In a Bloomberg Business article about famed mountain climber Reinhold Messner, Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History and author of Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering From the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, commented on the climber’s accomplishments. The Aug. 7 article was titled “Meet the Mountaineering Legend behind Europe’s Extreme Museums.”
Reinhold Messner is the first mountaineer to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter mountain peaks (26,247 feet above sea level). He is also the first to summit Mt. Everest without oxygen. “Some people called it the first true ascent of Everest,” Isserman said, “because he wasn’t relying on artificial aid.” Commenting about Messner’s climb, Isserman added, “A lot of people theorized that he would just die from lack of oxygen.”
The article focused on Messner’s “sixth and final outpost of the official Messner Mountain Museum. ... the final stage of a 15-year-long project by Messner to chronicle what he calls ‘the great history of mountaineering.’” According to the article, he conceived of the museums—sprinkled throughout peaks, valleys and small towns across South Tyrol as a way ‘to tell the next generation about what happens when mountains and men meet.’”
