It happens that, even after forty years, the Guinness Book decided to take away from the Italian Reinhold Messner the record of being the first man to climb, between 1970 and 1976, all 14 peaks over eight thousand meters without the use of supplementary oxygen.

Tutto parte da It all started from a a report made by the German chronicler Eberhard  Jurgalski, who had always been a da sempre a big detractor of our compatriot. Based on some new calculations and measurements, Jurgalski argues that in 1985 Messner and his rope companion Kammerlander stopped a few meters from the top of Annapurna (8091 mt.).

This was, of course, a boutade, to which, however, the Book of Records wanted to give credit, taking away the record from the South Tyrolean extreme mountaineer and giving it to the American Ed Viesturs, who repeated the feat between 1989 and 2005. Who, of course, with great fair play and intelligence rejected it, claiming that the only one to which belongs that title (if ever mountaineers had considered such record a title), was Messner, master and example for all other climbers that came after him and which many of them (included him) were inspired by to improve style, technique, and mindfulness.

The world of mountaineering was not too happy with this revisionist attempt and a number of mountaineers reiterated their esteem and affection for the Italian mountaineer.

But there is still a lack, due to such questionable methods of providing information, and a vacuum in the pages of the Guinness Book. Such emptiness will be difficult to fill and is only comparable to the (really record-breaking) gullibility of its editor.