The Times Online posted an interview with Reinhold Messner a week or so back, that’s still worth a read, as it’s a personal account of the events that went down on Nanga Parbat back in 1970, when Reinhold and his brother Günther summitted their first 8000m peak. The climb ended n tragedy however wen Günther died on the descent, and Reinhold found himself at the center of a mountaineering controversy that has followed him ever since.
In 2005 he got a measure of closure when after all those years, Günther’s body was found in the retreating glaciers some 3.5 kilometers from where he was believed to have died. Later some of his belongings were found as well, and Reinhold finally discovered what became of his brother, as he was apparently swept off the mountain by an avalanche.
Messner has been called the greatest mountaineer in the world, and he has accomplished a lot in the mountains. He climbed Everest without oxygen at a time when people thought it was impossible, and he topped out on all 14 8000m peaks before anyone else as well. He’s a living legend if there ever was one, but it’s obvious from this interview that he has carried the burden of his brother’s death with him on every mountain since Nanga Parbat.
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