Against the Wind: Reflections on a Self-Determined Life by Reinhold Messner

The "Mountain King" looks back on eight decades, summit controversies, and his lasting legacy of climbing for the experience and the journey

Reinhold Messner is one of history’s greatest mountaineers, a man who pushed the frontier of what is possible for a whole generation of climbers and beyond. In his new memoir, Against the Wind, Messner looks back on a life of accomplishments and recounts some of the most important episodes after turning eighty in 2024.

He also addresses darker times and infamous controversies--including being discredited as a young mountaineer, his divorce and remarriage, Guinness stripping him of his world records in 2023, the recent revisions to measurements of 8000-meter summits, and the discovery of his brother Gunther’s remains on Nanga Parbat.

This new memoir is classic Messner--no apologies, no regrets, and no backing down.

About the Author:

Born in 1944 in Villnoss, South Tyrol, Reinhold Messner is the most famous mountaineer and adventurer of our time. He has achieved roughly one hundred first ascents, climbed all fourteen eightthousanders, and crossed Antarctica, Greenland, and Tibet, and the Gobi and Takla Makan deserts. After serving as a member of the European Parliament, he now devotes much of his time and energy to his farm, the Messner Mountain Museum project, and his foundation, which supports mountain peoples and culture worldwide.

Mitch Crawford grew up telling narrative, improvisational stories with his brother, using stuffed animals, tiny army men, and Star Trek action figures as characters. This carried forward to adulthood, crafting such stories with his children, as well as reading storybooks, picture books, and young adult literature aloud to all five offspring. He once read all nineteen original Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children books to his two young boys one summer, chipping away at them each night before bedtime. A high school teacher for twenty years in history, economics, fine arts, and computer science, Mitch realized that voice inflection, vocal and kinesthetic surprises, and even reading aloud helped keep his students engaged in course material. Now an actor, model, and voice-over artist, his personal branding invokes the smart, funny, and occasionally aloof dad or guy-next-door, or the serious and principled lawyer, doctor, or businessperson. This personal history and these characteristics have helped develop a sincere, trustworthy voice that resonates well with children's literature, first- and third-person POV fiction, nonfiction, biography/memoir, and self-help books. A graduate of Villanova University with a dual major in psychology and philosophy, and an MA and teacher's certification from The Ohio State University, Mitch does his homework and knows how to relate to his audience. For fun, he played volleyball for Villanova in the late 1980s when short shorts and high socks were en vogue. After twenty-five-plus years of that, he switched to tennis, which takes a lesser toll on his body (well, sort of). Mitch loves hiking and traveling with his wife, sneaking out to Five Guys with step-daughter Grace, and being outdoors with their dogs, Izzy and Grommit.