Born in South Tyrol in 1944, Reinhold Messner has a track record of breaking with taboos – in rock climbing, on mountaineering expeditions, and crossing deserts and the Poles. For four decades he has built up a wealth of experience at the margins of the world that has enabled him to create a group of museums on the subject of the mountains. Reinhold Messner himself describes the project as his “15th ascent over 8000 meters”. His objective is to offer a study in human nature and the secrets it reveals when we find ourselves at the limits of our resources at the limits of the world. His philosophy – no artificial oxygen, no bolts, no communication – has made him a defender of those values that give mountaineering a dimension that has more to do with art than with sport. Although Reinhold Messner seeks primarily to define his basics for himself, his MMM has already become a global focus for the international mountaineering community.

Reinhold Messner's biography

Climber, writer, photographer and Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004, Reinhold Messner was born in South Tyrol, Italy, on 17 September 1944. He grew up in the Villnöss Valley in the Dolomites and later studied at the University of Padua. He started climbing mountains at the age of five and has been one of the world’s most outstanding mountaineers for thirty years. In his over three thousand climbs he has achieved over a hundred first ascents, and was the first to climb all the world’s 8000-meter peaks. Messner was the first to reach Mount Everest’s top without oxygen support. He has crossed by foot the Antarctic, Greenland, Tibet, the deserts Gobi and Takla Makan. Messner has succeeded in opening numerous new ascent routes and has given an explanation to the mystery of the Yeti. In contrast to the modern figure of the adventurer-protagonist, Messner has never sought to break records, trying instead to maximize the exposure to nature in its purity and limiting to the minimum the use of artificial tools. On Nanga Parbat he adopted Mummery’s motto “by fair means”, on the Arctic pack ice he has followed Nansen’s “call of the North”, and has crossed the Antarctic via the South Pole, following Shackleton’s idea. In the era of mass communication, Messner chooses solitary trips, without the support of artificial means, from nails to oxygen and satellite telephones, experiencing nature as he is confronted with.

Reinhold Messner has written 50 books, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages. An eloquent speaker, he lectures throughout the world in international conferences, makes documentary films with well-known producers such as the BBC and contributes to specialist magazines such as National Geographic, Stern and Die Zeit. He has received literary prizes and international awards in France, Germany, Italy, Nepal, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and the USA. He is honorary member of the Royal Geographical Society and of The Explorers Club in New York. Between his journeys he lives at Juval Castle in South Tyrol where he runs a museum containing a considerable collection of Tibetan art and an organic hill farm. Besides being a prolific writer, he has created the Messner Mountain Museum, six interrelated thematic museums dedicated to the art, culture, religion and peculiarities of mountain regions throughout the world. He has found the Messner Mountain Foundation (MMF) in order to support the mountain people worldwide.

For further information: www.reinhold-messner.de