‘Not a Hero,’ Says First Climber to Scale 14 Highest Peaks

Reinhold Messner, king of the high-altitude climbers, has scaled the world’s loftiest peaks, but he said Thursday that he is not so proud of what he has done.

“I am not feeling a winner or a hero,” said Messner, 42, an elfin figure with a full blond beard and sunburned, cherry-red nose.

Last week, Messner became the first person to climb all 14 of the world’s highest mountains--those over 8,000 meters (26,248 feet). The accomplishment means more in Europe and Central Asia than in the United States, which has only a handful, relatively, of world-class high-altitude climbers.

In the Alpine regions of Europe the “eight-thousanders” are as famous as soccer stars or champion bicycle racers.

Messner has written 24 books and runs a renowned climbing school in a converted castle in his native northern Italy. But in his first press conference after climbing his 14th eight-thousander--Lhotse (8,501 meters, or 27,890 feet)--Messner complained that mountain climbing has become too competitive, too preoccupied with numbers and records and not appreciative enough of the “creativity” of the sport.

‘Races on Rocks’

“In the last few years,” he said, “there has been this attempt to quantify everything: races on rocks. How many peaks in how many hours. How many faces of mountains in one day.”

The past two years have been a busy time, in this sense, here in the land they call “The Roof of the World,” the area of India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Tibet region of China where the 50 highest mountains in the world are found, including Mt. Everest (29,028 feet). The hype reached new heights.

In April, 1985, a Texas millionaire, Richard D. Bass, 55, climbed Everest (via the route pioneered in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay) to become the first man in the world to climb the highest mountains on all seven continents.

In August of this year, Swiss mountaineers Erhard Loretan, 27, and Jean Troillet, 38, climbed Everest in a record 43 hours, and then, delivering a coup de grace that seemed to mock the mountain, slid down to their base camp on their bottoms.

This practice--the climber uses his ice ax to control speed and direction--is called a glissade, and had never before been used to descend Everest, though a Japanese once attempted to ski part of the way down.

Messner Beat 6 Others

Finally, last week, Messner and a partner, Hans Kammerlander, also of Italy, climbed Lhotse in their first attempt. Messner had been locked in a race with six other European climbers, including Kammerlander, to scale all the eight-thousanders.

One competitor, Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczha, is now three mountains behind Messner. Another, Swiss climber Marcel Reudi, had just climbed his eighth this summer when he was found dead on a mountainside of pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs). He was found by Messner, who happened to be climbing in the same place.

For Messner, last week’s triumph added another milestone to a long list. In 1978, he and Austrian Peter Habeler were the first men to climb Everest without using oxygen bottles. Later that year, he was the first man to climb an 8,000-meter mountain alone (Nanga Parbat, in the Himalayas). While he was on the mountain, it was shaken by an earthquake that knocked off the part of the face he had climbed the day before. In 1980, he became the first man to climb Everest alone, and, in 1982, he was the first to climb three eight-thousanders in a single year.

Despite his protests at Thursday’s press conference in Katmandu, many mountaineers blame Messner for creating the atmosphere of one-upmanship involving records and times and other mountain minutiae. Such exploits, the critics say, have changed the sport from a pastime for mostly wealthy men seeking challenges and camaraderie to a coldly professional enterprise.

‘Big Show Business’

“It is no longer a bunch of friends getting together for a climb,” said James (Jimmy) Roberts, a former British army officer who helped in several famous climbs, including the 1953 first climb of Everest by Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. “Now you can literally buy a ticket to the top of Everest. This is commercialized mountaineering. It’s big show business now.”

In May, at the funeral for his Sherpa climbing partner, Hillary, who is now New Zealand’s ambassador to India, commented bitterly on the commercial trend in mountaineering.

Star climbers routinely carry endorsements from clothing and sports equipment companies. Messner’s two climbs this summer were financed to the extent of about $90,000 by an Italian sportswear company, a European beverage company, the Italian national television network and a tour company.

“It is all part of the rat race now,” Hillary said. “Just like many other sports, they are all trying to get their names in the papers.”

According to Elizabeth Hawley, an American from New York who has lived for 20 years in Katmandu and “met every damn expedition that’s come to this place,” mountain climbing has radically changed since the days of Hillary and Tenzing.

In those days, climbing involved a large-scale assault on the mountain. Hundreds of climbers, support staff and Sherpa or Balti (as they are called in Pakistan) guides would lay siege to the objective. By 1964, all 14 of the 8,000-meter mountains had been climbed, eight by climbers using bottled oxygen.

Better Techniques, Technology

The next stage in mountaineering involved improved techniques and technology, mostly perfected by rock climbers in England and the Yosemite Valley of California. This reduced the number of climbers but often involved drilling and hammering into the mountain face.

“They left these things in the mountain,” Hawley said. “It was like moving into a house and finding a lot of nails sticking out.”

The latest trend, introduced by Messner and his colleagues, the so-called minimalist method or Alpine style, involves no oxygen and a limited amount of equipment. The climbing is often done alone or in very small groups, allowing quick movement and thus limiting the time the climbers spend in the rarefied air above 20,000 feet.

Messner calls it climbing by “fair means.” At Thursday’s press conference he used a Tibetan phrase to express the idea that a good climb requires a “quiet foot.”

“I feel that nature,” Messner said. “The big powers of the mountains accepted me more. More than 10 times I had to go back. I left many different mountains but always the gods gave me a chance to go back. I was always going with a quiet foot.”

Solo Ascent Treasured

Shifting from Italian to German to English to accommodate his questioners, Messner wept as he recalled his most treasured moment as a climber, the 1978 solo ascent of Nanga Parbat.

“I am not so proud to climb all the 8,000-meter peaks,” he said, “but I was proud to climb Nanga Parbat solo. That was the most elegant thing I did.”

Messner’s accomplishments have not been diminished by the increasing commercialism of his sport. High-altitude climbing continues to be one of the most dangerous undertakings known to man. Almost all veteran high-altitude climbers have seen people die on their expeditions. Twelve climbers were killed last summer in Pakistan. Messner’s brother, Gunther, died when they tried to climb Nanga Parbat in 1970.

The first attempt on an 8,000-meter peak was in 1895, by British climber A.F. Mummery on the same face of Nanga Parbat that Messner scaled. Mummery died in the attempt. Hundreds of other climbers have died on the big mountains.

REINHOLD MESSNER:

8,000 METERS AND UP

Elevation Peak Country Meters Feet Everest Nepal/Tibet 8,848 29,028 K2 Pakistan 8,611 28,250 Kanchenjunga India/Nepal 8,598 28,210 Lhotse Nepal/Tibet 8,501 27,890 Makalu Nepal/Tibet 8,481 27,826 Dhaulagiri Nepal 8,167 26,796 Manaslu Nepal 8,156 26,760 Cho Oyu Nepal/Tibet 8,153 26,750 Nanga Parbat Pakistan 8,125 26,660 Annapurna Nepal 8,091 26,547 Gasherbrum II Pakistan 8,068 26,470 Broad Peak Pakistan 8,047 26,400 Gasherbrum II Pakistan 8,035 26,360 Xixabangma Tibet 8,012 26,287