Among its mountains, those that have been the training ground for great expeditions to peaks over 8,000 meters in the Himalayas and Karakorum, Reinhold Messner, an icon of mountaineering not only in Italy but all over the world, especially in Germany, got married For the third time.
In great secrecy the ‘King of the Eight thousand’, 76 years old, married Diane Schumacher, 35 years younger than him. The new “Mrs. Messner” – it seems she won’t be called that – is 41 years old and originally from Luxembourg. The wedding, announced in mid-May without indicating the place and date, was celebrated yesterday in the council chamber of the Municipality of Castelbello-Ciardes in Val Venosta, a few kilometers from Castel Juval, the historic residence of the mountaineer. Present only close relatives and few friends in addition to the mayor Gustav Tappeiner.
For Reinhold Messner, world famous for being the first mountaineer in history to reach the top of the earth’s 14 mountains above 8,000 meters without the aid of oxygen cylinders, that with Diane Schumacher is the third marriage. The first public appearance of Messner together with his new partner dates back to 1 August 2019 when in Solda at the foot of the Ortles, in the presence of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he was a guest at a film evening dedicated to the mountains. Diane was also present on the following September 17, the day of Reinhold’s 75th birthday.
In 1972 Messner had married the German journalist Uschi Demeter from whom he divorced in 1977. In 1981 his first daughter was born, Layla, who had a relationship with Canadian photographer Nena Holguin. On August 1, 2009, at the age of 64 and after 25 of engagement, he secretly married his partner Sabine Eva Stehle. Separation followed in 2019 and divorce in April of last year.
Messner, before the blockade caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, was the protagonist of evenings on his expeditions and on his current activity (he manages a series of open-air museums in South Tyrol) especially in the German Laender. After having opened several routes in the Dolomites, Messner’s first ascent to an 8,000 point dates back to June 27, 1970 when he reached, along a new route along the deadly Ruphal face, the 8,125 meters of Nanga Parbat.
On 8 May 1978, the South Tyrolean mountaineer reached his fourth 8000m peaks, the 8,848 meters of Everest, the “roof of the world“.
On 16 October 1986, together with Hans Kammerlander, he reached the last of the 14 8000m peaks, the 8,516 meters of Lhotse.