Reinhold Messner

Last night I was privileged to attend, with my son, a lecture, by Reinhold Messner. This came about as a result of a word from Ise, that Messner was coming to the Kendal Mountain Festival. We had planned to attend that, but then found out that Messner was doing the same at the Dundee Mountain Festival.

So thank you for that Ise. Most of you will have heard the name, but Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb Everest without the assistance of oxygen. He then proceeded to do the same with all the worlds 8000m peaks.

One of the points that he made was that on many of the challenges, there were failures, sometimes multiple. He also made the point that he did not espouse extreme sport, it just happened in his case that the outcomes were extreme.

The accompanying film and still sequences were simply stunning, on a colossal scale.

My son had carried out an interview with Messner, and written a full page article. He did the same with other world renowned climbers, including Doug Scott, the first Briton to climb Everest, and Tomaz Humar, who Messner has called the world’s greatest high altitude climber.

Afterwards, we chatted to Reinhold Messner, he was very friendly, and personable. He lives with his family in South Tirol, and is a regular skier. He has a good outlook on sustainability issues, and a good way of explaining how we can achieve and maximise our personal goals.

If you get the chance to go and see the man, do it. I found it to be very inspiring.

Oh, he is 64 years old, and still has a resting pulse rate of 45!

Resting of 45.. I have some catching up to do! :lol:

Edit:Or some slowing down come to think of it...

I managed the low 50's, but only after running 80 miles a week average, for many months.

On the other hand, I did a steepish walking pitch, earlier this summer, and checked out at 164. That is far too high.

Last time I checked I was floating around late50's early 60's ... post skiing every day for 3 months mind :wink:

I routinely measure my BP and pulse, due to my job and lifestyle.

It is frightening on a Monday morning!!!

Settles down by Thursday :D

A week in the mountains even with partying makes a huge difference I have noticed.

tino_11

A week in the mountains even with partying makes a huge difference I have noticed.

I think it takes a wee bit more than a week, tino! A year might make a difference, so we unlikely to achieve much by skiing alone.

I did discuss pulse levels with Reinhold Messner. Due to the outstanding nature of his achievements, he works closely with physiological institutions. He said that his low count was not genetic, and entirely due to training.

He also said that there are training-induced counts in modern athletes of 28!

Maybe I was unclear, I am not talking about pulse, but with a very stressful job and completely non stop lifestyle, a week of exercise and fresh air can make a significant difference quickly in BP. Obviously it rises again as soon as you get back to your old routine, but just the reduction in stress alone can help. I work in vascular medicine, I know there are no quick fixes )

tino_11 wrote:Maybe I was unclear, I am not talking about pulse, but with a very stressful job and completely non stop lifestyle, a week of exercise and fresh air can make a significant difference quickly in BP. Obviously it rises again as soon as you get back to your old routine, but just the reduction in stress alone can help. I work in vascular medicine, I know there are no quick fixes )

I will know who to contact then the next bit of CPD I have to do on vascular. :lol: