Mountaineering legend provides insight Reinhold Messner turns 80 - and never wants to adapt

As the first person to climb all eight-thousanders, he became the most famous mountaineer in the world - and even part of pop culture. Even if he doesn't make it easy for himself or others.

More than once in his life, Reinhold Messner did not believe he would live to be old. The worst time was in 1970 on Nanga Parbat, the "fateful mountain of the Germans". His brother Günther died on the descent from the eight-thousander in the Himalayas. He himself, then just 25, froze seven toes to death in the cold. Messner crawled down on all fours until he could do no more. Farmers found him lifeless in the scree.

"That was my first near-death experience, more intense than ever again. You realize that you're going to die. And that it's nothing bad at all." This Tuesday (September 17), after he became the first person in the world to climb all 13 other eight-thousanders and also returned from all the other often dangerous tours, the South Tyrolean will actually be 80 years old.

"I don't see myself as old"

"Of course I'm also getting clumsier, slower, more forgetful. I stumble from time to time," Messner tells the German Press Agency at his Juval Castle near Merano. "But I don't consider myself old." Then he falls silent and looks down into the valley from his bench.

His voice has become more fragile, but he is still fit. Just this summer, he and his wife, who is 35 years his junior, circumnavigated Mount Kailash, the holy mountain of the Tibetans, which took them up to almost 6,000 meters. He would have climbed even higher, but the summit of Kailash is taboo for religious reasons. Messner also wants to spend his birthday in the mountains, just the two of them. "Diane and I will celebrate in a small mountain hut at an altitude of 2,000 meters."

Bitter dispute over inheritance

This has to do with the dispute over his inheritance, which he is currently having in public with his second ex-wife and their four children. Messner brought the trouble to the world himself with an interview in the magazine "Apotheken Umschau". He now deeply regrets having bequeathed a large part of his million-dollar fortune to his family during his lifetime. His family had disposed of him, kicked him out, without giving any reasons.

The South Tyrolean, who grew up with eight siblings in the Villnöss Valley, never avoided arguments. He left his job as a math teacher after a year to concentrate on climbing. But there were also arguments on the mountain or after the descent. "My father always said: "Can't you shut up and have a nice life? Why do you always have to get into trouble?" The answer: "Because that's my nature. Conform? Never."

1978 the first time on the highest mountain in the world

The hippie climber, who single-handedly scaled the great Alpine walls, became the most famous mountaineer in the world. He conquered Mount Everest for the first time in 1978, together with Peter Habeler, without bottled oxygen, although the doctors had strongly advised the two of them against it. Two years later, he conquered the world's highest mountain alone.

And he kept going, eight-thousander after eight-thousander. On October 16, 1986, Messner finally stood on the summit of Lhotse, Everest's neighbor and the last of the 14 he had missed. A record for eternity. When there were no more goals for the solitaire at altitude, he crossed Antarctica, Greenland and the Gobi Desert.

Particularly large fan base in Germany

In Germany, his fan base is particularly large - which is also due to his ability, unlike many other climbers, to talk about his successes and defeats in a gripping way. The man with the Himalayan stone around his neck - bought on his descent from Everest for 1000 dollars - turned alpinism into philosophy.

When Saturday evening shows were still important, Messner was a regular guest. On "Verstehen Sie Spass", the TV crew created a TV classic by flying a kiosk with souvenirs and even some of his books up the Matterhorn. Messner went into a holy rage about mass consumption in the mountains until he finally understood.

Also part of pop culture

He has now written almost 100 books. The most recent is called "Gegenwind". Messner also continues to appear on talk shows, give lectures and make films. After advertising cars, hiking poles and watches, he now does so in outdoor clothing - which does not stop him from mocking people in pedestrian zones who are dressed like they are on their way to Everest.

In fact, the generation of Messner admirers is getting on in years with their idol. Most people have forgotten that he sat in the European Parliament for the Italian Greens for one term. German rapper Soho Bani then made him known to a new generation. His hit "Bergsteigen" begins with the line: "And I feel like Reinhold Messner. I'm going to the top with the people of yesterday."

Mountain tours with Merkel and managers

There is something to it. When Angela Merkel is in South Tyrol, Messner still goes on tours with the former chancellor. His old rope team with former top German managers, the "Similauner", is also still around. However, he is no longer a climber, and not just because of the pictures of the Everest traffic jam, for which huge sums are paid to climb.

"Climbing today is a sport that takes place in air-conditioned rooms, on 15-metre-high plastic walls," complains Messner on the bench in front of his castle. "There's a climbing hall in every large village. It's a completely different world. It has nothing to do with mountaineering. I was lucky back then: my kind of mountaineering would no longer be relevant today."

Death as a theme in life

And then he comes back to the topic that has been on his mind for more than half a century now, ever since the drama with his brother on Nanga Parbat. "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 afterwards? "For me, there is no life after death," says Messner. "We disappear at the latest when nobody thinks about us anymore. Then there's nothing left." He has already registered with the Italian authorities where he wants his ashes to lie: at Juval Castle, in a Buddhist stone tomb. Right next to his bench.