German mountaineering reporter
Eberhard Jurgalski on Friday backtracked on a claim that Italian
mountaineer Reinhold Messner failed to reach the summit of
Annapurna in 1985, a claim that had led Guinness World Records
to strip the legendary South Tyrolean climber of his record as
the first person to climb the world's 14 mountains over 8,000 m.
The Guinness World Records website now names the American Edmund
Viesturs as the first person to have climbed all 14 8,000 m
mountains between 1989 and 2005, making specific reference to
Jurgalski's claims regarding Messner's former record.
In a sensational U-Turn, the German expert now says a 'tolerance
zone' of 190 metres is justified in the vicinity of certain
peaks, such as Annapurna, which has an interminable ridge to the
summit, and for this reason, the record belongs to Messner
"forever".
In his previous claim, Jurgalski said Messner in the company of
Hans Kammerlander missed the summit of Nepalese peak Annapurna
by a few metres.
After Messner's removal from the Guinness Book of Records,
Jurgalski was inundated with criticism from the mountaineering
world and the 79-year-old's fans.
Messner last Monday described as "nonsense" the records book
move and Jurgalski's claim.
"It's nonsense", the mountain man from Funes in Italy's Alpine
Alto Adige region told ANSA.
"First of all, I have never claimed any records, so they cannot
disown me," he said.
"Also, mountains change. Almost 40 years have passed, if someone
has climbed Annapurna it was certainly Hans and I," added
Messner.
"No one who knows anything about mountaineering would question
our feat, Jurgalski in fact knows nothing about it," continued
Messner.
"Mountains change, like everything in nature. Especially on
Annapurna, all it takes is for the snow cornice to collapse and
the summit drops five metres," he added.
"The ridge leading to the summit is 3 km long, Jurgalski has
simply confused the east summit with the main summit. Here
someone obviously wants to be noticed without having the
slightest competence," insisted Messner.
"This is how you destroy mountaineering," Messner's climbing
partner Kammerlander in the 1985 Annapurna ascent told ANSA,
describing the debate as "ridiculous".
"Of course there is no absolute certainty, those were other
times, without gps. At those altitudes all it takes is a
snowstorm and dim sunlight," said the 66-year-old, also from
Alto Adige.
"We are still convinced that we were reached the summit, but who
knows if there were another 5-6 metres to climb behind the rock.
That would still not detract from our achievement," he
continued.
"Humanity really is getting worse," he concluded.
One of Italy's most illustrious extreme mountaineers, Messner
made the first solo ascent of Mt Everest without bottled oxygen
in 1980.
Since then he has gone on to break numerous other records and
inspired generations of mountain climbers.
He has also given his name to a network of Mountain Museums in
Alto Adige.
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