Climbing legend Messner named Grand Officer for culture

(ANSA) - Bolzano, June 27 - Italy's king of the 8,000-metre peaks, climbing legend Reinhold Messner, was named a Grand Officer of the Italian Republic for his contributions to culture by President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday "This honor particularly pleases me, because I'm getting it for my cultural work and not as a mountain climber," said Messner, who turns 70 in September. The climbing legend, who was knighted for his feats by former president Sandro Pertini, has set up five Messner Mountain Museums in such locations as Brunico and Castel Firmiano, with a sixth - designed by starchitect Zaha Hadid - set for completion in time for his birthday.
    He has turned to solo exploration in recent years, including a two-month crossing of the Gobi desert in China and Mongolia.
    Messner, the pride of the autonomous Alto Adige (South Tyrol) region, has a long list of adventurous achievements to his credit.
    He was the first man to scale all 14 of the world's peaks higher than 8,000m and he is a legend among climbers with the first oxygen-less conquest of Everest in 1980, a feat until then thought impossible.
    He has also made solo ascents of Nanga Parbat and Everest.
    Messner lost seven toes and three fingers to frostbite during the climb of Nanga Parbat in 1970, and his brother Gunther died on the descent.
    Messner stopped climbing 15 years ago but showed no intention of putting his feet up at his castle in the Alps.
    Instead, he turned his attention to polar expeditions.
    In 1990 he became the first man to cross the Antarctic on foot and later tried the Arctic too, but without success.
    The Italian, born near the Austrian border, is also one of the few Western people who claims to have seen the Yeti, the mysterious ape-like creature dubbed the "Abominable Snowman." He says that during expeditions in the Himalayas he has encountered the Yeti not once, but four times, once close enough to touch it.
    He is the author of at least 63 books in German, 1970-2006, many of which have been translated into other languages.
    Some of these have been about his encounters with the Yeti.