Have you heard of him?
He's an Italian mountaineer.
Talking of Mount Kailash (that is considered to be sacred in 4 religions - Hinduism, Bon, Buddhism and Jainism) he said:
"If we conquer this mountain, then we conquer something in people's souls. I would suggest they go and climb something a little harder. Kailas is not so high and not so hard."
As per the religions that revere the mountain, setting foot on its slopes is a dire sin. It's a popular belief that the steps on Mount Kailash lead to heaven. Due to its religious significance, Kailash remains an unclimbed mountain.
However, it is an important place for pilgrimage as pilgrims believe that circumambulating Mount Kailash on foot is a holy ritual that brings good fortune.
Hindus and Buddhists circumambulate it in a clockwise direction whereas Jains and Bönpos circumambulate it in an anticlockwise direction. The path around Mount Kailash is 52 km (32 miles) long. Some pilgrims believe that the entire walk around this mountain should be made in a single day, which is not an easy task. A person who's physically fit and can walk fast would take about 15 hours to complete the entire trek.
Now coming back to Reinhold Andreas Messner, I was gobsmacked by his superb achievements. He seems to be a superhuman to me.
He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was the first climber to ascend all 14 peaks over 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) above sea level. He was the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland without any snowmobiles or dog sleds.
He also crossed the Gobi Desert alone.
He is listed 9 times in the Guinness Book of Records.
All these records belong to "World's Firsts" category, also known as Historical Firsts.
"World's First" is the highest form of Guinness World Record, the ownership of this title never expires.
His 9 world records are:
First ascent of Manaslu without supplementary oxygen
First solo summit of Everest
First ascent of Everest and K2 without supplementary oxygen – male
First ascent of the top three highest mountains without supplementary oxygen – male
First 8,000-metre mountain hat-trick
First person to climb all 8,000-metre mountains without supplementary oxygen
First person to climb all 8,000-metre mountains
First ascent of Everest without supplementary oxygen
First ascent of Gasherbrum I without supplementary oxygen
Messner has published more than 80 books about his experiences as a climber and explorer.
In 2006, he created The Messner Mountain Museum (MMM) project that comprises 6 museums based at 6 different Italian locations: Firmian, Juval, Dolomites, Ortles, Ripa and Corones. These museums educate visitors on all aspects of mountaineering and rock-climbing, the science of mountains and glaciers and the history and culture of mountain dwellers. This project costed about €30 million that was split between Messner and the Italian province of South Tyrol.
http://www.messner-mountain-museum.it/en/
This project helped in promoting Italy's alpine tourism.
That's all my Blogging for now. I've compiled all the above information from the Wikipedia Pages on Mount Kailash and Reinhold Andreas Messner. It was a pleasing reading journey for me. Hope it has been for you too :-)
Reading and Writing have always been the loves of my life and I've always believed in lifelong learning as there's so much to know from this world that has so much to give us in so many ways.
Happy Imbibing :-)
Cheers
Aparna
