The 'Mountain King' looks back on eight decades, summit controversies, and his lasting legacy of climbing for the experience and the journey

Reinhold Messner is one of history's greatest mountaineers, a man who pushed the frontier of what is possible for a whole generation of climbers and beyond. In his new memoir, Against the Wind, Messner looks back on a life of accomplishments and recounts some of the most important episodes after turning eighty in 2024.

He also addresses darker times and infamous controversies–including being discredited as a young mountaineer, his divorce and remarriage, Guinness stripping him of his world records in 2023, the recent revisions to measurements of 8000-meter summits, and the discovery of his brother Gunther's remains on Nanga Parbat.

This new memoir is classic Messner–no apologies, no regrets, and no backing down.