Reinhold Messner

A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.

Life is about daring to carry out your ideas. And for me, it always comes back to the wilderness, nature, mountains.

In the West, the art of rock climbing is growing because it has to do with less risk, good muscles. But the people seeking high goals in high places are in Eastern Europe, and they reach their goals because they are willing to suffer more.

I'm a rock climber, a high-altitude climber, an adventurer, a storyteller through my museums, and a writer of more than 50 books.

In climbing there is no question of right or wrong. Moral right or wrong, that is a religious question, they have nothing to do with anarchical activity, and classical mountaineering is a completely anarchical activity.

I'm a storyteller. I do this for the next generations. They have to know what traditional alpinism is all about.

I have been in the most dangerous of places just in order to survive. An intelligent man would stay in a safe place to survive.

I want to look into the dark spaces in people's souls. At what happens to us when we go to the mountains.

Mountaineering is over. Alpinism is dead. Maybe its spirit is still alive a little in Britain and America, but it will soon die out.

Climbing is not a competition, and you cannot talk in terms of 'greatest,' it means nothing.

The art of climbing is to go where you go knowing that you could die, but you don't die. That is adventure.

I had no ghost writers for the books - I wrote every line myself.

Traditional alpinism is slowly disappearing. It is becoming sport, indoors on small walls with holds where you cannot really fall.

I am not an anarchist, but I am anarchistical.

The cliches that circulate in the German media about Joachim Sauer are a total fallacy. The fact is that he's his own man. He's witty, he's profound, he can be incredibly funny, and he's an extremely bright guy.

The true alpinist doesn't want any infrastructure, he wants to go into the wild. And the odds of getting killed there are relatively high. And most people are sensible enough not to want that.

Before kids, I was really going to the limit. Afterwards, I was approaching the limit but then maybe turning around.

The museum at Ortles is dedicated to the world of ice so we wanted visitors to feel like they were inside a glacier.

When I lost seven of my toes on Nanga Parbat and small parts of my fingertips I knew I'd never be a great rock climber. So I specialized in high-altitude climbing.

Anyone who ever witnessed Ueli Steck flying up the Eigerwand would know that he was always in control of his actions. He was always moving with immense precision and a sense of safety.