Reinhold Messner turns 80 today Eight highs and lows from the life of the 8000-metre king
Reinhold Messner celebrates his 80th birthday today. The South Tyrolean mountaineering legend was the first person to climb all of the world's eight-thousanders - and has experienced many highs and lows in eight decades.
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- Reinhold Messner turns 80 on September 17.
- The South Tyrolean summiteer is celebrating with his wife in a small mountain hut.
- The relationship between him and his children is currently strained: Messner is talking about an inheritance dispute.
- A look back at the life of the mountaineering legend - with its highs and lows.
It feels like it's been his birthday for weeks: Reinhold Messner has recently given several interviews with a view to his upcoming special day. Today is the day: the mountaineering legend turns 80 on September 17.
How is the South Tyrolean spending his milestone birthday? "Diane and I will celebrate in a small mountain hut at an altitude of 2,000 meters," Messner revealed to the German Press Agency during an interview at his Juval Castle near Merano.
Messner only wants to celebrate with his wife and in seclusion. This is probably due to a family dispute that has been raging for a while. Five years ago, the 80-year-old left his son, his three daughters and his wife part of his fortune of millions.
Messner then spoke of an inheritance dispute in an interview with "Apotheken Umschau" in mid-July: "Our relationship is strained."
During his eight decades as a mountaineer, he has never minced his words - nor does he do so now. Messner is known for his radical attitude to mountaineering. Afraid of death? He has none.
"That was my first near-death experience, more intense than ever again. You realize that you are going to die. And that it's nothing bad at all," says Messner about the 1970 incident on Nanga Parbat, where his brother Günther died on the descent.
80 years old - a proud age. But Messner doesn't consider himself old, as he admitted in an interview with the German Press Agency. "Of course I'm also getting clumsier, slower, more forgetful. I stumble from time to time."
Eight decades with many highs and then lows. Some bigger, some smaller. Messner has now published almost 100 books. The most recent is called "Headwind". The mountaineer also continues to appear on talk shows, give lectures and make films. He is still out and about in the mountains at his age, remains active and plans mountain tours, for example with his wife.
Eight unforgettable quotes from the mountaineering legend and those around him:
"It was the worst day of my life"
The worst day of his life for Messner was when he lost his brother Günther. An expedition to the 8,125-metre-high Nanga Parbat in 1970 was to end fatally for one of the brothers - the then 24-year-old Günther did not return alive.
Messner himself, then just 25, froze seven toes to death in the cold. He crawled down on all fours until he could take no more. Farmers found him lifeless in the scree. There were repeated accusations against Messner that he had left his brother behind to climb to the summit alone.
In an interview with Bild, Messner recalled the "worst day of his life" 50 years after the accident: "For me, Günther never really died. I firmly believe that a person is only dead when nobody thinks about them anymore."
"Something big, of which I was allowed to be a small part as an accompanying doctor"
In 1978, eight years after the accident in the Western Himalayas, Messner became the first person to conquer the summit of the world's highest mountain, the 8,848-metre-high Mount Everest in the Himalayas, without the support of oxygen equipment. At his side: his climbing partner Peter Habeler (82).
Oswald Oelz, Messner's high-altitude doctor, was also part of the great moment: "With the first ascent without additional oxygen by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler in 1978, something big happened, of which I was allowed to be a small part as the accompanying doctor," said Oelz in an interview with "NZZ".
"It's the best feeling to come back from the mountain"
Messner will probably never forget October 16, 1986: He reached the summit of Lhotse, making him the first person to climb all 14 of the world's eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen. A record that will go down in history.
Messner faced death more than once during his tours. He took risks and polarized people with his way of climbing mountains. The German Press Agency quoted the 80-year-old: "Great mountaineering is basically only possible where there is mortal danger. The classic mountaineer goes where everyone else is not. There are people who describe the fall as the most beautiful death."
And yet the best feeling for him is coming back from the mountain, as he revealed to the magazine "Alpin" in an interview: "I only ever had one goal: first survive, then come home."
"I didn't care, I've never had a book like this in my hand"
In the end, Messner's world record was a case of back and forth. At first it was said that Messner was the first person to stand on all 14 eight-thousanders.
He was entered in the Guinness Book of Records. Then a German mountain chronicler suddenly doubted his achievement and Messner was removed from the book, until it was announced that he was to be listed again after all.
Messner himself seemed to be cool to the heated debates about his achievement. He told the German Press Agency: "I didn't care. I've never had a book like this in my hand."
"We didn't get any closer as people"
Messner and Arved Fuchs (71) covered 2800 kilometers in a total of 92 days together. The two adventurers crossed the South Pole on skis in 1989. The mountaineer from South Tyrol and the trained sailor from Germany complemented each other well for this grueling challenge.
But the two men did not seem to be on the same wavelength. After completing the Antarctic crossing, Fuchs said, as Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln writes: "We didn't get any closer as people."
"We don't have as much time as other couples have"
Messner's life is not just about climbing mountains and crossing Antarctica: The 80-year-old is married for the third time and father to a son and three daughters. In 2021, he married his partner of 44 years, Diane Schumacher. "I know we don't have as much time as other couples have," Schumacher recently told "Rai Südtirol".
Messner was previously married to textile designer Sabine Stehle for over ten years. After 20 years of dating, they parted ways in 2017. For Reinhold Messner, the end of the marriage came as a surprise, with his former wife suddenly throwing him out of the apartment.
His marriage to Sabine Stehle produced Anna (23), Magdalena (36) and Simon (34). Messner was previously married to Uschi Demeter from 1972 to 1977. Daughter Layla (43) comes from a previous relationship with Nena Holguin.
"One of my biggest mistakes"
Shortly before his 80th birthday, Messner commented on an alleged inheritance dispute in his family in an interview with "Apotheken Umschau".
The strained relationship with his children was the result of one of his biggest mistakes: "I left them the majority of my assets in my will before I died." As a result, the question of who got more came to the fore, and Messner himself was on the brink at 75.
"My children don't understand that everything was a gift and don't appreciate the value of my generosity." Messner is convinced that the moment he distributed his material inheritance to his four children and wife Diane, the family was broken.
"The break-up of the family happened step-by-step and had other reasons"
Between all the headlines and the many interviews Messner gave, Simon Messner, himself an outstanding alpinist , spoke out. Messner's son described his father's statements in an interview with "Bayrischer Rundfunk" as "a pity and sad".
He greatly appreciates the inheritance he received from his father - two mountain farms in the Vinschgau Valley in South Tyrol. He had always conveyed this to his father. "That's why I don't understand his accusation."