Reinhold Messner Quotes

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Reinhold Messner

Profession : Explorer

Birth : September 17, 1944

Climbing is not a competition, and you cannot talk in terms of 'greatest,' it means nothing.

Reinhold Messner

I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'

Reinhold Messner

I am not made for lonely expeditions. In the sixties, I climbed during the day so I wouldn't have to be alone. I finally learned to stay up for weeks in the high altitude all by my own without being afraid.

Reinhold Messner

I think my cultural work is more important than the adventures I did. The adventures are not important for human beings. It's the conquering of the useless.

Reinhold Messner

I have always said that a mountain without danger is not a mountain.

Reinhold Messner

Before kids, I was really going to the limit. Afterwards, I was approaching the limit but then maybe turning around.

Reinhold Messner

I had no ghost writers for the books - I wrote every line myself.

Reinhold Messner

In climbing there is no question of right or wrong. Moral right or wrong, that is a religious question, they have nothing to do with anarchical activity, and classical mountaineering is a completely anarchical activity.

Reinhold Messner

I would never bring a flag on the summit. If somebody is climbing for a country he is not normal, he is sick.

Reinhold Messner

Albert Frederick Mummery and Chris Bonington are the British climbers I most admire.

Reinhold Messner

I am not so famous. I'm known in a few countries like Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and around the Alps. Some climbers in Beijing know my name, and some in America, but I am not really famous. It's very relative, my fame.

Reinhold Messner

My aim is not just to help preserve what is left of mountain life, but to create a centre where people can study and learn about it.

Reinhold Messner

I learned a lot from more experienced mountaineers, such as Peter Habeler, but by the time I was about 21 I reckoned I had learned all that I needed to make me technically self-sufficient anywhere.

Reinhold Messner

Fame is very heavy. When there are large crowds, I'm unable to handle it.

Reinhold Messner

My father had been a Wehrmacht officer in the second world war and was a violent and damaged man.

Reinhold Messner

Anyone who ever witnessed Ueli Steck flying up the Eigerwand would know that he was always in control of his actions. He was always moving with immense precision and a sense of safety.

Reinhold Messner

I learned to ski in the Dolomites at the age of five. Ski lifts didn't exist then, so I did everything on foot.

Reinhold Messner

Out of all the climbers of this generation, I was the one who became known to the larger public. Many of them - not all of them, but many of them - understood they had only one chance to use me for their personal gain. And it's very easy to use me.

Reinhold Messner

For me, climbing has always been about adventure and that involves difficulties, danger and exposure, so I deliberately set out to climb with as little equipment as possible.

Reinhold Messner

An account of an expedition is not a novel. Therefore an authentic account can never be given, let alone written down by someone who was not present.

Reinhold Messner