DESNIVEL Mi vida contra el viento

"Rebelting against barriers and overcoming them has helped me grow." The life of Reinhold Messner, a living legend of mountaineering, is always fascinating. A constant in his life has been having to fight against the wind: whether while climbing the highest mountains on the planet, or during his treks across the ice of Antarctica and Greenland. But it is, above all, upon his return to the civilized world that Messner encounters the greatest obstacles, facing the often fierce criticism that always accompanied his exploits.

In this autobiography, written to commemorate his eightieth birthday, he looks back and reconstructs his worldview, recounting the actions he took and the reactions they provoked. Anyone expecting a satisfied Messner, content with a full life, in harmony with others and with himself, will be disappointed. This book pulses with the emotion of the first to climb the eight-thousanders, opening elegant and impossible routes, while simultaneously expressing a strong political and environmental conviction. Messner is outraged by those who tried to silence his truths, accused him of sacrificing the lives of others for his ambition, and criticized his nonconformity.

In My Life Against the Wind, Messner makes no concessions to anyone, not even himself. But he acknowledges that it is precisely from all the obstacles he has faced in life that he has drawn and continues to draw his strength and perseverance to keep moving forward. Because, as he says, "a headwind makes wings grow."

Reinhold Messner is the most famous mountaineer and adventurer of our time. He was born in South Tyrol in 1944 to a humble family. By the time he was five, he had already climbed a three-thousander accompanied by his father. After completing technical studies, he worked briefly as a secondary school teacher before dedicating himself entirely to mountaineering. He was the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, all without the use of artificial oxygen. He has numerous first ascents to his credit. He has made unsupported polar traverses in Greenland and Antarctica, as well as more than one hundred trips to the world's great mountains and deserts. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Today, he is primarily involved with the Messner Mountain Heritage (MMH), which aims to preserve classical mountaineering.