in search of Reinhold Messner

In tribute to the greatest mountaineer of all time (Dick Bass, my ass), Reinhold Messner, I visited one of his Messner Mountain Museums. (He has 4 museums already and is working on a 5th.)

Reinhold Messner has dedicated to the mountains and the mountain culture a unique project, a network of museums located in five extraordinary places in the Alps. The Messner Mountain Museum is a place of encounter with the mountains, with humanity and ultimately with oneself.

The Messner Mountain Museum Firmian is located at Castle Sigmundskron near Bolzano, Reinhold’s home town.

It is very well done. I highly recommend it even to those not particularly interested in mountaineering.

In fact, the Himalayan section made me homesick for Nepal.

By the way, after 35yrs, in 2005, the remains of Günther Messner, Reinhold’s brother, were found on Nanga Parbat.

Reinhold had lived those decades with accusations that he abandoned his 23yr-old brother to die on that tragic expedition.

I always believed Reinhold’s version of the story. That his brother must have been caught in an avalanche.

It’s nice to see him vindicated in his own lifetime.