He was the first man to climb all 14 mountains in the world over 8000 meters.

It’s a remarkable feat and Italian Reinhold Messner conquered them all without supplemental oxygen.

He climbed his first major peak in 1970 in Pakistan.: Nanga Parbat is 8125 meters high and known as killer mountain.

In 1978 he climbed Mount Everest at 8848 metres. A year later the world’s second highest mountain K2.

Over the next eight years he summited on 11 more 8000-metre plus mountains in Tibet, Nepal and Pakistan.

He completed the last of the 14 in 1986 with an ascent of Lhotse in Nepal.

Reinhold Messner talks to Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros.