After Messner’s loss of record titles: the dispute at the top continues

There is great excitement in the mountaineering world. Because a certainty that has existed for decades is suddenly wrong.

Until now, South Tyrolean extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner was considered the first person to climb all 14 of the world’s eight-thousanders – and also the first person to do so without the help of oxygen from a bottle. It is now only listed on the Guinness Book website as a ‘legacy’ record. This means that the record was recognized at a time when the calculations did not correspond to current standards.

The basis are new, controversial calculations – including geodata, according to which many mountain climbers returned before reaching the “real summit”. Notably, German Himalayan chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski has long said that Messner never stood on the summit of the 8,091-meter-high Annapurna.

It was also Jurgalski who made public the withdrawal of Messner’s data. Jurgalski’s publications and subsequent Guinness decision sparked a dispute at the summit. Messner initially reacted calmly: “You can’t take away a record that I never claimed,” he told the DPA news agency. He doesn’t care if his name is in the Guinness Book.

However, Messner wrote on Instagram three days ago: “It’s a bit strange that people keep using my person, my name, to make themselves important. Because they have nothing to say? Nothing achieved yet? Didn’t they have the courage to make their dreams come true?” When asked about Jurgalski’s calculations, he also told the DPA: “He has no idea. He is not an expert. He simply confused the mountain. Of course we have reached the top.”

Afterwards, however, Messner seemed to put the story aside. He wrote on Instagram:

Since then, the dispute has long since taken on a life of its own. Jurgalski is reporting a shit storm against himself: he is now being insulted by Messner’s supporters, the Lörracher said in an interview with the DPA. “I didn’t take away Messner’s record, I just wanted to classify his achievements.” The climber made only one mistake. “Messner achieved a lot, but made a small human error – just like others,” Jurgalski said.

De Lörracher also emphasizes that his publications about the new calculations were not personally directed against Messner. Eventually he discovered that others had not reached the peaks of the eight-thousanders Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Manaslu.

On Wednesday Jurgalski also gave an interview to the “Tagesanzeiger”. In it he defends his findings and emphasizes his continued admiration for Messner: “Messner climbed Mount Everest solo, without oxygen! He remains the greatest,” Jugalski said. He can also understand that mountain climbers are disappointed when they lose records, and he feels sorry for many of them. One person, whose criminal record he also cleared, even broke off his friendship with him.

When asked if it was all worth it, considering consequences like this, Jugalski said: “Honestly, if I had known earlier what was going to happen, I would have looked for another hobby at some point. It is very nerve-wracking when a media giant like Messner insults me.” He will do everything he can to make it public that he is not the devil who is destroying “the beautiful game of the former Mountaineers.”

But Reinhold Messner apparently did not have the last word with his conciliatory Instagram post on Monday. On Wednesday, he made another statement on the platform, as “20 Minutes” reported, this time much more aggressively: “It is exciting that E. Jurgalski is chief advisor to the Guinness Book of Records!!!” However, this post has now been deleted.

The day before, Messner also thanked his followers – somewhat cryptically: “I am overwhelmed by the understanding and knowledge of my followers, they can understand the dimension of my mountaineering and that makes me happy!”

According to the new data from Jurgalski, on which the organizers of the Guinness Book are based, the American Ed Viesturs is now awarded the title. In turn, he now jumps alongside his world-famous mountaineering colleague. “I firmly believe that Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders and that this should still be recognized today,” Viesturs said in response to a request from the DPA.

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

According to mountaineering experts, on many peaks in the past it was not always clear where exactly the highest point was and whether one had reached that point. The main factor here was the lack of clarity. Storms, snow and especially the lack of GPS hindered the sense of direction at the time. “Whether we were five meters higher or not – no one in the world can know. Because the storm was too strong and there was white snow: thick fog, everything around us was white, snow, ice,” Messner told FAZ. At that time, his goal was not only the top, but also the road to it.

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

Will the summit conflict ever be resolved? After deleting his Instagram post, Reinhold Messner’s most recent post remains “apolitical”: a photo of the Messner Mountain Museum, which reads in part: “My passion is creating and telling stories.” (lacquer/sda/dpa)