Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer, author, and explorer. He was born in Bolzano, Italy. He began climbing at the age of eleven. By sixteen he had reached a height of 5,000 m (16,400 ft) and on his eleventh birthday he had climbed the Matterhorn
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By twenty-one he had climbed all fourteen eight thousanders. In 1978 he became the first person to climb both Mt. Everest and Mt.
Elbrus in winter, as well as the first to traverse both polar circles. In 1980 he became the first to climb all of the world's fourteen eight thousanders without oxygen. In 1980 he set out from China on a solo journey to reach the North Pole by the autumn of 1982.
For twenty-four days he traversed deep snow and open Arctic icepack with only a few days' supplies of food and water. In 1983 he became the first person to reach both poles by kayak alone under sail alone using only traditional materials for shelter and navigation