"The Greatest Mountaineer"

[Snowflea]

Latest issue of National Geographic mag has an interesting article on Reinhold Messner. An excerpt here:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0611/feature1/

And photographs here:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0611/feature1/gallery1.html

The third photo is especially, um... stunning?

 

[Artex]

Definitely an amazing person.

 

[DougPaul]

Rheinhold Messner has also been a very prolific author.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Bo...4&PRU=ALL&FMT=ALL&PDF=Y&grade=ALL&CID=ALL&z=y

Doug

 

[Maddy]

I love Messner and have purchased and read all his books.He is one incredible mountaineer and I have a lot of respect for him.

 

[Jay H]

There was also a decent article on the Nanga Parbat climb a few months ago. Of course, it was more focused on Meissner's brother's death and if Reinhold was at fault than the climb itself.

Thanks for the links, I love NatGeo and subscribe to the main magazine. I get a chance to read NG Adventurer too on occasion from my sister who gets that mag.

Jay

 

[Bob]

signed Messner books on sale

at
http://www.chesslerbooks.com/eCart/default.asp

 

[darren]

Messner is incredible. Many years ago I read several of his books and all the stories of him learning to climb in the Dolomites as a child is what always made me want to go there. I finally went last year. He really is an inspiration, even if what he did as a child is what I do as an adult.

I think my favorite thought of Messner is what he did before his first ascent of Everest without oxygen. The common thought at the time was that at 29k' you would die immediately from the lack of oxygen. To test it before the climb, he got in the back of a non-pressurized plane and had it fly at 29k'. There were people in the back with him that had oxygen masks on. There is a picture of him sitting there with a big smile and giving the thumbs up sign. It's like "yah, look at me I'm alive, nice, now I can go climb Everest." Crazy when you really think about it.

- darren

 

[Tim Seaver]

While I have always been a huge fan of Messner, I was a little disappointed when I read of the exchange between Steve House and Messner at their chance meeting just before House and Anderson knocked off the Central Pillar on the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat.

Full article here: The Devil Wears Patagonia

I do like Steve's reply, though...

....Messner's style at this meeting was more press conference than conversation, though. The only time he seemed truly curious was when House told him he'd climbed with Twight, an author Messner admires because "he has rediscovered the spirit of the 19th-century writing about the mountains." Otherwise, Messner was mostly dismissive. When Ed Viesturs's name came up, for instance—the American had just completed climbing all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen, the famous feat Messner had pioneered—the Tyrolean rolled his eyes.

"Now I hear a woman is trying to do it," he said disdainfully. "It's silly—the most boring kind of climbing."

House grinned impishly. "Yeah," he said. "I wonder who invented that, anyway?" Messner didn't crack a smile.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

There was also a decent article on the Nanga Parbat climb a few months ago. Of course, it was more focused on Meissner's brother's death and if Reinhold was at fault than the climb itself. Jay

Mallory, Buhl, Bonatti, Messner, Humar; each perhaps the greatest alpinist of his generation, but each also generating an equal amount of controversy. Will Steve House be able to avoid the controversies in his future?

 

[cbcbd]

Will Steve House be able to avoid the controversies in his future?

Yes

Steve House rocks.

 

[woodstrider]

Messner

Yeti aside, Messner is probably one of the greatest mountaineers ever. That article was very good and I hope that a book comes out of it. It would be a good pairinf of subject and author.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Am not into hero worship myself, but if I were I'd probably consider those people with disabilities as the 'greatest mountaineers', like the blind fellow who climbed all those mountains (including Everest?), or single/double amputees who do glaciated peaks. How 'bout that fellow who cut off his arm after being trapped in a slot canyon? I talked with him a few months after that incident on Mt Whitney, and he seems pretty normal (and not infatuated with himself) to me.

Am not trying to be santimonious here, but let's give credit where credit's due.

 

[Maddy]

Yes indeed! I have MANY heroes.
At the top of my list is Susan Butcher.
Then we move on to BRUTUS!
Now he is a tough act to follow but then come the "disabled mountaineers" who have accomplished incredible things, including Aaron Ralston.
And I don't want to forget Rachel Scodoris, the young blind musher,
who finished the Iditarod last year.Her book NO END IN SITE is excellent. She h as a lot of Susan's grizzly determination in her.
......and of course Reinhold Messer

 

[Snowflea]

FWIW, I'm not much into hero worship either. I put The Greatest Mountaineer in quotation marks because that's how he was described in the NG article; i.e. those were their words, not mine.

Thought it was an interesting article & decided to post, that's all.........

 

[dms]

FWIW, I'm not much into hero worship either. I put The Greatest Mountaineer in quotation marks because that's how he was described in the NG article; i.e. those were their words, not mine.

Thought it was an interesting article & decided to post, that's all.........

I agree it's a very interesting article. You don't have to "worship" someone to admire their accomplishments.

 

[Maddy]

Perhaps "hero" is the wrong word but in my mind when I say "Susan Butcher is my hero" I mean that I look up to her, I honor her for her accomplishments. I have tremendous respect for her. She is my teacher/mentor if you will.
Very often when I don't"feel" like doing something, or my path becomes too difficult, perhaps even overwhelming, or fear overtakes me, I think of my "mentors" and I forge ahead.
Speaking only for myself, I have that need to look up to certain people who love the same things I love, who have gone before me and led the way. I don't idolize them, it's more a matter of respect and admiration.
We are all interconnected and it's a wonderful thing to draw from each other strengths.
I don't particularly relate well to the words worship and idolize.
I think they are used very loosely in our society and have lost their true meaning (as in American Idol).