Messner e venuta!

My friend Bob from the athletic club just looked at me with a  blank stare and said,” I don’t know who that is.” “Reinhold Messner, the mountain climber?” I repeated. “Maybe I should but I’ve never heard of him.” Bob lives in the woods on the Olympic Peninsula. He’s hiked and trekked around the world.  It just seemed he would know the most famous mountaineer since Sir Edmund Hillary.

Now that I think of it, though, sports circles are pretty tight.  On the inside, the tiniest detail is food for discussion amongst the initiated. But still there are people who don’t know Jeff Gordon, David Beckham, Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant or, dare I say, Russell Wilson. Regardless, Reinhold Messner is coming to Seattle next week for an appearance on behalf of his sponsor Adidas and the Mountaineers.  His climbing achievements are historic. First to climb Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen (for you non-clumbers that’s carrying bottled oxygen and a respirator to breathe more freely above 26,000 feet, which most high altitude climbers do.) ; first to solo climb Everest without supplemental oxygen and first to climb the world’s 14 highest peaks over 8,000 meters (26,000 feet). He’s a prolific writer with over 60 books in his vitae. He was a member of European Parliament. With over 100 first ascents to his credit, Messner even had the admiration of my friend Ed Hillary. And that is saying something.

Messner’s talk here next week will be a reunion of sorts. In the 80’s and 90’s, I was fortunate to step into that inner circle of climbers, thanks to my kindred spirit, Lou Whittaker, the dean of guiding in America. Tent mates on my first adventure to Mt. Everest were both members of that elite club.  John Roskelley, who like Messner, is a recipient of the Piolet d’Or (the Golden Ice Axe), alpinism’s most coveted prize, and one of this country’s most accomplished mountaineers; and Jim Wickwire whose climbing achievements including the first American ascent of K2, the world’s second highest and judged by many to be the most difficult of the big ones, have been chronicled in feature films, documentaries a Broadway play, numerous books and National Geographic. Jim and John are northwesterners and have become close friends over the years. Jim will introduce Messner before he speaks and will be the emcee for the night.  John, on the other hand, will have a dialogue with Reinhold to cap off the evening.

First contact with Reinhold for me was when I created an event called the Mountain Summit. It stemmed from the mainstream US media paying more attention to the climbing world.  I brought the mountain friends I had made and the media that I worked with together in a gathering to discuss issues such as access to mountain wildernesses. It was in no way on the same scale but similar to the world gatherings in Davos, Switzerland. The event moved around, even to Tokyo, and drew major media such as TIME magazine, National Geographic, USA Today, the New York Times and many more.  Even Robert Redford took notice of what we were doing and asked to host the event at Sundance.  

Climbers from all over the world came to the Mountain Summit. I thought if Doug Scott and Chris Bonington (ever heard of those names?) could come, why not Reinhold Messner.  So I decided to invite him. Reinhold is Italian (Messner a venuta!) and lives in a South Tyrolian castle that he bought for $15,000. The locals said a crazy man has bought a wall of stone. Believe me, it is not a pile of rocks. A castle with a phone seemed a bit odd even then but he answered. “Messner” he said, with sort of an echo. He was very gracious and, after I dropped a few of the right names, he agreed to participate in one of our meetings. Once there, he jumped in with both feet and he was hooked.  He returned several times and brought his wife Sabine with him.  He always came prepared to make us think.  At the Mountain Summit, he introduced the concept of the “White Wilderness”, which are the blank spots on the map. There is nothing there and man should keep it that way was his mantra. The White Wilderness holds more meaning now than ever.

I like Reinhold. He’s thoughtful, opinionated, interesting and even funny if you give him half a chance.  He’s bigger than life and one of those people that you would like to meet but never expect to. And suddenly there he is and he’s just what you hoped he’d be. Mostly, he’s a lover of the mountains.  He respects them as I do. He echoes Ed Hillary’s call for limiting access to mountains like Mount Everest, which I helped Hillary promote. Reinhold and I connected. We talked about writing which both of us like to do.  He’s written every word in those 60-plus books. He told me that writing was the best way for him record the details of his adventures and doing that made him better at it.  I couldn’t agree more.

His trip here is being tagged onto his keynote address to the American Alpine Club in New York the day before. I hope and expect that you will read or hear about his visit before the weekend is over. Coverage of his talk will likely be buried under an avalanche of Super Bowl reporting. If you have tickets to hear Reinhold, consider yourself lucky. The event has long been sold out. I guarantee that I will be there listening to three people that I have great respect and admiration for and hoping that their messages of freedom and conservation of the mountains of the world will be heard loud and clear. Messner, Roskelley and Wickwire, three names I will never forget. All three have helped changed the world of the outdoors and my world, as well.