TALKING. WRITING. BEING SILENT. As long as there are so many topics out there and as long as I feel the longing to describe and mentally digest them, I will continue to write even if I will write a little less than in the past. In the book I am currently working on I try to put to paper my experiences about the naked human nature. I will certainly not write about my past adventures anymore although I might briefly scan some of them to show where the experiences that I am describing are coming from. Of course, these experiences are distinct and subjective but in my opinion they can be transferred to anyone. Some of my future readers might say: “This is terrible, I can hardly believe what he is writing” and maybe this book will be a spark for a discussion about morals. That’s exactly what I want because for me every moral, be it law or religion, is insincere. The fact that we (the traditional mountaineers) are moving within an archaic space following anarchic patterns because all responsibility rests on our shoulders alone, provides us a point of view on the human nature that civilisation does not allow. And this human nature is what I am going to describe. Nowadays those spaces where we can be on the way as “anarchists” become less and less. Gym-climbers know as little about this space as those who climb Mount Everest when there are more than 1,000 people in basecamp and the mountain is perfectly groomed. 90% of the climbers want to climb harder and harder every day but they never sacrifice. Not the chalk, not the bolts and not the oxygen when they climb high mountains. It is therefore obvious that the idea of sacrifice hasn’t been a successful one and remains a past period in alpinism. Nowadays alpinism is mainly a sport. What is happening on the 8,000-metre peaks I call “extreme tourism”. This means that an organiser grooms the mountain to put a big number of people on top of it: the client walks a slope to the mountaintop. There’s no doubt that this is exhausting and also great, because it gives people the opportunity to achieve something extraordinary. But we have to face things as they are: this kind of approach has nothing to do with traditional, independent and self-responsible mountaineering. I am interested in what the British call “trad-alpinism”. There exists loads of mountain and adventure stories that haven’t been dealt with from a psychological point of view. In this regard alpine history is stuck for an answer. I am more and more interested in what happens to humans respectively the human nature when it performs crazy tasks: what have those people felt, in which fear trap have they tumbled? I have hundreds of such topics in mind but you can relax, I don’t intend to work about all of them. In the future I will definitely not answer any denunciators anymore. There exist more than enough conspiracy theories about me already.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
“A GREAT PLEASURE FOR WALKING AND MUCH CURIOSITY IS WHAT KEEPS ME GOING”
34
Reinhold Messner is 70. What can one say about this? Much? Little? The usual? Something different? More than all the others? This is not an easy question. One that everybody has to answer for oneself. The answer that we found is simple: we say nothing – and let Reinhold Messner speak. Last but not least this interview is meant also as a gesture. A gesture of gratitude for a decade-long inspiration as well as one to submit our wishes with. With this in mind we wish you a Happy 70th birthday, Mr Messner! TEXT: FLORIAN SCHEIMPFLUG
CHANGE OF PARADIGMS AND SENSE OF WELL-BEING.
Back when I traversed the Gobi desert I started off in a state of timelessness. I felt neither young nor old. But the Gobi traverse became a key experience. Afterwards I told myself: “You should not do anything like that anymore.” I realised that my ability to suffer was not the same anymore as it always had been. Strength and skillfulness are the first qualities to decrease in the course of a lifetime. From a well-built endurance you can live off much longer. The last thing to decrease is the ability to suffer. In the past I did 2 – 3 expeditions per year. At the age of 55 I switched into politics for a short time and detached from that way of life. The older I got the faster the depletion progressed. I didn’t do as much as I used to and mainly lost my endurance but for a long time I had the feeling I still could achieve anything if I only really wanted to. The Gobi experience has changed that for good, I have accepted it and backed off. Meanwhile I agree to be an elderly gent and I honestly feel good about it. For sure I am not going to deliver any sensations anymore. My 70th birthday is definitely no key experience for me. I see it in a relaxed manner. I will invite my good friends and we will celebrate in an alpine surrounding. Whoever intends to use my birthday to tell any stories may do it, I let it happen.
THE PRESENT AS A MEANS AGAINST BOREDOM. I am not worried that I will be bored in old age and I am sure not going to suffer from the fact that won’t be able to do this or that. I am really looking forward to pursuing my doings with neck and crop. The passion is still there. I am currently working on an idea, indulging in a passion or in other words: I am working on financing my new project. Besides that there exist plans to climb a few moderate routes in the Dolomites in the next year but this will be irrelevant for high-end alpinism. On the other hand I do feel a huge enthusiasm for all these young guys who achieve those crazy things – be it in the walls, in sport climbing or in alpine realms. Some of them push limits and go beyond boundaries which I haven’t even considered. For example David Lama and his project on Masherbrum (7,821 metres, Karakorum/Pakistan) or Hansjörg Auer. I have gazed up some of their walls when I was young only to decide that this wasn’t for me. Impossible! All the bigger is my respect for their attempts. As far as my statements go, my purpose is to not let traditional mountaineering perish. In my point of view the professional alpinism of the present is more of a sport or a kick than it is adventure. In my opinion this is neither alpinism’s greatest value nor opportunity. The task of a self-responsible being moving in an archaic world is what offers the most experience. Neither speed nor the product earned from an ascent play a role in traditional mountaineering. Nowadays every big route is being filmed and documented professionally simply because it is possible. Fair enough. But photo and film only play a secondary role when it comes down to the experience. It holds true for “trad-alpinism” that the better an ascent can be represented the lesser it is worth as an adventure. Mountaineering is about experience and the fundamental question what happens to the human nature when it is exposed to all these difficulties and dangers in the vast world of the mountains. PHOTO: ARMIN HUBER