The Naked Mountain

Book Description
The legendary Messner writes about the most tragic event in his career! · Did Reinhold Messner sacrifice his brother to his ambition? · Publication of this book in Germany stirred controversy across Europe · The most personal book Messner has ever written · More than 45,000 copies sold of the German edition Reinhold Messner is famous for many firsts: First to climb all 14 8000 meter peaks; first (with Peter Habeler) to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen; first to solo Everest. None of these, however, equals the drama of his first 8000-meter peak, Nanga Parbat. 32 years later, Messner is still haunted by the events of June 1970. While others on the expedition retreated, Reinhold Messner went for the summit, leaving his brother, Günther, behind with the team photographer. Some hours later he found that Günther had followed him.The two reached the summit but Günther developed altitude sickness; he was incapable of descending the technically-challenging route they had taken in reaching the summit. They became separated during the descent via the Diamar Flank, and when Reinhold returned to where he had left Günther, his brother was gone. At basecamp ugly accusations were exchanged between members of the expedition and a court battle followed in Germany. In this new book Reinhold Messner revisits this most painful period in his life, reviewing his own actions and accusing others for the way things turned out on Nanga Parbat.


About the Author
REINHOLD MESSNER is the author of forty books, including The Crystal Horizon, Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate, All Fourteen 8000ers and The Big Walls. Translation by TIM CARRUTHERS (Eiger: The Vertical Arena, Hermann Buhl: Climbing without Compromise, Anderl Heckmair’s My Life, and Messner’s Annapurna and The Big Walls).


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June, 1970. Reinhold Messner is on his first 8000-meter peak. A desperate decent from the summit of Nanga Parbat leaves Messner's younger brother, Gunther, dead - lost on the mountain. The event forever marks Messner, a man driven to push the boundaries of what seems possible. It also sparks a bitter controversy: Had Messner violated the plan and the route dictated by the team leader for his own selfish ends? Did he take unnecessary risks, sacrificing his brother to ambition? Or did the team leader deliberately set the Messner brothers up for failure? In The Naked Mountain Reinhold Messner tells his side of the story in full for the first time.


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