Reinhold Messner was born in St Peter a small village in the south of Tyrol, in northern Italy. His father Joseph was a teacher and an amateur mountain climber and his mother Maria was a homemaker. Reinhold was only 5 years old when he set out to conquer his first peak. He was accompanied by his father, of course, and the two climbed up as high as 900 meters (nearly 3000 ft) in the Geislerspitzen mountain range in the Dolomites.
Kicking things off pretty early, Reinhold decided to pursue independent climbing at the tender age of 13. He had a younger brother, Günter, who was 2 years younger than him, and the two bonded over this joint hobby. When Reinhold was only 20 years old, he and his little brother already had a significant body of climbing work under their belts including various peaks in the Dolomites and the Western Alps.
Alamy Stock Photo by RealyEasyStar/Mark Edward Smith
The excursions that the two went on were no walk in the park. Free climbing under extreme conditions, not many people would have survived most of their climbing trips. Reinhold in particular was an incredibly fast climber and some of his 60s and 70s climbs are remembered as particularly impressive, even more so than his later ones. Climbing mountains does not pay bills and Reinhold had to work for a living if he wanted to sustain his passion for heights and nature. He worked as a math teacher at a high school and got a degree in architecture.
Although incredibly prolific in his field, Reinhold’s body as well as his soul were affected by his dangerous feats. A 1970 excursion to the Nanga Parbat Mountain in Northern Pakistan collected some considerable losses. One of them sadly was Reinhold’s brother Günter who apparently perished during an avalanche. Reinhold himself sustained extreme frostbite and had to lose three of his fingertips.
Alamy Stock Photo by mauritius images GmbH
Reinhold’s daredevil acts scored him numerous records in the field of mountain climbing. Among them is the famous first climb to the top of Mount Everest with no oxygen another one is the first crossing of Antarctica and Greenland on foot. Apparently, his passion extends beyond mountains and into anything dangerous that nature might offer.
Messner is obviously a very passionate individual and his passion has also taken him into politics. Between the years of 1999 and 2004, he was a member of the European Parliament. Nowadays, he dedicates his life to further establishment of mountaineering and climbing culture.
