Messner back on the eight thousand list – the dispute enters a new round

The dispute between mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner and the Guinness Book of Records over the ascent of all 14 eight-thousanders is entering a new round.

The 79-year-old announced in an interview with the DPA news agency on Friday that he would take action against publisher Guinness if his name appeared again on a new list of those who had climbed all eight-thousanders. “If this gets into the Guinness Book, I will ban it. I am against my name being included on such a list.”

For a long time, Messner was considered by Guinness to be the first person to climb all 14 of the world’s eight-thousanders. In the new edition, however, the title is now awarded to the American climber Ed Viesturs, because according to calculations by the German Himalayan chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski, Messner would have missed the summit of the 8,091 meter high Annapurna by a few meters in 1985. . Viesturs is already listed on the Guinness website as the first “real top climber”. Messner, on the other hand, remains convinced he was at the top.

According to a report in the magazine “Der Spiegel”, Guinness’ decision should now be reversed. On the website 8000ers.com, which is run by Jurgalski, Messner is currently back in first place.

The South Tyrolean has been defending himself for years against claims by the German expert that he missed the summit of Annapurna almost four decades ago during his joint expedition with Hans Kammerlander. When the story resurfaced last month, he said he didn’t care whether his name was in the Guinness Book or not.

However, he has now announced that he wants to defend himself against this in the future. ‘I didn’t care. “I’ve never had a book like this in my hand,” he told the DPA. In fact, mountaineering has “nothing to do with records.” “This is a conflict between humans and nature.” Jurgalski has no idea about mountain climbing. (sda/dpa)