Horizon: Everest — The First Solo Ascent</i> by Reinhold Messner. A vivid account of Messner’s solo Everest expedition, <i>The Crystal Horizon</i> also reflects on how he explored his innermost thoughts while facing the most extreme physical challenge he had ever encountered. The furthest point for mind and body, he calls his "crystal horizon." Inspired by the legendary mountaineers George Mallory and Maurice Wilson, Messner embarked on a year-long journey through Tibet to the glittering light and rarified air at the roof of the world. (The Mountaineers)" data-image-copyright="1982-Reinhold-Messner---Crystal-Horizon---Cover" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover-247x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1982-Reinhold-Messner-Crystal-Horizon-Cover-494x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65657894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540.jpg" data-image-caption="Reinhold Messner calls the South Face of Dhaulagiri, Earth’s seventh highest mountain (8,167 meters), the “dead zone.” After his solo climb of Mount Everest, in one season Messner climbed Kangchenjunga, Gasherbrum II, and Broad Peak. In 1985, he climbed Annapurna and Dhaulagiri in Nepal. (Photo credit: Bojan Brecelj and Corbis via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="T.HUMAR'S ASCENT OF SOUTH FACE OF DHAULAGIRI" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-Dhaulagiri-GettyImages-524294540-760x499.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2199036918138" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover.jpg" data-image-caption="1987: <i>All Fourteen 8,000ers</i> by Reinhold Messner. In 1986, Messner and Hans Kammerlander climbed Lhotse, the world’s fourth highest peak, making Messner the first person ever to climb all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks. In this book, Messner recalls the fourteen mountain peaks and expeditions that ultimately made him both famous and controversial. In candid detail, he describes the defining events and incredible difficulties of the climbs — how he persevered through the hallucinations, storms, debilitating fear, and even the death of climbing mates; why he was accused of stepping over dead bodies to reach a summit; what moments made climbing life worth its agony." data-image-copyright="1987 - Reinhold-Messner---All-Fourteen---cover" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover-311x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1987-Reinhold-Messner-All-Fourteen-cover-623x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68947368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy.jpg" data-image-caption="1989-90: Würth-Antarktis Transversale expedition. Reinhold Messner during the Antarctic crossing on foot. Messner and Arved Fuchs traveled 2,800 kilometers in only 92 days, from the Ronne Ice Shelf to McMurdo. (Mauritius Images/Alamy)" data-image-copyright="Reinhold Messner with Antarctic crossing in 1989/90, 2700 kilometres" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy-380x262.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/JFJ53E-alamy-760x524.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811.jpg" data-image-caption="June 26, 2004: Reinhold Messner hikes alongside camels on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Just the day before, he had completed a five-week solo hike traversing the Gobi Desert. He has been described by writer Jon Krakauer as the "Michael Jordan of mountaineering and adventuring." (Photo: Chien-min Chung/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Reinhold Messner's Five Week Hike Though The Gobi Desert" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811-380x248.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2004-june-26-GettyImages-53010811-760x495.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5169660678643" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover.jpg" data-image-caption="2014: <i>Reinhold Messner: My Life at the Limit</i> is a conversation between Messner and interviewer Thomas Hüetlin, an award-winning German journalist. It reveals a more thoughtful and conversational Messner than one finds in his previous books, with the “talk” between Messner and Hüetlin covering not only the highlights of Messner’s climbing career but also his treks across Tibet, the Gobi Desert, and Antarctica; his five-year stint as a member of the European Parliament; his encounter with and study of the Yeti; and his thoughts on traditional male and female roles." data-image-copyright="wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner---My-Life-at-the-Limit---cover" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover-250x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-2280-Reinhold-Messner-My-Life-at-the-Limit-cover-501x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.37368421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764.jpg" data-image-caption="Mount Everest range at sunrise. On May 8, 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first to climb Mount Everest (8,848 meters) without supplemental oxygen. In 1980, Messner repeated the feat solo." data-image-copyright="Mount Everest Range at sunrise" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764-380x142.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WP-GettyImages-851097764-760x284.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4785992217899" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186.jpg" data-image-caption="September 10, 1980: Reinhold Messner, during a press conference, after summiting Mount Everest solo — without any supplemental oxygen, porters, or climbing partners. Messner’s solo ascent to the summit was accomplished via a new and more difficult northwest route and during a monsoon. (Photo by Frank Leonhardt via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Reinhold Messner" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186-257x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-GettyImages-1060968186-514x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724.jpg" data-image-caption="1991: Reinhold Messner on the Similaun, a mountain in the Schnalskamm group of the Ötztal Alps. At 3,606 meters, it is Austria’s sixth highest summit. Messner was commissioned to take one of the first photographs of the mummy known as “the Iceman,” found in a Similaun snowdrift in the border area between Italy and Austria in 1991. (Getty)" data-image-copyright="L'HOMME DU GLACIER DE SIMILAUN" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-1991-similaun-GettyImages-948146724-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.45921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2.jpg" data-image-caption="2015: The MMM Corones, sitting at the top of Mount Kronplatz, one of the most popular ski resorts in the Italian Alps. Designed by architect Zaha Hadid, it is the brainchild of mountaineer Reinhold Messner. Inaugurated in July 2015, the Corones — the Latin word for “crown” that is also the Italian name of the mountain — offers stunning views of the surrounding Dolomites and is dedicated to traditional alpinism; Reinhold Messner, at the inauguration ceremony of the MMM Corones, refers to his museum as “my 15th eight-thousander.” (Courtesy of MMM Corones)" data-image-copyright="wp-side-by-side---messner-mountain-museum-2" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2-380x174.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wp-side-by-side-messner-mountain-museum-2-760x349.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/messner-new-profile-square.jpg" data-image-caption="Reinhold Messner" data-image-copyright="messner-new-profile-square" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/messner-new-profile-square-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/messner-new-profile-square.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" 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Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol W. Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-b-maccready-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul B. MacCready, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony D. Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/clyde-tombaugh/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Clyde Tombaugh</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-trimble/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord David Trimble</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/ted-turner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert Edward (Ted) Turner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-updike/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Updike</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gore Vidal</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Antonio Villaraigosa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/lech-walesa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lech Walesa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/herschel-walker/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Herschel Walker</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/alice-waters/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Alice Waters</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235421/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-d-watson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James D. 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