You have never seen Reinhold Messner like this before: the photo report

The world's most famous mountaineer is celebrating his 80th birthday. As a teenager, I discovered “Everest” by Reinhold Messner on my father's bookshelf. It was my first encounter with the famous mountaineer. Since then, he has stuck with me. So much so that I will meet him for a photo shoot on a late winter day in 2024.

The snow crunches. With his hood pulled low over his face, he comes towards me between meter-high walls of snow. The sun is still behind the mountains, and it is freezing cold this morning in the Sulden Valley. We meet in front of the Messner Mountain Museum Ortler. It is located very close to the mountaineer's house.

Reinhold Messner suggests taking the chairlift to the Langenstein below the Ortler for the shoot. We go up on the 2-seater chairlift. The wind gets stronger the higher we go, and the lift has to be stopped twice. We stagger in the lift and talk about the new photo session. There are more people at the mountain station. At the K2 mountain restaurant, he is recognized by several tourists. Children and adults want an autograph or a selfie with Messner. After a dozen wishes have been fulfilled, he has had enough. Slightly annoyed, he tells the snow sports enthusiasts that he is at work. The wind gets stronger – the shoot can begin.

People all over the world know his face. Reinhold Messner grew up in the Villnöss Valley, in the valley of the Messners. A unique alpine story began in this isolated Dolomite valley. Here, during a strong childhood, he had his first climbing experiences, first on the church wall in St. Peter, later on the north faces of the Geisler group in the background of the valley. The valley became too narrow for Reinhold Messner, and he was drawn to higher mountains and later out into the wide world.

«Today I go around the mountains and no longer over them»

He was the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders and, together with the Tyrolean Peter Habeler, was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest without artificial oxygen in 1978.

His mountain of destiny was Nanga Parbat, where he lost his brother Günther in an avalanche during his descent. The tragedy sparked controversy. Messner later crossed the Antarctic, the Gobi Desert and around the turn of the millennium he was a politician for the Italian Greens in the European Parliament. One issue he is often asked about is climate change. He is not as radical as others though. As an alpinist, he recognised global warming decades ago: in the disappearance of glaciers, the disappearance of permafrost and the vegetation in the Alps, which is advancing to ever higher regions.

An accident while climbing over a castle wall at night ended Reinhold Messner's climbing career in 1995.

“Today I walk around the mountains and no longer over them.” Climbing is now a thing of the past, but walking is not. Messner lives with foresight. In the past on expeditions and today with a view to the last phase of his life.

After the recordings, Messner signs books in the museum shop of the MMM Ortles. I give him my father's paperback, which is over forty years old. He writes the dedication “Kalipé” – from the Tibetan “always with steady feet” – in it. Afterwards, he will shovel snow in front of his house with steady feet. There is supposed to be half a meter of fresh snow the next day. He is looking forward to it.