Günther Messner - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article has been translated from German into English, from the German version of Wikipedia.

Günther Messner (11 December 1946 – 29 June 1970) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

mountaineer and the younger brother of Reinhold Messner

Reinhold Messner

Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...

. Günther climbed some of the most difficult routes in the Alps during the 1960s, and joined the Nanga Parbat-Expedition in 1970 just before the beginning of the expedition due to an opening within the team.

Death on Nanga Parbat

Günther set off from an advanced camp to the summit of Nanga Parbat

Nanga Parbat

Nanga Parbat is the ninth highest mountain on Earth, the second highest mountain in Pakistan and among the eight-thousanders with a summit elevation of 8,126 meters...

in the morning of the 27th June 1970, following the steps of his brother Reinhold

Reinhold Messner

, who had left during the earlier hours of the morning. Günther eventually caught up with Reinhold after having soloed the difficult Merkl couloir. Günther and Reinhold reached the summit together late in the afternoon, when Günther started showing signs of exhaustion, possibly due to the effort he made in trying to catch up with Reinhold earlier in the day. What happened next has been the matter of controversy. According to Reinhold Messner

Reinhold Messner

, the two brothers stayed near the summit overnight in an emergency bivouac in the so-called Merkle-notch, since a night descent seemed impossible on the Rupal face due to Günther's exhaustion and altitude sickness

Altitude sickness

Altitude sickness—also known as acute mountain sickness , altitude illness, hypobaropathy, or soroche—is a pathological effect of high altitude on humans, caused by acute exposure to low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude...

. Reinhold Messner was still relatively strong compared to his brother, and decided to attempt a rapid descent down the Diamir flank of the mountain, to get Gunther to lower altitudes as quickly as possible. This multi-day decline brought the two climbers to the limit of their physical and mental strength, and was to end in tragedy when Gunther disappeared at the bottom of the Diamir face, most likely killed by an ice avalanche during the descent. Reinhold Messner, facing exhaustion, severe frostbite and the loss of his brother, continued down along the Diamir valley until he found some local shepherds that helped him.

The expedition members Max von Kienlin and Hans Saler claimed that Reinhold Messner declined the assistance of others when his brother Günther Messner became ill. It has been asserted that Reinhold Messner descended alone on the Diamir side, while Günther Messner descended alone on the Rupal side - resulting in his death. Apparently Reinhold Messner had planned a crossing of the mountain on his own from the beginning. Reinhold alleged in a statement that he had the idea to descend on the Diamir side, and downplayed the severity of the situation in order to prevent the other climbers endangering themselves by rendering assistance.

Controversy

In July 2000, a climber by the name of Hans Peter Eisendle found a human Fibula at the base of the Diamir wall of Nanga Parbat. Due to the decomposition of the original DNA could not be determined with certainty whether this was a bone of Günther Messner. It was possible that the bones may have come from the remains of climbers who perished on the mountain in 1962, however a subsequent analysis at the University of Innsbruck strongly suggests that the owner of the Fibula was Günther Messner.

On 17 August 2005, more human remains of a mountain climber were found on the Diamir face. Reinhold Messner claims to recognise the shoes and jacket of his brother Günther Messner. On 21 October 2005 scientists at the University of Innsbruck completed a DNA analysis of tissue samples from the remains, and confirmed that the remains were that of Günther Messner. This evidence suggests that Günther Messner was on the west side of the mountain when he was killed, and not on the descent through the Rupal Wall.

Funeral

On 8 September 2005, the remains were burned at the foot of Nanga Parbat on a pyre in Tibetan tradition. The participants sang "yelo Lak, the gods were merciful," and threw rice into the air.

Death on Nanga Parbat

Controversy

Funeral

Further reading

See also