Legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner on Thursday derided climbs of Mt. Everest these days as mere "tourism.""It is not mountaineering that is going on," said Messner, who carved his name in mountaineering history by climbing Mt. Everest without supplementary oxygen in 1978, followed by making the first solo climb of the world's highest peak two years later."There is a big difference between the ascent of (Edmund) Hillary and the ascents of today," Messner, 73, told journalists, referring to the New Zealand mountaineer who, along with Nepalese climber Tenzing Norgay, was the first to reach…READ FULL ARTICLE
