Mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner reacted calmly to the loss of two titles in the Guinness Book of Records. Until now, Messner was considered the first person to climb all 14 of the world’s eight-thousanders – and also the first person to do so without the aid of bottled oxygen. According to new calculations, the American Ed Viesturs will now receive this title in the new edition of the book, the organizers announced.
Messner told the German news agency on Sunday about the decision: “I am not interested in whether my name is in the Guinness Book.”
Messner said he had never claimed such a “world record” in his life. “You can’t take away a record that I never claimed.”
The Guinness decision is based on new calculations using geodata, which show that some peaks have not yet been correctly identified. Many climbers therefore stopped before reaching the “real top”.
German Himalayan chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski has long claimed that Messner never stood on the summit of the 8,091-meter-high Annapurna.
Messner criticizes German chroniclers from the Himalayas
Messner said: “He has no idea. He’s not an expert. He simply confused the mountain. Of course we reached the top.’ Jurgalski’s calculations also played a role in the decision.
The first in the Guinness Book is now Viesturs, who managed to manage his last missing eight-thousander with Annapurna in 2005. Among mountaineers, ‘The Himalayan Database’ is considered the ultimate chronicle of the Himalayan peaks. Messner’s Annapurna expedition, which he undertook with Hans Kammerlander in 1985, is still listed there.
Source: Krone
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