To date, Reinhold Messner was recorded in the Guinness Book as the first person to have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders. But he is stripped of two titles. Wrongfully so, says an alpine chronicler.
Billi Bierling from the well-known expedition archive “Himalayan Database” regrets the loss of two titles by mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner in the Guinness Book of Records.
“Messmer was a pioneer who made the impossible possible. It is very sad that this achievement is not recognized,” said the chronicler of the dpa. “He was almost at the top and would certainly have been able to climb the last few meters.”
To date, Reinhold Messner was recorded in the Guinness Book as the first person to have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in the world. And he was also considered the first person to do this without the help of oxygen from a bottle. According to new calculations, the American Ed Viesturs will be given this title in the new edition of the book, as the organizers announced on their website.
Messner: I’m not interested
The Guinness decision is based on new calculations using geodata, according to which many mountaineers turned back before reaching the “true summit”. Messner told the dpa the day before about the decision: “I’m not interested in whether my name is in the Guinness Book.”
The “Himalayan Database” records, among other things, eight-thousander summit successes in Nepal. According to its manager Bierling, there has only been a corresponding record change in the database once – at Mount Manaslu.
The reason: Drone photos taken by photographer Jackson Groves in 2021 clearly showed that there were two higher points behind the point where most expeditions previously stopped and took summit photos. However, depending on the snow conditions, they cannot be seen or are difficult to see.
“Since 2021, we have only accepted the correct summit as the summit,” says Bierling. “Before that, we also accepted the pre-summit. However, no one will be denied success at the summit afterwards.”
Source: Stern
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