Photos and text by:
Lisa Misconel
Reinhold Messner on Jack Wolfskin council for wilderness protection
“If you are together, fear is halved and courage doubles” – Reinhold Messner
Defining the immensity of Reinhold Messner is not easy. A man who is recognized as one of the greatest mountaineers of all time first and foremost but who is also, as we read from his website in the “Moments in my life” section: climber, extreme explorer, farmer, environmentalist, politician, museum creator and author. Can a name who is known by all for mountaineering feats as much as for immense and valuable literary work stop his work after more than fifty years? Obviously not.
“The ability to make sense” is something he often repeated. That sense that is sought in mountaineering, in the useless. That sense you need to give yourself to evolve over time and always reinvent yourself. Starting in 2023, Reinhold Messner begins a new journey alongside Jack Wolfskin as a member, along with partner Diane, of the Brand Council. This body was established to pursue the rewilding goal promoted by the outdoor brand following its brand reset. Under the motto“Rewild ourselves – Rewild the world,” the board is composed of such notable personalities as, in addition to Mr. and Mrs. Messner, Ellen Windemuth, founder of Waterbear, Martyna Wojciechowska, Polish journalist and Brand Ambassador of Jack Wolfskin, and Ulrich Dausien, founder of Jack Wolfskin.
Experiencing the mountains is not limited to doing so through mountaineering and sports, but also encompasses all those communities and cultures. That this issue is close to Reinhold Messner’s heart we can see from the fact that he has dedicated an entire museum of his own to it, the Messner Mountain Museum Ripa in Bruneck.
“Man has lived at high altitudes for 8,000 years, and we know this from Oetzi, the Similaun man found some 30 years ago buried in the glacier of the same name. For the past few years, together with Diane, I have devoted myself to remote valleys such as those in Nanga Parbat. There the government fails to come up with facilities for education and the children do not have the opportunity to learn to read, write or do math and risk once adults, to be forced to go to the cities where they are subjected to underpaid and unprotected work. So we build the schools, in the hope of contributing to a better future for whole communities. Projects like this are also supported today by Jack Wolfskin, which gives us the opportunity to move forward and bring mountain culture and the awareness that the responsibility associated with it belongs to each of us.” – he tells us.
In addition to supporting projects aimed at preserving and protecting mountain cultures and beyond, the Brand Council’s goal is to come together to discuss and find concrete solutions to modern-day environmental issues. One of the first points for reflection and intervention was the presence of wolves in the Alpine territory of Trentino and South Tyrol.
Messner: “The presence of wolves in these areas threatens to destroy the culture of alpine pastures, which has been rooted in alpine communities for centuries. With the danger of the wolf and the incidents of attacks on the herds, shepherds will slowly abandon the high pastures and the mountain pastures, thus not only losing a tradition, but also going to compromise biodiversity and certain mountain balances. We want to try to work on issues like this with dialogue and concrete solutions that bring together the two sides in question represented by animal rights activists and pastoralists.”
To do this, the different backgrounds and origins of the council members is decisive. Those who have environmental expertise, those who can best communicate intentions, and those who have the contacts with politics, which in these kinds of issues, have the final say. The work is in progress, started in the spring and continued during ISPO with meetings and steps forward.
And speaking of “Rewild ourselves – Rewild the world.”
“We have our eye on wilderness in various parts of the Earth, and often over-aggressive tourism has deeply ruined the environment and cultures. This is where bringing back wilderness, the wild side of things, is critical. We want to pursue projects to bring back the wild and pure side of simple things.”
A mantra that is therefore applied in different ways and in different areas, with the same goal. Bringing back the wild soul – to rewild. This happens when we protect a mountain culture with that of grazing in the same way that it happens when we prevent mass tourism from distorting a natural and pure place.
“As stated in the latest book edited by Diane and me, The Sense of the Pointless., the concept of renunciation is very important. Renunciation not only in mountaineering where you give up oxygen, Sherpas, or a project that is too risky or unethical. Even in everyday life knowing how to renounce is one of the most important things. Mountaineering is a cultural thing, and I hope I have demonstrated that with my books and passed it on for years and years as I see it.” When we ask why Messner does not enjoy peace of mind after all the years he has continued to build new projects we find it in this sentence. Mountaineering, it is a cultural thing, and for that reason ageless and without an expiration date.”
