Alpinism: After Messner’s loss of the title: No end to the summit dispute

There is great excitement in the mountaineering world. Because a certainty that has existed for decades is suddenly wrong: Up until now, the South Tyrolean extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner was considered the first person to have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in the world – and also the first person to have done so without the help of oxygen from a bottle . It is now only listed on the Guinness Book website as a “legacy” record – meaning: the record was recognized at a time when the calculations did not correspond to today’s standards.

The basis is new, controversial calculations – including geodata, according to which many mountaineers turned back before reaching the “true summit”. In particular, the German Himalayan chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski has long said that Messner never stood at the top of the 8,091 meter high Annapurna.

Messner: Record never used

Since the withdrawal, the mountaineering world has been in turmoil. Jurgalski’s publications and the subsequent Guinness decision have set off a summit dispute. Messner reacted irritably. “You can’t take away a record that I’ve never claimed,” he told dpa. When asked about Jurgalski’s calculations, Messner said: “He has no idea. He’s not an expert. He simply mixed up the mountain. Of course we reached the summit.”

The dispute has since taken on a life of its own. He is now being insulted by Messner’s supporters, said Jurgalski in an interview with dpa. “I didn’t take away Messner’s record, I just wanted to classify his performance.” The climber only made one mistake. “Messner achieved a lot, but made a small human error – just like others,” said Jurgalski.

The Lörracher also emphasizes that his publications on the new calculations were not personally directed against Messner. Eventually he found out that others had not reached the peaks of the eight-thousanders Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Manaslu either. Jurgalski called on Messner to stop insulting him.

Geodata as evidence

According to the new data initiated by Jurgalski and used by the organizers of the Guinness Book, the American Ed Viesturs is now awarded the title. He now jumps to the side of his world-famous mountaineering colleague. “I am firmly convinced that Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders and that this should still be recognized today,” said Viesturs when asked by dpa.

But according to calculations by Jurgalski’s team, Messner never reached the top of Annapurna. The basis of his thesis is geodata, according to which he and several other mountaineers turned back before reaching the “true summit”. “At one point, Messner was 65 meters in front of and five meters below the summit,” said Jurgalski.

According to mountaineering experts, in the past it was not always clear on many peaks exactly where the highest point was and whether one had reached it. The main factor here was the lack of clarity. Storms, snow and, above all, the lack of GPS impaired the sense of direction back then. “Whether we were five meters higher or not – no one in the world can know. Because the storm was too strong and there was a white out: dense fog, everything around us was white, snow, ice,” Messner told the FAZ. Back then, his goal wasn’t just the summit, but also the way to get there.

When Messner climbed Annapurna in 1985, there were no geodata or GPS. “I believe that Messner and the others did their utmost to climb the true peaks on these mountains, to the best of their knowledge and under the conditions they found there,” says the new record holder Viesturs.

Messner now wants to hold back in the summit dispute. According to his own words, he made a final post on the topic on his Messner Instagram profile on Monday. He’s not primarily concerned with climbing the summit for a record. There are no records in alpinism – there will never be anything like that in traditional alpinism. “I have gained so much in my life that today I can proudly say that I am a happy man!”