Messner Accused of Leaving Brother on Nanga Parbat
Posted on: July 30, 2002
32 years after Reinhold Messner's epic descent of Nanga Parbat, in which his younger brother, Gunther perished, Messner has published a book - The Naked Mountain: Brother, Death and Loneliness about the tragedy. Messner's version of events are being challenged by fellow climbers, including his former close friend Max Engelhardt von Kienlin, who was on the mountain the same day as the tragedy. A signed affidavit which was handed to an Austrian magazine claims that Messner was more focused on his own mountaineering ambitions than on his brother's safe descent. Messner describes his brother, suffering from altitude sickness, later being buried in an ice avalanche whilst descending the Diamir Face. Kienlin has questioned why, when Messner encountered the mountaineers Felix Kuen and Peter Scholz near the summit before the accident, he said that "everything was OK".
News courtesy of UK Climbing.
