Gegenwind |
|
7 January 2026 - Erlenbach
The name Reinhold Messner is one I'd only been peripherally aware of as a politician and mountaineer before picking up his Gegenwind a couple years back. While not the easiest read, one learns a lot about the man. The book contains copious excerpts of newspaper and magazine articles, letters, and interview transcripts. These form the bulk of the text surrounded by smatterings of Messner's explications. The loss of his brother Günther early in his life while climbing Nanga Parabat in Pakistan clearly haunted him and was a source of controversy for over three decades until the body was finally found. Messner fought this Gegenwind for years until the discovery of the body vindicated his recount. Many people's stories are either man versus Nature or man versus man, but Messner's includes both in spades. He was on the first team to climb Everest without oxygen. He climbed all the Earth's peaks over 8000 meters. He was born and still lives in Süd Tirol, the German-speaking province of Italy awarded to that country after the defeat of Austria in the first world war. No doubt this history is the source of some of his pugnaciousness. Messner was elected and served in the European Parliament. He also fought corrupt local officials to develop castles into museums (although they seemed to be a bit narcissistically themed). Despite the ponderous format I enjoyed reading Gegenwind.
