Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner, who was born in 1944 in Villnöss, South Tyrol, began mountaineering at the tender age of five. His credo was “To become a master, you need to start early.” It is mainly in recent years that Reinhold Messner has become widely known through his spectacular mountaineering feats. Not only in the Alps, but also in the Himalayas, in the Karakoram Range and in the Andes, this extreme sportsman has made headlines with his record-breaking climbs.
Reinhold Messner is the first mountaineer to have scaled all fourteen of the world’s peaks over 8,000 metres. He has also mastered with bravura many other feats of endurance and skill such as his crossing of Greenland from top to bottom. In all of his daring expeditions the goal was not to achieve fame or to set new records. Reinhold Messner simply loved to travel within the most untouched and breathtakingly beautiful landscapes on earth and with the minimum of equipment. One could describe Messner as a man fully in tune with nature. But this was not enough for him. Messner continued to look for new challenges. He decided to try his hand as a writer. In this venture too, success was not long in coming…
Today, in addition to his work as a writer, he is also in great demand throughout the world as a TV commentator and for his lectures to mountain climbers, tourists and business executives. Since June 1990 Reinhold Messner has also been a member of the Green parliamentary group (Free European Alliance) in the European Parliament. Furthermore, he is an active member of the parliamentary committee on regional policy, transport and tourism, the committee on agriculture and rural development, the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation. A thoroughly active life... When Reinhold Messner is not travelling, he lives with his family in Merano, South Tyrol, or at the fabulous castle of Juval near the village of Naturns, where he has created his own museum of East Asian artefacts and oversees the running of a number of mountain farmsteads.
Reinhold Messner is the first mountaineer to have scaled all fourteen of the world’s peaks over 8,000 metres. He has also mastered with bravura many other feats of endurance and skill such as his crossing of Greenland from top to bottom. In all of his daring expeditions the goal was not to achieve fame or to set new records. Reinhold Messner simply loved to travel within the most untouched and breathtakingly beautiful landscapes on earth and with the minimum of equipment. One could describe Messner as a man fully in tune with nature. But this was not enough for him. Messner continued to look for new challenges. He decided to try his hand as a writer. In this venture too, success was not long in coming…
Today, in addition to his work as a writer, he is also in great demand throughout the world as a TV commentator and for his lectures to mountain climbers, tourists and business executives. Since June 1990 Reinhold Messner has also been a member of the Green parliamentary group (Free European Alliance) in the European Parliament. Furthermore, he is an active member of the parliamentary committee on regional policy, transport and tourism, the committee on agriculture and rural development, the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation. A thoroughly active life... When Reinhold Messner is not travelling, he lives with his family in Merano, South Tyrol, or at the fabulous castle of Juval near the village of Naturns, where he has created his own museum of East Asian artefacts and oversees the running of a number of mountain farmsteads.
Profile of Reinhold Messner
- Pioneer, author, mountain farmer
- Born on 17 September 1944 in South Tyrol, Italy.
- Trained as a geometrician in Bolzano, attended university in Padua
- Has lectured throughout Europe, and in the United States, Japan, Australia and South America.
- Has made numerous documentary films, as well as publishing articles in magazines such as Stern, Spiegel, GEO, National Geographic, Espresso and Epoca
- Won the “ITAS” literature prize (1975), “Primi Monti” (1968), “DAV” (1976/1979), “Donauland” prize for non-fiction (1995), “Coni” (1998).
- Received public awards in Italy, Nepal, Pakistan, France and the USA.
- Has published 35 books (and has been translated into a dozen languages).
- Has been one of the world’s most successful mountaineers for 20 years
- Has conducted 3,500 mountain ascents and was the first to reach 100 of these peaks
- Climbed all 14 of the world’s peaks over 8,000 metres
- Crossed the Antarctic on foot (following an idea of Shackleton’s)
- Traversed Greenland from north to south
- Crossed Tibet and the Taklamakan desert.
- Since June 1999 has sat as a Green in the European Parliament.
