A Scurrilous Legend Put to Rest

Nanga Parbat, in northern Pakistan, is the world's ninth highest mountain at 8,125 metres

"When they found me I hadn't eaten for six days and I weighed 56 kilograms. I cheated death." 

"This is further proof that I did not abandon Gunther. People said I left him to die, sacrificing him for my own ambition."

"I'm at peace with myself, even if the accident changed my life."

"The remains were found on the slope, which I had always said was the place where I saw him disappear."

Reinhold Messner, renowned Himalayan summiteer

Italian Reinhold Messner (pictured), 77, had always insisted his sibling was swept away by an avalanche during their descent from the 26,660ft (8,126m) peak of Nanga Parbat, in Pakistan, back in 1970

 

Back in 1970, Reinhold Messner, the first of the world's mountaineers to have climbed Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, set out to summit the 8,125-metre-high Nanga Parbat in Pakistan with his younger, less experienced brother, Gunther. The two did succeed together in reaching the summit of the mountain, but they did not descend in the conventional way, retracing their ascent. They had encountered an avalanche on the way down.

Reinhold informed his rescuers that his brother had perished, swept down the mountain in an avalanche. He had himself been caught, but not to the extent of his brother, swept completely down, never to be seen again. Reinhard kept descending, injured and dazed after seeing his 23-year-old brother swept to his death, staggering as best he could down the mountain, wandering for six days until he was found and escorted to safety. He had, during his ordeal, lost some of his toes to frostbite.

Two other climbers who were also on the expedition cast doubt on Reinhold's explanation, insisting that he had been obsessed to the extent of abandoning  his delirious, frost-bitten brother to suffer his own fate while Reinhold went on to summit his prize. The two climbers who wrote about their experience were not witness to what had occurred as the brothers ascended the summit, but speculated on what they felt had occurred.

 

Bones belonging to Guenther, who was 23 when he died, were found in the same area back in 2005, along with his other boot, which still had the remains of the foot inside. (Pictured: Reinhold and Guenther before their tragic climb in 1970)

 

Their speculative accusation followed the celebrated Reinhold throughout his life. Now, 52 years later, one of his brother's leather boots was found, entombed in a Himalayan glacier for a half-century. And the controversial claim of the mountaineer sacrificing his brother's life to achieve his own ambition has finally been laid to rest. Reinhold's constant denials of the accusations hadn't served to exonerate himself from the claims, but the boot discovery has done the job.

Moreover, Reinhold recalled that in 2005, his brother's bones had been discovered in the very same area, along with the other boot. DNA analysis by Austrian experts verified that the bones found on the slope with the first boot and where the second boot was finally found, were those of Gunther Messner.

Now 77, and having during his mountaineering career, been the first person to summit all 14 of the world's peaks exceeding 8,000 metres, the man's reputation has been cleared, once and for all.

Reinhold shared an image of the boot (pictured) with his 170,000-plus followers on Instagram, telling an Italian newspaper it provided 'final vindication' of his version of events