Free Spirit: A Climber's Life

Front Cover
Mountaineers Books, Jul 17, 2014 - Biography & Autobiography - 288 pages

* A mountaineering classic re-released in the Legends and Lore series
* Two new chapters

In Free Spirit Reinhold Messner describes the forces and events that have shaped him as a climber as famous for his discipline as for his innovative spirit. Messner evolved his philosophy of the single free-climbing line with its uncompromising purity of style in the Dolomites and, as equipment and technique developed, he was in the forefront of the transference of fast lightweight alpine methods to the great ranges. Here, he takes us from the days of his first climb (at the age of five) with his father to his brother’s tragic death on Nanga Parbat in 1970 to his later move away from the overcrowded Alps and 8000-meter peaks. He sought fulfillment, instead, in new challenges in lesser known parts of the world, such as crossing the expanse of Antarctica. Free Spirit is an exciting account of the career of a mountain pioneer.
 

Contents

A Childhood Paradise 194960
The Future Was a Straight Line 196165
The Wall of Walls 196566
Winter Firsts 196667
Climbing Free 1967
North Faces 1968
Expedition to the Peruvian Andes 1969
A Meet at Chamonix 1969
Turned Back on Makalu 1974
Ten Hours on the Eigerwand 1974
Hidden Peak with the Minimum 1975
Wall of the Midnight Sun 1976
Retreat on Dhaulagiri 1977
The Breach Wall on Kilimanjaro 1978
Everest Without Oxygen 1978
Nanga Parbat Solo 1978

Crazy Solos 1969
Odyssey on Nanga Parbat 197071
Ndugundugu 1971
Over the Mountain 1971
Ascent of Mount Kenya 1972
Fateful Hours on Manaslu 1972
The South Face of Aconcagua 197374
The Abruzzi Ridge on K2 1979
Death on a Holy Mountain 1979
The First Solo Ascent of Mount Everest 1980
The Rest of the EightThousanders 198186
The Seven Summits 1986
The Horizontal World 19861996
No Last Mountain 2000

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About the author (2014)

REINHOLD MESSNER is often called the greatest living mountaineer. He was the first man to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen, the first to solo Everest, and the first to climb all fourteen of the world's 8,000-meter peaks. He is the author of numerous books, including The Crystal Horizon and Antarctica.

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