Reinhold Messner Update–Mystery Solved?: Late last year, TWC wrote about uber-climber Reinhold Messner, and a raging controversy over whether he abandoned his brother Gunther on Nanga Parbat in 1970. Reinhold has always maintained his brother was swept to his death by an avalanche as the two brothers descended the Diamir Face on the west side of the mountain after summitting. But last year, two members of the expedition, Max von Kienlin and Hans Saler, accused Reinhold of abandoning his exhausted brother after the summit, sending him alone back down the dangerous Rupal Face they had just climbed, so he could go on to glory by descending the unexplored Diamir Face alone. As the accusations and invective flew, Messner produced a broken leg bone, which had been found three years ago by a friend on the west side of Nanga Parbat (where Reinhold claims Gunther died). The bone was submitted for DNA testing, and thanks to prompting by reader Tricia, TWC has taken the time–okay 3 minutes–to learn that the testing did indeed (according to Reinhold, at least) prove the bone to be Gunther’s. “The DNA tests showed the bone was my brother’s,” Messner said. “They also measured it. Günther was 1.7 metres tall. It’s the right size. It was found below the spot where I saw him for the last time.” Messner has now launched a counter-attack against Von Kienlin, suing him for defamation and claiming that Von Kienlin has been out to get him ever since Messner ran off with Von Kienlin’s wife a year after the expedition and just after she had given birth to Von Kienlin’s third child (is this story juicy, or what?). Von Kienlin is not buying it, saying: “When it was first found the bone was too big to be Günther’s. Suddenly it’s not so big. Perhaps it shrank. It’s become a holy object.” Neither is TWC reader Tricia. “I’ve got this terrible vision of Reinhold sneaking up the mountain in the middle of the night, grabbing the [bone] and throwing it over the other side of the mountain…He’s so strange. And all that body hair… (shiver). Every time I see a picture of him I can’t help but think of men in lederhosen playing the theme from ‘Deliverance’ on their glockenspiels,” she writes. Well, Reinhold won’t give up until he convinces you, Tricia. He’s headed back to Nanga Parbat later this year, hoping to find Gunther’s ice axe, camera, and any other remains which will prove he didn’t callously condemn his own brother to death…



Mountainous Messner: “Bend over and squeal like a pig….”