An Evening with Reinnhold Messner at the AAC Annual Dinner
Last night was a special night for mountaineering. The annual American Alpine Club (AAC) dinner was held in New York City and Reinhold Messner was the after dinner speaker, no addressing a packed house. Earlier in the day, several discussion panels were held, again to a full room of interested climbers. I went to bed late last night proud to be a climber and a member of the AAC. Legends – Old and New First off was a discussion moderated by Jim Clash, adventure write for Forbes and other magazines plus an adventurer in his own right, with Ueli Steck and Sir Chris Bonington. It was quite the contrast seeing the 80 year-old talking with the 38 year-old Swiss Machine. Clash gently pulled stories from each of them over the hour. I especially enjoyed the dialog around speed. Of course Steck has the speed record on the Eiger north face, Heckmair route, in 2:47:33 hours, solo in 2008 and another record on Annapurna’s south face in 2013 at 28 hours. Bonington simply smiled when he said it took him, “days.” Both alpinists agreed that the sport is moving forward with exciting advancements. Steck said “climbing is not a competition.” He went on to acknowledge he cannot do at age 38 what he did at 28, and he was fine with that. Another excellent exchange was when Steck asked Bonington how he led such disparate personalities on very large and difficult expeditions back in the 1970s and ‘80s. Sir Chris spoke at length on the challenges but summed it up for me by saying a true leader cannot make anyone do something they do not want to do, thus he never asked anyone to something he didn’t already know they wanted to do. His story about being in Antarctica and summiting Vinson when he was guiding Dick Bass and Frank Wells on their 7 Summits bid was another highlight. The panel closed with a short discussion on Everest. Bonington said “summiting Everest is a great personal achievement and something to be remembered forever” However, he went on to say, in a very diplomatic manner, that if you are bothered by fixed ropes and crowds, there are thousands of great mountains yet to be climbed, so go out there and find one. Clash then invited mountaineering living legend Reinhold Messner, who was in the audience, to ask Steck a question. Thus his question on the true reason for the 2013 fight on Everest with the Sherpas. Steck proceeded to take the audience through what had happened without blame or judgment. And never really gave a simple reason. Messner, in his true style, summed it up with a short lecture on crowds, infrastructure and sharing. These are few one-liners I live Tweeted last night: Ueli Steck: “faster climbing is safer, you spend less time on the mountain” Chris Bonington “siege climbing was only choice in the 1970s” Ueli Steck “if you lose the fear, you die” Chris Bonington ” never climb with a fearless person, it will get you killed” Chris Bonington “reaching the summit of Vinson was one of my moments” Ueli Steck “alpinism is not a competition” On why Reinhold Messner is the greatest mountaineer of all time? Ueli “look at what he has achieved, and he is still alive “ This is a recording of the interview graciously provided by mtnmeister.com Everest I then had the honor of moderating the next panel loaded with Everest notables including: Dave Hahn (15), Melissa Arnot (5), Garrett Madison (6), Phunuru Sherpa (9), Greg Vernovage (1) and Ngima Karma Sherpa (8). 45 Everest summits in all, including mine 🙂 I had 20 questions prepared and got right to it with a question on how the mountain has changed, given climate change. Hahn spoke at length that to the casual eye, it appears the same, but photographic evidence by individuals like David Breashears and his Glacier Works project clearly show the glaciers receding on both sides. Phunura noted the lack of snow above the Balcony as further evidence that Everest is getting more dangerous with rock fall. Melissa Arnot addressed the dangers in the Khumbu Icefall with her personal philosophy that she goes to Everest with knowledge and acceptance of the risks and that is a personal decision. Hahn, put a fine point on the Icefall by saying “no intelligent person would ever choose that route on purpose.” The audience laughed. Vernovage noted his hope that there will be two ropes in the Icefall join 2015: an up and down one to speed people through the dangerous areas. Madison noted that the route should be moved more towards the center and away from the hanging serac on the West Shoulder. With respect to the dangers of the South side versus the North, most of the panel simply acknowledged both sides had risks. Hahn went on to talk about the difficulties of climbing the Steps on the North and how the South lacked these difficulties thus the North was more difficult for some climbers. No one on the panel felt a ladder was needed on the Hillary Step. Arnot spoke on her team’s first ascent expedition last autumn on some of the newly opened 7000m mountains in Nepal. She noted the remoteness and beauty of the area and that it might be an attraction to climbers wanting to see new areas of Nepal compared to the normal trekking peaks of Island, Mera, etc. On Sherpa safety, Phunura spoke about training and Vernovage gave a short lecture on how his company only uses trained Sherpas. All acknowledged the Khumbu Climbing Center and their contribution to making Everest safer through training the Sherpas in basic climbing skills. I tried to dig deep on one area of having Western Operators be more transparent in reporting climbing deaths during an expedition. Madison agreed it would be useful to evaluate operators, but had never had a death on any of his expeditions. Coming back to the dangers in the Icefall,
Reinhold Messner: Mental Toughness
Most people, even non-climbers, know the name Reinhold Messner. He is arguably the finest Alpinist of all time. His firsts in climbing are legendary and include the first summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen and then he reported the feat on the North side – solo. He was the first climber to summit all fourteen of the 8000 meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. The Italian climber defined what today we call style with his minimalist approach; climbing without ropes or support staff (porters, medicine Sherpas) when possible. In the attached excellent documentary, he speaks a length on the mental challenge of climbing and that it took him a longtime time to learn how to manage his mind, especially when climbing solo. Ed Viesturs speaks of Messner’s mental capability and mentions that Messner has relatively normal physiology but an extremely strong mental drive that allowed him to push harder and further. Messner characterized himself as someone who has “patience for limits” in describing his own mental toughness. Messner credits his success in mountaineering to his days from ages 5 to 20 when he was climbing with his brother Günther in the Dolomites. He says the naive risks and instincts learned from those early days layer the foundation for his later accomplishments. Messner cites Sir Ernest Shackleton, the great Antarctic explorer as his modern day adventure hero because it was how Shackleton failed that Messner admires. Chris Bonington, the British mountaineer, is his modern day climbing hero for all his accomplishments over a long time. Why he climbs? Messner answers this at 36:52 in the documentary. One of my favorite lines in the documentary: “It is not important what you have at the end, it is important what you have done.” And the lesson I took away? Messner says “It was not necessary, but it was great.” I think that sums up climbing.