Most people, even non-climbers, know the name Reinhold Messner. He is arguably the finest Alpinist of all time. His firsts in climbing are legendary and include the first summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen and then he reported the feat on the North side – solo. He was the first climber to summit all fourteen of the 8000 meter peaks without supplemental oxygen.
The Italian climber defined what today we call style with his minimalist approach; climbing without ropes or support staff (porters, medicine Sherpas) when possible.
In the attached excellent documentary, he speaks a length on the mental challenge of climbing and that it took him a longtime time to learn how to manage his mind, especially when climbing solo.
Ed Viesturs speaks of Messner’s mental capability and mentions that Messner has relatively normal physiology but an extremely strong mental drive that allowed him to push harder and further.
Messner characterized himself as someone who has “patience for limits” in describing his own mental toughness. Messner credits his success in mountaineering to his days from ages 5 to 20 when he was climbing with his brother Günther in the Dolomites. He says the naive risks and instincts learned from those early days layer the foundation for his later accomplishments.
Messner cites Sir Ernest Shackleton, the great Antarctic explorer as his modern day adventure hero because it was how Shackleton failed that Messner admires. Chris Bonington, the British mountaineer, is his modern day climbing hero for all his accomplishments over a long time.
Why he climbs? Messner answers this at 36:52 in the documentary. One of my favorite lines in the documentary: “It is not important what you have at the end, it is important what you have done.”
And the lesson I took away? Messner says “It was not necessary, but it was great.” I think that sums up climbing.
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