Reinhold Messner
Normally I need one or two years to mature a vision. If you are there, waiting, fear is growing. If you are acting, fear is getting less. You can fail, but that's the only thing. You can also die, but the art of adventuring is not dying.  After Gasherbrum, I asked myself, is this style also possibly on Everest? Because the equipment in the 70's, one person needed 50 kilograms of oxygen, so no chance to go with 50 kilos, plus a tent, and a sleeping bag and food up to 8,000 meters and afterwards, this is not possible. This was my thinking. In 24, 1924, Colonel Norton went up to 8,560, plus/minus. These people, with nail shoes, with loden trousers and jackets like this, a little bit thicker, they went up to 8,600 meters. Why we should not do it with polar fleece and with Gore-tex equipment and all the stuff we had in the meantime. But when we were there with all this chatting from the scientists: "You will die, this is too risky, this is not possible," we said let's stay on the normal route and try there. And so we went on the normal route.  

Freddie Wilkinson
Were there ever times when you felt the risks were too severe?

Reinhold Messner
Many times. I tried all these famous walls and on most of them I failed. On the south face of Lhotse, we failed for the difficulties. On the south face of Dhaulagiri, we failed for danger. Very frightened, we went down. I think that I became a quite good high altitude climber for the fact that I failed many times. Maybe we need a few more years and people on the street will understand that the goal of the seven summits, it's a very, very superficial view on adventuring. Adventuring is adventuring, and you can do it only if you are on your own, and you carry all your responsibilities, on ascent and decent, or you go to on a piste the whole thing and you are a tourist. And be sure in 10 years, all the 8,000 meter peaks they will be on the list and you can do tourism there. 

Freddie Wilkinson
So if you were 24-years-old now and you wanted to go find adventure, where would you go, what sport would you do? 

Reinhold Messner
Sport is not adventure. Sport, you can count the minutes and the seconds. Adventure has to do with private, personal experiences, but the possibilities. There are millions of mountains unclimbed. I have seen in the eastern part of Tibet, mountains, 6,000, 6,500, vertical walls, two times the Aga North Face, nobody's going there, because they are not 8,000 meters, they are not famous, they are not in the seven summits. For doing adventures, you need an unknown room. And this room should be difficult, also dangerous, because nature is danger. And the most important thing is the exposure. You should be very far away from any possibility to be saved in case of emergencies, where you are living like human beings a million years ago. You are totally free to do what you want. I think the day that we human beings, if we try to capture happiness, we will never reach it. And in the end, there is only, not the happy life, but a successful period is you act.