We are not the first to talk to you about a mountaineering of "renunciation", and we are certainly not the first to have coined this interesting phrase.
R. Messner was the first to theorise this markedly spartan approach to mountaineering.
... or, by subtraction of means ...
We are not the first to talk to you about a mountaineering of "renunciation", and we are certainly not the first to have coined this interesting phrase. R. Messner was the first to theorise this markedly spartan approach to mountaineering.
Today, in the world of mountaineering and hiking, there are many schools of thought, and although everyone has the right to live the mountains as they prefer, surely everyone will have to realise that the mountains are not an infinite resource.
I myself, however, have always given voice to a less technical, wilder mountaineering made of very little. On the one hand because I am sure that, more often than not, the mountaineer is structurally penniless, on the other because I instinctively have more faith in "people" than in technology. We believe there is no universal karabiner that can save the improvised mountaineer caught up in serious difficulties.
An approach with the greatest subtraction of means means, for me, being able to look at myself, observing my own "self" with a keener critical sense. The journey on the mountain is a journey inside yourself. The mountaineer is often as interested in the physical ascent as in the spiritual one, and projects himself upwards as if to fly, in search of the sky, of the dream......... perhaps consciously or unconsciously driven by the search for mystical ascesis.
The great master of life and mountaineer Reinhold Messner writes:
"In the mountains there is nothing left to conquer. Where man has not arrived, the eye of the satellite cameras arrives, and where the mountains have drawn evocative lines and shapes, the tourism industry has arrived and taken over its market niche. What we must conquer are the remote corners of our soul. As an imperfect being, man will become aware of his own limits only when he comes up against his own psychophysical weaknesses. The mountains as a means, as paths to self-knowledge." (1)
The life we lead, shut in between the four walls of our homes, our offices, our cities, does nothing but weaken us, emptying us of our ability to survive. We are fragile and easily upset. Every road has already been travelled, every place already discovered.
Day after day all we know how to do is act out that funny little puppet show in which we are just clumsy trained marionettes. We pass along the paths of life without managing to understand absolutely anything about ourselves and, precisely, as Messner says, about our limits.
The mountains lived in their wildest aspect, with as little "technological" an approach as possible, can be for us the chance to undertake that journey which is not easy to undertake in everyday life. We do not concern ourselves with conquering our inner space because we are busy taking possession of the space around us. We put all our effort into asserting our position in the world, into trying to control the dust of the universe, that same universe which, however, can only lovingly ignore us.
Heinrich Harrer writes in his book "The White Spider" (Parete Nord):
"The sixteenth ascent (of the Eiger - ed.) belongs to two rather unusual characters, Adolf Derungs and Lukas Albrecht, bricklayers from Zurich. They were poor but full of daring and patriotic spirit. They knew everything about the most modern climbing equipment in use in the Western Alps and indispensable on the North Face of the Eiger; if they did not get hold of it, it was because they could not afford it.... They did not even have a modern windproof jacket. But one had put on four - or five? - shirts one on top of the other... the other had brought along an old threadbare overcoat..."
Albrecht and Derungs made the sixteenth ascent between 10 and 13 August 1959. The weather was dreadful and the two showed great courage. The shirts and the overcoat did their job, but the decisive factor in their success was the determination and tenacity of the two young men. The usual critics attacked the two workmen violently... until Matthias Rebitsch came to their defence with all his authority, declaring: "Two magnificent lads have shown us that even today the man counts for more than the equipment".
With Alpine Style I would like, now more than ever, to rebuild my philosophy of life and my approach to the mountains, where conquest without means leads to inner conquest. This kind of conquest certainly leads to far more deserved victories, to far more exciting discoveries, to a far more satisfying spiritual growth than any territorial or technological conquest.
Bibliography:
(1) Montagne - Immagini e pensieri - Reinhold Messner - DeAgostini (2002)
(2) Parete Nord - Heinrich Harrer - Oscar Mondadori Best Sellers (2001)