MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: REINHOLD MESSNER

Reinhold Messner is one the most famous climbers in the world. the age of 20, he had climbed most of the hardest routes in the Dolmites and Western Alps together with his brother Günther and had already started to formulate his dedication and philosophy in clean lightweight alpine-style climbing.

Günther was later killed by an avalanche near the base camp on Nanga Parbat after the first successful ascent of the Rupal Face. This was the Messner brothers first Himalayan expedition and a great personal lost for Reinhold that took many years to get over.

After the first oxygen less climb of Everest, his solo ascents of Nanga Parbat and Everest, being the first to climb all 14 eight-thou sanders and finishing the "Seven Summits" as the third person, he is a living legend among climbers.

Reinhold Messner: "As far as the public is concerned, since 1978 my sensational climbs - Everest without oxygen and Nanga Parbat solo - are unsurpassable." Messner himself consider the traverse between Gasherbrum I and II with Hans Kammerlander in 1984 to be his supreme Himalayan achievement.

In 1975 he and Peter Habeler made a statement that they were going to attack an 8,000 metre mountain in the same manners as done in the Alps. Reinhold declared what he meant as alpine style: the start of the climb is done from the bottom of the mountain and you carry all the gears with you on the way, if any bivouacs, they will be found on the way. No route preparation is done. Supplemental oxygen is not used.

They where successful on Hidden Peak, by leaving almost everything behind, climbing unroped they made a fast ascent through a new route. This was the second ever ascent of the mountain!

He is the only person to have climbed the extremely dangerous Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat and probably the only person that ever truly will climb Everest alone. Today the mountain is crowded and if someone claims to have climbed it "solo", it means that it was done without help from others from the last camp to the summit. Not to forget is that his climb was done during the summer, regarded as monsoon season, something never done before.

Messner is also one of the few western people that claim to have seen the Yeti. He's said to have met it twice, the second time during one of his latest expeditions to Karakorum, now with pictures as proof!? They where promised to be published in his book about the Yeti - but no real proof were actually published. Instead he speculates that the Yeti is a large, long haired bear.

Someone have calculated that Reinhold have had a 99, 9% chance of being killed on his expeditions while reading statistics. Perhaps, but what the statistics really show if that by having extraordinary physicals, psyche and a clear and calculated mind with the ability to take the right decisions in extreme situations, he has stayed alive where few, if any would have survived.

Reinhold Messner is also an inspirational motivational speaker, sharing his extraordinary experiences with audiences throughout Europe.