Climber 'did not abandon brother'

Reinhold Messner says the find proves his story

A climber says the remains of his brother found on a Pakistan mountain prove he did not abandon him to die after a joint ascent 35 years ago.

Italian Reinhold Messner said bones, a shoe and clothing found on 17 July prove his younger brother Gunther died on the western side of Nanga Parbat.

Mr Messner said allegations he told his brother to descend the dangerous Rupal face were "lies".

Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest peak, is widely known as "The Killer".

'Ashamed'

Mr Messner, 60, told a press conference in Islamabad that he and Gunther had made the first ascent of the Rupal Wall in 1970 and that his brother went missing in bad weather on the descent on the Diamer side.

Two mountaineers on the expedition recently challenged Mr Messner's account, suggesting he left his brother, who was two years younger, to descend Rupal.

Nanga Parbat is the world's ninth highest peak (Photo: John Noble/Wilderness Photo Library)

This would allow Messner senior to become the first mountaineer to ascend Nanga Parbat on one side and descend on the other.

Mr Messner said on Sunday: "Certain people during the last 35 years and especially in the last year invented all these strange stories, lying, lying and lying again.

"They do it for personal reasons because they would like to sell books or maybe because they feel ashamed because nobody went to search for my brother and myself in 1970 when we disappeared on the mountain."

He said his brother's remains were found on the Diamer side 4,300 metres (14,000 ft) up the 8,125-metre peak.

Mr Messner said the findings backed up DNA tests on bones found in 2003 that suggested his brother was on the Diamer side.

Mr Messner said his brother's remains were cremated "in a beautiful spot" near Nanga Parbat's base.

Reinhold Messner was the first mountaineer to climb the world's 14 8,000-metre-plus peaks.

Nanga Parbat hit the headlines last month when Pakistani troops rescued Slovenian mountaineer, Tomaz Humar, who had been stuck under a narrow ice ledge for six days.