Reinhold Messner’s brother Günther dies on a joint expedition to the Himalayas. The circumstances of his death are still disputed to this day. The discovery of Günther Messner’s second shoe at the foot of the Diamir Glacier could prove the extreme mountaineer’s version.
According to Messner, 52 years after the death of Reinhold Messner’s brother Günther at the 8125 meter high Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas, the second shoe of the dead man was discovered at the foot of the Diamir Glacier. “Locals found the second shoe. I was only sent a picture,” said Messner. Messner had previously posted the picture on Instagram.
According to Messner, the mountain shoe should belong to Günther’s corpse. He will pick up the shoe himself and bring it home, but there is no hurry, said the 77-year-old former extreme mountaineer. “I will definitely go again in the years to come.”
He also wants to visit the schools he founded in the region. He had already visited the place to commemorate his brother with the family. “It’s never over, it’s always a sad, tragic story.”
According to Messner, a bone was found at an altitude of 4,300 meters in 2004. In 2005, Messner reported on finding Günther’s first shoe on the same glacier. The shoe – a custom-made product for the expedition at the time – is now in one of Messner’s museums at Sigmundskron Castle near Bozen in a kind of chapel that is stocked with photos of mountaineers who have had an accident.
About the circumstances of Günther Messner’s death, a violent dispute, which was also fought in court, broke out between Messner and his ex-comrades almost 20 years ago. It was about the allegation of insufficient help and the question of where and how Messner’s brother actually died.
Messner had always emphasized that after reaching the summit, he had descended with his brother on the other side of the mountain out of necessity. The places where bones and the first shoe were discovered prove that. The finding of the second shoe is now only “confirmation of confirmation”.
