One of the men was found 10,000ft up in a glacier having died, probably from
an arrow wound, in the Copper Age before a glacier gave up his body 15 years
ago. "Otzi," or The Ice Man, now rests in the South Tyrol Museum
of Archaeology in Bolzano.
Bolzano's other mountain man is 60-year-old Reinhold Messner, still very much
alive, and who on June 11 will open the centrepiece of his mountain museum
project in a castle near the town. The Messner Mountain Museum will be the
centrepiece of four linked museums established by Messner in the region.
Messner has twice climbed Everest, including being the first man to climb
without supplementary oxygen. And he was the first person to climb all 14 of
the world's mountains over 25,000ft before retiring from climbing in 1995
after an accident - falling over at his castle home outside Bolzano. But you
can't keep an active man down: he walked across the Gobi Desert on his own
three years ago.
Now Otzi and Reinhold have each, in very different ways, effectively combined
to make Bolzano the world's centre of mountain history and achievement.
Messner Mountain Museum
Perhaps surprisingly for a man who twice climbed Everest, in 1978 and 1980,
Messner now has no interest in returning to the world's highest mountain. "I
was last there in 2003 and it took me two hours to walk across base camp.
There's even an internet cafe on the south side," he grimaces.
"There are ladders everywhere - but mountaineering begins where tourism
ends and what you see on Everest today is typical tourism. Everest is not a
mountain any more, it's not even a hill. It's a highway - I wouldn't go up
Everest again if you paid me. I go where tourists don't go"
His outburst was timely, in the week that it was reported that record numbers
had climed Everest, with queues of an hour to reach the top on some days.
There were also stories of injured climbers being ignored in the stampede to
the top.
For all his convictions, however, Messner will certainly be mixing with the
tourists when he opens his showpiece museum in Bolzano on June 11. He hopes
there be at least 100,000 tourists there every year, although don't expect
Messner to be posing for pictures or selling icecreams. It really isn't his
sort of thing.
But mountain mysticsm is: the religions, music, folkore, art and culture.
Having grown up in The Dolomites and been climbing since he was five, he is
attempting to create a "meeting point for man and mountain" in the
new museum at Castle Sigmondskron, overlooking Bolzano.
Renamed the Messner Mountain Museum Firmian, it is the fourth component in a
five-part museum project in the region - but by far the most ambitious, with
different themes in each part of the castle spread over 1,100 square metres.
I visited last weekend, when many exhibits had still to be installed, where
Messner gruffly ordered me to stay off the still sprouting grass and stick
to the walkways while we walked around builders and over tarpaulins.
The castle has been girdled and infilled with ungalvinised steel walkways and
galleries, already rusted to a deep brown which, to Messner, is unobstrusive
while practical. Lattice steel also hides the glass or any new additions.
But nothing has been knocked down, no girders have been driven into the
walls and everything can be unscrewed and taken away if necessary.
Which sort of mirrors Messner's mountain philosophy, a
leave-no-footprint-sort-of-approach. While there are many exhibits, they are
mainly from the Himalaya and concerned with religions and people. There is a
lot of philosophy at play here, with an emphasis on spirituality and
enviroment rather than crampons and ice picks.
A gallery covering 120 years of mountaineering contains just seven or eight
pictures, while the most emotive section - ceramic tiles with screenprinted
photos of climbers killed on the mountains hang in black steel frames in a
tiny, round stone tower abutting a five-story steel gallery.
But there are also surprises. Look down the sides from the upper floors of
that gallery and you'll see wood and stone statues, mainly from West Nepal,
strongly positioned behind glass and below the ground level. You have to
look to see them.
"It is not a museum of art or nature, but a mix in between. It is about
impressions. I like to look into the dark corners of souls," says
Messner, showing me 18 buddhas hung on a wall with synchronised meditating
music. A huge Hindu tapestry also hangs in one tower and Messner explains
its relevance. But what does it mean? "It's not important to know the
names of the figures. I tell stories but not answers. I'm not a priest."
I imagine when fully finished there will be a lot of self-interpretation of
exhibits to do. There will be only two guides, and little audio or
interactivity. Not a museum for children, possibly not even those outside
the mountaineering fraternity.
Still, anybody would get his little joke in the penultimate chamber, which
overlooks a rubbish tip. The room contains the detritus and debris of
Everest, collected by sherpas last year at Messner's request. Used oil
burners, cans, discarded packs and more sit in the centre of the room.
The last room also shows images of mountains ground to desert dust. "I
will," says Messner, "have Bob Dylan playing Blowin' in the
Wind on the way out. "You know," he says, and then starts to
sing.
"How many years can a mountain exist before its washed to the sea, yes
and how many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free?"
ICE MAN MUSEUM
Well technically, it's name is the STM of A in B but nobody goes to
the first or third floors - all the interest is in between, with a swell of
groups and headset-wearing indviduals crowding the museum even at 10am last
Saturday.
Briefly, Otzi (named after the Austrian valley near where the body was found)
was discovered 13 years by by two hikers high on a receding glacier which
had exposed the body. It took four days for the authorities to release the
corpse - with pickaxes and ski poles. No archeaelogists were present as the
significance of the find was not known.
It ranspired Otzi died 5,300 years ago. Previous finds from that era had
consisted of little more than fragments of bone or cloth - here was a corpse
complete with a longbow, axe, bearskin hat, leather loin cloth, lined shoes
and dozens more preserved artefacts.
There were even 57 tattoes on his body: it is presumed self-inflicted to
relieve his arthritis. Tests also revealed that he was a 46-year-old hunter
who had eaten raw deer for his last meal and carried embers in a birch bark
container lined with maple leaves - which were still intact. Later tests
also revealed the arrowhead in his shoulder - it is surmised he died in a
fight and fell into a glacier crevasse.
The footage of his body being retrieved and post mortem-ed is an incredible
piece of footage, accompanying the background information panels before we
see the 30lb body preserved in a chamber behind a pane of glass. Frankly, it
is disappointing, the body having been sprayed to preserve it and now
looking like a plasticined copy.
But the artefacts are anything but. The bearskin hat displayed in a perspex
case is virtually intact. In another case, arrows complete with flights and
flints - tests with a replica bow and arrow killed a deer at 30m. The intact
quiver used bird sinews for stitching.
Preserved fungus was used as medicines and to help start fires: his flint
dagger and case is still intact. The exhibition is absolutely enthralling:
you have to constantly remind yourself of its authenticity - and when
compared with Messner's more opaque, interpretative collections, it scores
highly for enlightening through physical objects.
OUT AND ABOUT IN SOUTH TYROL
To be honest, I thought South Tyrol must be part of Austria on first hearing
of the museums. And it was, until 1919 - and 68 per cent of the 100,000
inhabitants still speak German as a first language. It's very odd.
Last weekend was the "speck" festival, a celebration of all things
bacon, a very lardy type of bacon served variously with scallops, asparagus,
ravioli and washed down with excellent. South Tyrolian wine. Few of the
50,000 bottles annually produced escape the region - including the excellent
Gewurztraminer (not, it's not from Alsace - the grape comes from Tramin, a
village in South Tyrol).
The entertainment at the town's speck festival was pure Austrian/Bavarian -
waltzes, Alpine horns and plenty of leiderhosen and oompah, with steins of
beers and doughy fruit tarts. It's a very fruitful region, producing 10 per
cent of Europe's apples and it's position, sheltered in a valley below the
mountains, producing 300 windless and sunny days a year.
Unsurprisingly, given its volatile history, there are also 500 castles in the
region - including Messner's own home, Castle Juval, an hour or so outside
Bolzano in the Vinschgau valley, 30kms from the Swiss border. We walked for
an hour along a wooded path above the valley floor to Schlosswirt, an inn at
the castle.
Messner bought Juval in 1983. It retains 14th century frescoes and another
large chunk of his collection - but much more eclectic and entertaining than
in his Mountain Museum in Bolzano. Rams heads, Nepalese dancing gods and
other artefacts fill every window arch, nook and cranny. Yet there is also
his comfortable study with tiered library and windows looking out to the
mountains.
Messner and his family (four children aged from 4-25, second wife/partner)
live here in the summer months and it has a much more intimate feel, with
his climbing and walking gear stashed in two rooms and huge firs shading a
square and terrace. A sign points visitors to a good spot for meditation,
just near the spot where Messner fell in 1995, breaking his ankle and ending
his climbing career.
As good a spot as any, I guess, to sit and think about the hugely fulfilling
life and career of Messner, and whether his new museum will work. It
probably will - thanks largely to the pulling power of Otzi, the
5,300-year-old hunter and hiker who already pulls 250,000 visitors a year to
his Bolzano museum. A nice case of an old hiker giving a young pup a helping
hand.
Getting there: British Airways flies daily from from Gatwick
to Verona, a 90-minute drive from Bolzano. Fare start at £54 each way,
including taxes - and a drink and sandwich. Ryanair flies to Verona Brescia,
while Milan and Venice are a three hour drive away.
The only international hotel in Bolzano is the Four Points Sheraton, which
has rates from £120 a room, which includes bike hire and free entry to the
Messner Mountain Museum. There is also a rooftop pool and spa.
Lunch at the Pillhof restaurant on the edge of town is recommended - a lovely
courtyard, excellent food and and good staff. Also lunch at Messner's inn by
his castle home - the Schlosswirt has tables overlooking the valley.
Useful websites for the region: South Tyrol Tourist Board;
Michelin-starred food in the Alta Badia valley near Bolzano; information on
wine in South Tyrol; spa treatments in the region; information on riding and
walking in the region
