The most famous climber in the world is Reinhold Messner. 1948 he was born in the South Tyrol. He started to climb when he was five years old. By the age of 20, he had climbed most of the hardest routes in the Dolmites and Western Alps together with his brother Gunter. He had already started to write books about climbing. Gunter was later killed during their first Himalayan expedition.
After his climb as first person without oxygen on the Mount Everest (8850m) and his solo ascents of Nanga Parbat (8125m), he has been on all 8000-Mountains. He is a living legend among climbers. For himself the traverse between Gasherbrum 1 and 2 with Hans Kammerlander was his best Himalayan expedition.
Messner was therefore on all famous mountains of the world and he made a lot of South Pole expeditions. He is one of the few people that say, they have seen the Yeti. Some people say about Messner that his personality has changed after his high Mountains climbs. In the Himalaya, he had lost millions of braincells!!

I have chosen Reinhold Messner because there is a lot of information in the Web. I like climbing and I would like to climb like him. But I don't want to make Himalayan expeditions.

by Michael Meier