A year later, Saler and von Kienlin would publish their books and Messner would sue them. ", Meanwhile, at press conferences in Islamabad, Pakistan, on September 4, and at his castle on September 8, Messner held the leather boot aloft, claimed vindication, and referred to his expedition mates as schafsköpfe (literally, "sheep heads") who were "miserable cheaters, liars, and criminals.". Quickly, the guides photographed the bones, boot, and clothing and relayed their news to Messner. Günther, the younger brother of Reinhold Messner—the 61-year-old Tyrolean climber widely considered history's greatest mountaineer—was by far the most famous MIA on Nanga Parbat, and, a few years back, Reinhold had specifically asked the Pakistani guides to search for him. He reached Reinhold and they summited together, but the extra exertion exhausted Günther and the two brothers were forced to spend the night near the summit without a tent. Meanwhile, Messner was preparing a retaliatory salvo of his own: In April 2004 he held a press conference in Innsbruck to announce that Günther's fibula had been found during a 2000 journey he'd made to the Diamir Glacier. Advanced Search Find a Library. Was Günther abandoned on Nanga Parbat by his own brother? "How can they know the truth?" Then, in the autumn of 2003, he suddenly brought it to the Austrian Central DNA Laboratory, in Innsbruck, for testing. As Messner describes it, he was at first irritated but eventually glad when a breathless Günther—he had pulled off the amazing feat of climbing the steep face, at altitude, in less than four hours—appeared for the final push. Create lists, bibliographies and reviews: or Search WorldCat. But finding Günther's body, they reiterated, did not by itself solve anything. His detractors' goal, he said, was to plant them on the Rupal Face. Günther—reticent, devoted, and deferential to his older brother—was a talent in his own right. On one thing, Saler and von Kienlin had to concede defeat: Their theories about Günther's death on the Rupal Face hadn't proved true. "Bye-bye." "The story is clear and finished!". However, the poor weather signal had actually been issued in error, and the two other climbers were making their own bid for the summit, rather than on a rescue mission. In 2003, Saler's explosive book Between Light and Shadow: The Messner Tragedy on Nanga Parbat offered several alternative theories about how Günther could have died—none of them compatible with Messner's story. In 2000, a human fibula was discovered on the Diamir Face – in the area where Reinhold had claimed Günther was lost. As part of the dispute, von Kienlin was also ordered to hire an independent handwriting expert to assess the note's legitimacy and age. A German freelance reporter and a photographer had been invited to follow along. I don't know why, but he couldn't hear me. The decision was made that Reinhold would leave alone early the next morning to reach the summit before the weather closed in. "There is no other chance for me to save my reputation.". "We will find this man who is making this film and say, 'If you really want to make a documentary, you have to show both sides,' " says Saler. "But why, if he left Günther?". "Finding Günther's body proves nothing except that he died somewhere on the Diamir Face," Saler said when I phoned him in Chile. In his book, von Kienlin says he warned Messner that Herrligkoffer, the expedition leader, "won't take very kindly to [your] decision to go down the other side. At sunrise, as Günther and Baur were installing rope to aid Reinhold's return, Günther did something impulsive—the second crucial twist in the tragedy. COVID-19 Resources. "Reinhold says that it's a dangerous place, where he left his brother—so then why did he leave Günther there alone?" Reinhold was a hotshot climber in the Alps, determined to make a career out of mountaineering. Last summer, the headless corpse of Reinhold Messner's brother Günther emerged out of the snowmelt on Pakistan's Nanga Parbat. he told Austria's News magazine this summer. By July 2003, Messner won a temporary injunction against Saler's and von Kienlin's publishers. Reinhold Messner wurde noch Tage nach dem verhängnisvollen Abstieg vom Nanga Parbat von Wahnvorstellungen geplagt, in denen sein Bruder auf das Zelt des Basis-Camps zukriecht. "And we will show him our side of the story. Es Ist Mein Bruder! siegfried e' il secondo dei messner tradito dall' amore per la montagn BOLZANO - Siegfried Messner, trentacinque anni, fratello minore del più famoso Reinhold, è stato operato ieri mattina in Austria, nella clinica universitaria di Innsbruck, specializzata in traumatologia cranica. Though Messner's proclamations of victory were reported all over the world—CLIMBER IS CLEARED OF ABANDONING HIS BROTHER, read the August 19 headline in The Times of London—his detractors still have plenty of questions. Instead, they posit that Reinhold parted ways with his brother near the summit and set off down the Diamir Face solo, while Günther headed toward the ascent route.