Lodge manager Yvonne Schultz could barely believe her eyes: a guest was climbing the lodge's landmark mountain. Not on the winding path like everybody else who joins the sundowner but, equipped with crampons and climbing rope, straight up the steep 30 m rock face.
| "Is this guy trying to be Reinhold Messner, or what?" flashed through her mind. No, he wasn’t. No need for that at all. Because it was Reinhold Messner himself, the world-famous mountaineer and author in person. He came to stay at the Cañon Lodge with his family in the end of December – totally incognito. As soon as he had checked in, Messner unpacked light mountaineering gear and climbed the steep granite rock with his 14-year-old son.
Lodge manager Yvonne Schultz kept the incognito confidential, but she asked Messner to pose for a photo with her. Born in Austria, she also took one of his books from her shelf for an autograph.
Messner and his family enjoyed their sojourn at the lodge and the canyon so much that they plan to return. Another reason might be that Messner wants to climb down into the canyon. Day visitors are not allowed to do so, much less in the December heat. |
|
Lodge Manager Yvonne Schultz with mountaineer and author Reinhold Messner |
The 65-year-old Tyrolean was the first to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and the first to ascend all fourteen peaks higher than 8,000 m above sea level.