Climber Reinhold Messner in Prague

On 25^th November 2016 the famous mountain climber Reinhold Messner visited the Palace of Books located on St. Wenceslas Square in Prague to introduce his new book, Fall of Heaven. The seventy-two-year-old Messner, who has conquered all fourteen peaks over eight thousand metres above sea level and reached the top of Mount Everest without the use of oxygen, participated also in the 13th International Festival of Alpinism which was held from 25^th to 27^th November in Prague.

„Between the age of five and twenty-five, I was mainly a mountain climber. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as good as the Czech Adam Ondra. However, I tried as much as possible,“ joked Messner, who prefers writing books to climbing today. „My second book is focused on the first ascent of Matterhorn which was in 1865. Although it might seem like a crime book, the story is retold the way as actually happened,“ noted Messner.

Besides writing, he also concentrates on different projects. Fourteen days ago he came back from an expedition in Nepal, where he was exploring the life of Nepalis. In addition, he brought back some material for his new film.

Messner also commented on the situation at Mount Everest, where there are problems with the increasing amount of pollution due to the great number of visitors. „Waste is not the problem but people are,“ he claimed. „Sherpas do a hard work so their clients can reach the top. What happens there is not alpinism anymore, now it’s pure tourism.“