 A legendary mountaineer is furious after he was stripped of his two Guinness World Records. Reinhold Messner, from South Tyrol in Italy, was the first climber to conquer all the world's 14 peaks taller than 8,000 metres – known as the Eight Thousanders – 37 years ago. Now 79, he also did this without the use of oxygen tanks, and is considered one of the greatest mountaineers of all time. But last week Guinness World Records reclassified the mountains after it was revealed the exact summits of the Eight Thousanders had not been correctly identified for many years – as many of them have several peaks. Map expert Eberhard Jurgalski, from Loerrach in Germany, worked for a decade alongside his team at 8000ers.com re-investigating the record-breaking climbs. As a result he claimed Mr Messner miscalculated the summit of Annapurna mountain in Nepal in 1985 and missed it by just five metres, turning back too early. He worked this out because Mr Messner's climbing note said he could see base camp from the summit – but it was concluded this was impossible. Mr Messner, from South Tyrol in Italy, broke the world record 37 years ago (Picture: Getty Images) It has now been claimed Mr Messner miscalculated the summit of Annapurna mountain, in Nepal, in 1985 and missed it by just five metres (Picture: AFP via Getty Images) Guinness World Records has now specified that the highest reachable point – known as the 'true summit' – must be now be attained and proved going forward, off the back of this research. Editor-in-chief Craig Glenday said: 'The Guinness World Records titles affected by this reclassification of 'true summits' have necessarily had to be reset in order to reflect the base-camp-to-summit requirements. 'This should in no way detract from the incredible){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A legendary mountaineer is furious after he was stripped of his two Guinness World Records.
Reinhold Messner, from South Tyrol in Italy, was the first climber to conquer all the world’s 14 peaks taller than 8,000 metres – known as the Eight Thousanders – 37 years ago.
Now 79, he also did this without the use of oxygen tanks, and is considered one of the greatest mountaineers of all time.
But last week Guinness World Records reclassified the mountains after it was revealed the exact summits of the Eight Thousanders had not been correctly identified for many years – as many of them have several peaks.