Know this about the legendary mountaineer and adventurer Reinhold Messner

No, Reinhold Messner is far from ready to retire. Although the legendary mountaineer and adventurer could undoubtedly do so with a clear conscience. But Messner is not the kind of person who eventually becomes quiet. He might be calmer, but that would probably be due to his age, says the native of South Tyrol, who is now 78 years old.

Reinhold Messner climbed his first three-thousand-meter peak at the tender age of five – accompanied by his father. Now, it is important to know that this is not necessarily considered exceptional in South Tyrol; certainly there are other children who did the same. But Reinhold Messner fell in love with the mountains. He became addicted by this untouched, magical and at the same time unpredictably dangerous world, drove him his whole life. Messner says of himself: “For me, perhaps in contrast to the “modern adventurers”, it has always been less about setting records and more about being exposed. I wanted to feel exposed to these untouched natural landscapes, and in my eyes that can only be done with a minimum of equipment.” Reinhold Messner was downsizing when the term didn’t even exist. 

On his website, he describes his work as follows: “He contrasts the possibilities of the communication age with his being on the move as a pedestrian and does without drill hooks, oxygen masks and satellite telephone – an anachronism, to be sure, but one that preserves for the wilderness an inexhaustible potential for experience.”

“Making the impossible possible” is my motto in life. Today, I run farms and manage museums. Tasks, however, that satisfy me just as much as the mountains used to.”

I have fond memories of Juval Castle in South Tyrol, which I visited with my family during their vacations there. It is part of the Messner Mountain Museum initiated by Reinhold Messner, a six-part museum structure in which each house, like a satellite, is dedicated to a sub-theme. I remember looking up at this castle with a certain awe, and that had less to do with the building and much more to do with the person Reinhold Messner, who seemed wild and also a bit crazy to me as a child. Today, I would say that Messner was far ahead of his time. Early on, he had understood what was really at stake on this planet, and committed himself to it.

Politics to solve the world’s problems step by step

Messner: “Politics has interested me since I grew up. First village politics, then national politics. Through my travels and expeditions, I was later confronted with the problems in Tibet, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan and Nepal. (…) Most recently, as a member of the European Parliament, I had the chance to contribute to the pacification of crisis areas. Even if only in tiny little steps.”

Today he wants to bring his legacy, he says: “I want to tell what I experienced at the far ends of the world and of those who shared fears with me, hopelessness sometimes and the euphoria at last of being born again. Back from misanthropic worlds we have nothing but experiences. (…) One of these tasks for me is the Mountain Museum, MMM for short, where I tell what happens in us when we surrender to the mountains. To their dangers and their majesty, their greatness and their mysteries. (…) It will open our eyes to values that have been inherent in the mountains of the earth since the beginning: Timelessness, though they weather; Dangers, which we all fear; Deceleration, which we all need.”

Reinhold Messner, the companion

Messner’s message is important. People who experience him in a lecture “experience me directly and unmediated.” 

He lets them look inside his world, follow along in spirit when he climbs Mount Everest or fails below the summit of Lhotse. Messner, an accomplished speaker, describes it this way, “I try to turn my inner world inside out, to describe the doubts, fears and weaknesses that hit each of us when we reach the limits of our abilities, as companions along the way. They are the common denominator I have with my audience.”

Reinhold Messner is and remains a legend. To have experienced him once is one of the great moments in life. In the meantime, Messner has mellowed in his words. But his message remains clear: “We have to learn to stand out.” Perhaps currently more than ever.

Book Reinhold Messner for your next keynote. Use his adventures and experiences for your kind of leadership, team and teambuilding.