MOUNTAINEERING IS ABOUT THE TENSION BETWEEN HUMAN NATURE AND MOUNTAIN NATURE.IT'S ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF DYING

MF meets mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner

- Dominic Bliss

Renowned as one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, Reinhold Messner has achieved an astonishing array of daring feats in his 79 years on this planet.

Born in Brixen, in 1944, in the northern Italian region of South Tyrol, he grew up in a hamlet in the Dolomites called St Peter, the second of nine children. By the age of five he had summited his first Dolomite mountain alongside his father. As a teenager, he climbed all over the region, teaming up with his younger brother Günther. During the 1960s he dominated mountain climbing in the Alps, graduating to the Himalayas the following decade.

His high-altitude career started in tragedy, though. In 1970, he and Günther were invited on an expedition to attempt the unclimbed Rupal face of Nanga Parbat, in Pakistan, the ninthhighest mountain in the world. They both reached the summit, but Günther perished in an avalanche during the descent. Reinhold, who searched desperately for his brother, eventually made it down the mountain, badly damaging seven toes and the tips of his fingers due to frostbite. He was criticised by his father and many in the climbing community for losing Günther.

Less resilient climbers would have called it a day after that. But not Reinhold Messner. Forced to transition from rock climbing to high-altitude mountaineering – so as to accommodate his damaged feet in the stiffer boots used in mountaineering – he spent the next few decades chalking up an astounding collection of expeditionary firsts. In 1978, with Peter Habeler, he completed the