A biography for Reinhold Messnerhasn’t been written yet.
“Traditional alpinism is to go where the others are not going and to be self-reliant.”
“Climbing has so much more culture than all other activities put together. There is no culture in tennis, just a few names, a few dates. No big culture in soccer. But we have thousands of books, great philosophers, thinkers, painters.”
“This is one of my definitions of mountaineering: to go where others do not.”
“Life is about daring to carry out your ideas. And for me, it always comes back to the wilderness, nature, mountains.”
“Climbing is not a competition, and you cannot talk in terms of 'greatest,' it means nothing.”
“The cliches that circulate in the German media about Joachim Sauer are a total fallacy. The fact is that he's his own man. He's witty, he's profound, he can be incredibly funny, and he's an extremely bright guy.”
“Fame is very heavy. When there are large crowds, I'm unable to handle it.”
“All nationalism is dangerous; all religions are dangerous.”
“Out of all the climbers of this generation, I was the one who became known to the larger public. Many of them - not all of them, but many of them - understood they had only one chance to use me for their personal gain. And it's very easy to use me.”
“I was always at my best when I was learning, when I was curious. When I had yet to see past the next horizon.”
“Once you lose your credibility, you can never restore it.”
“I am not so famous. I'm known in a few countries like Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and around the Alps. Some climbers in Beijing know my name, and some in America, but I am not really famous. It's very relative, my fame.”
“Anyone who ever witnessed Ueli Steck flying up the Eigerwand would know that he was always in control of his actions. He was always moving with immense precision and a sense of safety.”
“After every few steps, we huddle over our ice axes mouths agape, struggling for sufficient breath to keep our muscles going.... at a height of 8800 metres, we can no longer keep on our feet while we rest. We crumple to our knees, clutching our axes.... Every ten or fifteen steps we collapse into the snow to rest, then crawl on again.”
“The Slovenians are the very best climbers in the world.”
“In climbing there is no question of right or wrong. Moral right or wrong, that is a religious question, they have nothing to do with anarchical activity, and classical mountaineering is a completely anarchical activity.”
“The Dolomites are the most beautiful rock mountains in the world, but in a few million years they will just be desert.”
“I produce schnapps on my farm but I'm not fond of drinking it.”
“I left many different mountains but always the gods gave me a chance to go back. I was always going with a quiet foot.”
“There are periods on the mountain when you exist between living and dying, sometimes for days. I went through that with my brother on Nanga Parbat. It is very difficult, but it is the most intense experience. And always after such experiences, when I was back among people, I felt I had been reborn.”