An amateur map-maker has told how his friends have disowned him after his findings stripped legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner of two world records.
Eberhard Jurgalski, 70, outraged the climber’s fans when he claimed he’d missed the summit of Nepal’s Annapurna peak by five metres (16 feet) in 1985.
As a result, the 79-year-old climber was last week stripped of two Guinness World Records that had stood for 37 years.
For nearly four decades, Messner held the world title for conquering all 14 Himalayan summits over 8,000 metres.
He also held the record for conquering the same mountains without the help of oxygen tanks.
Jurgalski’s findings from satellite photos and Messner’s climb records were enough for Guinness officials to remove his name.
Now it has emerged that German national Jurgalski has complained he’s been left with no friends after the cruel revelation.
He said: “I no longer have any friends in the entire German-speaking area because I apparently committed blasphemy.”
Jurgalski added: “It wasn’t even me who discovered Messner’s mistake, but my colleague from France. But all the anger is directed at me.
“What can I do about it if a person makes a mistake that comes out after 35 years? I didn’t make that mistake.”
The chronicler claimed that his phone has been ringing non-stop ever since Messner was deprived of the two records.
He said: “TV channels, newspapers, everyone wants something from me!
“They want to destroy me!”
Meanwhile, Messner slammed Guinness for their decision and called his map-making nemesis ‘clueless’ and ‘not an expert’.
He said: “It is a bit funny that again and again, people use my person, my name to make themselves important.
“Is that because they themselves have nothing to tell, they have achieved nothing, and did not have the courage to realise their dreams? It is all about the money, right?
But he added it was not the race but how you played it, saying: “It is not the summit but the path that is the goal. My alpinism knows no record.”
He dismissed the new claim in an interview with the German Press Association saying: “He has no idea. He is not an expert.
“He just confused the mountain. Of course we arrived at the summit.
“I don’t care if my name is in the Guinness Book. You can’t take away a record that I’ve never claimed.”
Jurgalski has reportedly been studying mountaineers’ accounts of their ascents against satellite and photographic data for ten years.
He says he discovered that mountaineers had misidentified the summits of at least three of the tallest peaks in the world.
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Story By: Georgina Jedikovska, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News
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