Eiger
The north face of the Eiger
Elevation	3,970 m (13,025 ft)
Prominence	356 m (1,168 ft)[1]
Parent peak	Mönch
Location
Eiger Location in Switzerland
Location	Canton of Bern, Switzerland
Range	Bernese Alps
Coordinates	46°34′39″N 8°0′19″E / 46.5775°N 8.00528°E / 46.5775; 8.00528Coordinates: 46°34′39″N 8°0′19″E / 46.5775°N 8.00528°E / 46.5775; 8.00528
Topo map	Swisstopo 1229 Grindelwald
Climbing
First ascent	11 August 1858
Easiest route	basic rock/snow/ice climb

The Eiger (3,970 m (13,025 ft)) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m. The northern side of the mountain rises about 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above Grindelwald and other inhabited valleys of the Bernese Oberland, and the southern side faces the deeply glaciated region of the Jungfrau-Aletsch, covered by some of the largest glaciers in the Alps.

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. The north face, 1,800 m (5,900 ft) (German: Nordwand, "north wall"), was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition and is one of the six great north faces of the Alps.^[2] Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall" - a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall).^[3]

From Kleine Scheidegg a railway tunnel runs inside the Eiger and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows in the mountainside. This railway, the Jungfraubahn rack railway, terminates in the Jungfraujoch, between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe.

The Eiger is mentioned in records dating back to the 13th century but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau - translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mönch) and the Ogre (Eiger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed," but more commonly to the German eigen, meaning "own".

Geographic setting and description[link]

The Eiger and Mönch from near Kleine Scheidegg

The Eiger is located 5.5 km northeast of the Jungfrau, in the northeastern part of the Bernese Alps. At the same distance to the north lies the village of Grindelwald, which is about 20 km from Interlaken. Other close settlements lie to the west, in the valley of Lauterbrunnen. The river Schwarze Lütschine flows from the Lower Grindelwald Glacier on the mountains eastern base. The mountain does not properly form part of the main chain of the Bernese Alps. It is a huge limestone buttress, projecting from the granitic mass of the Mönch across the Eigerjoch, and the glaciers on either flank feed two branches of the same stream—the Lütschine—that flow together to the Aar.

The Eiger on the Siegfried Map

The massive wall of the Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger itself is, from many places on the north side of the Swiss Alps, the most visible massif of the Bernese Alps, thus making the region a major tourist destination in the Alps. The higher Finsteraarhorn (4,270 m) and Aletschhorn (4,190 m), which are located about 10 km to the south, are generally less visible and situated in the middle of glaciers in less accessible areas. The south side of the massif consists only of large glaciers: Aletsch, Fiesch and Lower Grindelwald and is thus uninhabited. The whole area, the Jungfrau-Aletsch, comprising the highest summits and largest glaciers of the Bernese Alps, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger amounting to approximately 700,000 cubic metres of rock, fell from the east face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks and fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit.^[4]

[edit] The Nordwand

North face

The Nordwand, German for "north wall" or "north face," is the spectacular north (or, more precisely, northwest) face of the Eiger (also known as the Eigernordwand: "Eiger north wall"). It is one of the six great north faces of the Alps, towering over 1,800 m (5,900 ft) above Kleine Scheidegg. At 2,866 metres inside the mountain lies the Eigernordwand railway station. The station is connected to the north face by a tunnel opening at the face, which has sometimes been used to rescue climbers.

It was first climbed on July 24, 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek, a German–Austrian group. The group had originally consisted of two independent teams; Harrer and Kasparek were joined on the face by Heckmair and Vörg, who had started their ascent a day later and had been helped by the fixed rope that the lead group had left across the Hinterstoisser Traverse. The two groups, led by the experienced Heckmair, cooperated on the more difficult later pitches, and finished the climb roped together as a single group of four.

Close view of the north face from the west ridge

A portion of the upper face is called "The White Spider," as snow-filled cracks radiating from an ice-field resemble the legs of a spider. Harrer used this name for the title of his book about his successful climb, Die Weisse Spinne (translated into English as The White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger). During the first successful ascent, the four men were caught in an avalanche as they climbed the Spider, but all had enough strength to resist being swept off the face.

Since then, the north face has been climbed many times. Today it is regarded as a formidable challenge more because of the increased rockfall and diminishing ice-fields than because of its technical difficulties, which are not at the highest level of difficulty in modern alpinism. That distinction lies with the 8,000 meter peaks in the Himalaya and Karakoram. In summer the face is often unclimbable because of rockfall, and climbers are increasingly electing to climb it in winter, when the crumbling face is strengthened by ice.

Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname, Mordwand, or "murderous wall", a play on the face's German name Nordwand.^[3]

Climbing history[link]

View from the railway station of Kleine Scheidegg

While the summit was reached without much difficulty in 1858 by a complex route on the west flank, the battle to climb the north face has captivated the interest of climbers and non-climbers alike. Before it was successfully climbed, most of the attempts on the face ended tragically and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it and threatened to fine any party that should attempt it again. But the enthusiasm which animated the young talented climbers from Austria and Germany finally vanquished its reputation of unclimbability when a party of four climbers successfully reached the summit in 1938 by what is known as the "1938" or "Heckmair" route.

The climbers that attempted the north face could be easily watched through the telescopes from the Kleine Scheidegg, a pass between Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, connected by rail. The contrast between the comfort and civilization of the railway station and the agonies of the young men slowly dying a short yet uncrossable distance away led to intensive coverage by the international media.

After World War II, the north face was climbed twice in 1947, first by a party of two French guides, Louis Lachenal and Lionel Terray, then by a Swiss party consisting of H. Germann, with Hans and Karl Schlunegger.^[5]

First ascent[link]

The Eiger from the east side (and Mönch behind)

The first ascent was made by the western flank on August 11, 1858 by Charles Barrington with guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren. They started at 3:00 a.m. from Wengen. Barrington describes the route much as it is followed today, staying close to the edge of the north face much of the way. They reached the summit at about noon, stayed for some 10 minutes and descended in about four hours. Barrington describes the reaching of the top, saying, "the two guides kindly gave me the place of first man up." Their ascent was confirmed by observation of a flag left on the summit. According to Harrer's The White Spider, Barrington was originally planning to make the first ascent of the Matterhorn, but his finances did not allow him to travel there as he was already staying in the Eiger region.^[6]

Attempts on the north face[link]

1935[link]

In 1935 two young German climbers from Bavaria, Karl Mehringer and Max Sedlmeyer, arrived at Grindelwald to attempt to climb the face. They waited a long time for good weather and when the clouds finally cleared they started. The two climbers reached the height of the Eigerwand station and had their first bivouac. On the following day, because of the greater difficulties, they gained little height. On the third day, they hardly made any vertical ground. At night a storm broke and the mountain was hidden in fog, then it began to snow. Avalanches of snow began to sweep the face and the clouds closed over it. Two days later, there was a short moment when the clouds cleared and the mountain was visible for a while. People obtained a glimpse of the two men, who were now a little higher and about to bivouac for the fifth time. Then the fog came down again and hid the climbers. A few days later the weather finally cleared, revealing a completely white north face. The two climbers were found later frozen to death at 3,300 m, at a place now known as "Death Bivouac".^[5][7]

1936[link]

On the Hinterstoisser traverse

The next year ten young climbers from Austria and Germany came to Grindelwald and camped at the foot of the mountain. Before their attempts started, one of them was killed during a training climb, and the weather was so bad during that summer that after waiting for a change and seeing none on the way, several members of the party gave up. Of the four that remained, two were Bavarians, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, the youngest of the party, and two were Austrians, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer. When the weather improved they made a preliminary exploration of the lowest part of the face. Hinterstoisser fell 37 metres (121 ft) but was not injured. A few days later the four men finally began the ascent of the face. They climbed quickly, but on the next day, after their first bivouac, the weather changed; clouds came down and hid the group to the observers. They did not resume the climb until the following day, when, during a break, the party was seen descending, but the climbers could only be watched intermittently from the ground. The group had no choice but to retreat since Angerer suffered some serious injuries as a result of falling rock. The party became stuck on the face when they could not recross the difficult Hinterstoisser Traverse where they had taken the rope they first used to climb. The weather then deteriorated for two days. They were ultimately swept away by an avalanche, which only Kurz survived, hanging on a rope. Three guides started on an extremely perilous rescue. They failed to reach him but came within shouting distance and learned what had happened. Kurz explained the fate of his companions: one had fallen down the face, another was frozen above him, the third had fractured his skull in falling, and was hanging dead on the rope.^[5]

In the morning the three guides came back, traversing across the face from a hole near the Eigerwand station and risking their lives under incessant avalanches. Toni Kurz was still alive but almost helpless, with one hand and one arm completely frostbitten. Kurz hauled himself off the cliff after cutting loose the rope that bound him to his dead teammate below and climbed back on the face. The guides were not able to pass an unclimbable overhang that separated them from Kurz. They managed to give him a rope long enough to reach them by tying two ropes together. While descending, Kurz could not get the knot to pass through his carabiner. He tried for hours to reach his rescuers who were only a few metres below him. Then he began to lose consciousness. One of the guides, climbing on another's shoulders, was able to touch the tip of Kurz's crampons with his ice-axe but could not reach higher. Kurz was unable to descend farther and, completely exhausted, died slowly.^[5]

1937[link]

An attempt was made in 1937 by Matthias Rebitsch and Ludwig Vörg. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, they were nonetheless the first climbers who returned alive from a serious attempt on the face. They started the climb on 11 August and reached a high point of a few rope lengths above Death Bivouac. A storm then broke and after three days on the wall they had to retreat. This was the first successful withdrawal from a significant height on the wall.^[8]

First ascent of the north face[link]

The Heckmair route

The north face was first climbed on July 24, 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek in a German–Austrian party. The party had originally consisted of two independent teams: Harrer (who did not have a pair of crampons on the climb) and Kasparek were joined on the face by Heckmair and Vörg, who had started their ascent a day later and had been helped by the fixed rope that the lead team had left across the Hinterstoisser Traverse. The two groups, led by the experienced Heckmair, decided to join their forces and roped together as a single group of four. Heckmair later wrote: "We, the sons of the older Reich, united with our companions from the Eastern Border to march together to victory."^[5]

The expedition was constantly threatened by snow avalanches and climbed as quickly as possible between the falls. On the third day a storm broke and the cold was intense. The four men were caught in an avalanche as they climbed "the Spider," the snow-filled cracks radiating from an ice-field on the upper face, but all possessed sufficient strength to resist being swept off the face. The members successfully reached the summit at four o'clock in the afternoon. They were so exhausted that they only just had the strength to descend by the normal route through a raging blizzard.^[5]

Other routes[link]

Painting of the Eiger by Maximilien de Meuron, early 19th century

Rockfall onto the Lower Grindelwald Glacier valley

• 1858: First ascent by the west flank, 11 August (Charles Barrington, Christian Almer and Peter Bohren). According to Harrer's "The White Spider," Barrington would have performed the first Matterhorn ascent instead, but his finances did not allow him to travel there as he was already staying in the Eiger region.
• 1871: First ascent by the southwest ridge, 14 July (W. A. B. Coolidge, Meta Brevoort, Christian Bohren, Christian Almer and Ulrich Almer).
• 1890: First ascent in winter, by Mead and Woodroffe, with guides Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi.
• 1921: 10 September: First ascent via the Mittellegi ridge by Fritz Amatter, Samuel Brawand, Yuko Maki and Fritz Steuri.
• 1924: First ski ascent via the Eiger glacier.
• 1932: First ascent via the Lauper route on the northeast face.
• 1970: First ski descent, on the west flank, by Sylvain Saudan.
• 1991: First Ascent, Metanoia Route, North Face, solo, winter, without bolts, Jeff Lowe
• 1992: 18 July: Three BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA clients died in a fall down the West Flank: Willie Dunnachie; Edward Gaines; and Phillip Davies. They had ascended the mountain via the Mittellegi Ridge.
• 2006: 14 June: François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger.^[9][10]
• 2006: 15 July: Approximately 700,000 cubic metres (20 million cubic feet) of rock from the east side collapses. No injuries or damage are reported.^[11]

Climbs and attempts on the north face[link]

1930s and 1940s[link]

• 1934: First attempt on the face, by Willy Beck, Kurt Löwinger and Georg Löwinger, reaching 2,900 m.
• 1935: Attempt by the Germans Karl Mehringer and Max Sedlmeyer. They froze to death at 3,300 m, a place now known as "Death Bivouac."
• 1936: Four Austrian and German climbers, Andreas Hinterstoisser, Toni Kurz, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer, died on the face in severe weather conditions during a retreat from Death Bivouac.
• 1938: Alpine Journal editor Edward Lisle Strutt calls the face "an obsession for the mentally deranged" and "the most imbecile variant since mountaineering first began."^[12]
• 1938: First ascent of the north face by Anderl Heckmair, Heinrich Harrer, Fritz Kasparek and Ludwig Vörg, achieved in three days.
• 1947: Second ascent of the face by Frenchmen, Lionel Terray and Louis Lachenal.

1950s[link]

• 1950: First one-day ascent of the face by Leo Forstenlechner and Erich Wascak, in 18 hours.^[13]
• 1957: Two Italian (Claudio Corti and Stefano Longhi) and two German climbers (Franz Meyer^[14] and Gunther Nothdurft) encounter extreme difficulties in the higher part of the route, as Nothdurft becomes ill and Longhi, who is suffering from severe frostbite, falls near "the Spider" and cannot be lifted by his companions. Corti (who has been in turn hit by a falling stone) becomes the first man rescued from the face from above in a famous 54-man rescue action (first undertaken by volunteer climbers and non-Swiss guides) when German guide Alfred Hellepart is lowered from the summit on a steel cable by Ludwig Gramminger's rescue system. Longhi is not so lucky, and dies of exposure before he can be rescued.^[15] Meyer and Nothdurft died in an avalanche on their descent of the Eiger's west face after completing the 14th ascent of the north face (they had left the injured Corti with all their provisions—including a small tent—and were trying to descend from the mountain and call rescue). The body of Longhi remained on the face for more than two years before being recovered.^[16]
  • Claudio Corti, being the sole survivor, was quite wrongly castigated by some quarters of the international press, and was held responsible for the disappearance of the two German climbers Northdurf and Mayer (Northdurf had already soloed to the Swallows Nest and back). He was accused of various dark deeds of even pushing the Germans off the face. Corti actually thought he had done the first Italian ascent of the face until it was pointed out that he had finished the climb tied to the back of another climber.
• 1958: Kurt Diemberger and Wolfgang Stefan make the thirteenth ascent. As the bodies of Nothdurft and Meyer were found later on the descent route from the Eiger—both had been killed by an avalanche—Diemberger and Stefan were finally awarded the 14th ascent of the face.
• 1959: Adolf Derungs and Lucas Albrecht, two Swiss masons, climb the face with very primitive equipment. Derungs wore four shirts one on top of another and Albrecht carried an old overcoat as far as the Spider. Both students, brave to the point of rashness and very tough, descend by night by the west flank. Three years later, in 1962, Derungs disappears while attempting a solo ascent of the north face.

1960s[link]

• 1961: 6–12 March : First winter ascent of the face by Toni Kinshofer, Anderl Mannhardt, Walter Almberger and Toni Hiebeler.
• 1961: 30 August–2 September: First all-Czechoslovak ascent of the face by Radovan Kuchař and Zdeno Zibrín (19th overall).^[17]
• 1961: 31 August–2 September: First all-Polish ascent of the face by Stanisław Biel and Jan Mostowski (20th overall).^[17]
• 1961: Don Whillans climbing with Chris Bonington aborted his only attempt at the North face (arriving ahead of a large rescue team) to rescue Brian Nally, a British climber whose companion, Barry Brewster, had fallen and was badly injured on the Second Icefield. Brewster's body eventually 'fell from the face' and Nally was brought down to safety.
• 1962: First all-Italian ascent of the face by Armando Aste, Pierlorenzo Acquistapace, Gildo Airoldi, Andrea Mellano, Romano Perego, and Franco Solina.
• 1962: First American ascent of the face, by John Harlin (with German Konrad Kirch).
• 1962: First British ascent of the face, by Chris Bonington and Ian Clough.
• 1962: Two young climbers finished the climb just after Clough and Bonington (who overtook them) their names were withheld to stop floodgates opening regarding ascents of the Eiger's north face. They were very young, their equipment was rudimentary, and the letter they left their parents galvanized police action; the police were waiting for them on their return.
• 1963: 2–3 August: First solo ascent of the face by Michel Darbellay, in around 18 hours of climbing.
• 1963: 15 August: Two Spanish climbers, Ernesto Navarro and Alberto Rabadá, die in a storm.
• 1963: 27–31 December: Three Swiss guides complete the first descent of the face, retrieving the bodies of Navarro and Rabadá from the "White Spider."
• 1964: 1–3 September: German Daisy Voog becomes the first woman to reach the summit via the face (with Werner Bittner).
• 1966: March 22: After a fixed rope breaks, American John Harlin falls to his death while attempting a new route: the direttissima, or "most direct" route. His colleague, Scotsman Dougal Haston, joins the competing team of Siegi (Siegfried) Hupfauer, Jörg Lehne, Günter Strobel and Roland Votteler, and they go on to complete the first direttissima (they reach the summit on 25 March, after one month's siege). The new route is named the "John Harlin Route" in Harlin's honour.
• 1968: 28–31 July: First ascent of the north ridge, by a Polish team: Krzysztof Cielecki, Tadeusz Łaukajtys, Ryszard Szafirski, Adam Zyzak.^[18][19]

1970s[link]

• 1970: Leo Dickinson, Eric Jones, Pete Minks and Cliff Phillips (GB) make the first complete film of the climb.
• 1971: First all-Belgian ascent of the face by Renaat Van Malderen and Vincent de Waele.
• 1971: Peter Siegert and Martin Biock are winched from above Death Bivouac to a helicopter, the first such successful rescue.
• 1974: Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler climb the face in 10 hours.
• 1976: Deiter Poulson (Austria) Brian Cleave (UK), Jean Paul Devereaux (FRA) Max Weiss, and Peter Germenis (USA).
• 1977: First alpine-style ascent of the Eiger Direct (Harlin Route) by Alex MacIntyre (UK) and Tobin Sorenson (USA).^[20]
• 1977: First Dutch ascent of the face by Ronald Naar and Bas Gresnigt.
• 1978: First Polish winter ascent of the face by Andrzej Czok, Walenty Fiut, Janusz Skorek and Jan Wolf, the fastest winter ascent of that times.

1980s[link]

• 1981: First British solo ascent of the face by Eric Jones, filmed by Leo Dickinson and released as Eiger Solo.
• 1981: 25 August: Swiss guide Ueli Bühler soloes the face in 8 hours and 30 minutes.
• 1982: Slovene Franček (Franc) Knez soloes the face in 6 hours.
• 1982 First American winter ascent by Harry Kent and Keith Lober.
• 1983: 21 March–2 April (13 days in the wall): First winter solo ascent and new route on the face (the ideal direttissima) by Slovak Pavel Pochylý sk:Pavel Pochylý.^[21]
• 1983: 27 July: Austrian Thomas Bubendorfer soloes the face without a rope in 4 hours and 50 minutes, almost halving Bühler's time.
• 1984: 21 July: Slovene Slavko (Miroslav) Svetičič. Classic route, solo climb in 8 hours.
• 1987: Second British solo ascent of the face by Phil Thornhill.

1990s[link]

• 1990: 14–15 January: Slavko Svetičič solo climbs the Harlin route in 26 hours, its first winter ascent.
• 1991: Jeff Lowe solos Metanoia on the north face in winter without bolts.
• 1992: 10 March: Catherine Destivelle (France) soloes the face in 17 hours. It is the first solo female ascent of such a serious and dangerous Alpine face.^[22]
• 1997: Benedetto Salaroli, aged 72, becomes the oldest man to ascend the face, climbing it in a single day with guides Ueli Buhler and Kobi Reichen.

2000s[link]

• 2003: 24 March: Christoph Hainz (Italy) breaks Bubendorfer's record by ten minutes, climbing the face in 4 hours and 40 minutes.
• 2007: 9 April: Christophe Profit, a French mountain guide, guides the face for the tenth time.
• 2007: 21 February: Ueli Steck (Switzerland) breaks Christoph Hainz's record, soloing the face in 3 hours and 54 minutes.^[13]
• 2008: 28 January: Roger Schäli and Simon Anthamatten (both Switzerland) set a new record for a team ascent (of the Heckmair route) climbing it in 6 hours and 50 minutes.
• 2008: 13 February: Ueli Steck breaks his own record, soloing the face in 2 hours, 47 minutes and 33 seconds.^[23]
• 2008: 23 February: Daniel Arnold and Stephan Ruoss (both Switzerland) better the team record (Schäli and Anthamatten), climbing the Heckmair route in 6 hours, 10 minutes.^[24]
• 2008: 31 May: Ueli Steck is presented with the inaugural Eiger Award.^[25]
• 2008: 7 August: Dean Potter (USA) free-solos Deep Blue Sea (5.12+) on the face, then BASE jumps from the top using an ultralight rig he wore during the climb.
• 2011: 20 April: Daniel Arnold (Switzerland) solos the face in 2 hours 28 minutes, using the fixed ropes on the Hinterstoisser Traverse.^[26] Arnold was 19 minutes faster than Ueli Steck in 2008, but Steck climbed the route entirely without aid and, unlike Arnold, completed the route in the official winter season.^[26]

Panorama[link]

View from Männlichen: From left to right, Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.

Popular culture[link]

• The 1972 novel The Eiger Sanction is an action/thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker (writing under the pseudonym Trevanian), based around the climbing of the Eiger. This was then made into a 1975 film starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy. The Eiger Sanction film crew included very experienced mountaineers (e.g. John Cleare, Dougal Haston, and Hamish MacInnes, see Summit, 52, Spring 2010) as consultants, to ensure accuracy in the climbing footage, equipment and techniques.
• The 1982 book Eiger, Wall of Death by Arthur Roth is a historical account of first ascents of the north face.^[27]
• Eiger Dreams, a collection of essays by Jon Krakauer, begins with an account of Krakauer's own attempt to climb the north face.
• Eiger (as well as Jungfrau) are callsigns for European Federation tank units in the game Tom Clancy's Endwar.
• The track Eiger Nordwand in the games Gran Turismo HD Concept, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Gran Turismo 5 is set in Kleine Scheidegg, which is actually a car-free zone. Although motor racing was illegal in Switzerland for over 50 years, the ban was lifted in 2007.^[28]
• The Eiger was the name of the first song on 2005 album The Wedding by the rock band Oneida.
• The IMAX film The Alps features John Harlin III's climb up the north face in September 2005. Harlin's father, John Harlin II, set out 40 years earlier to attempt a direct route (the direttissima) up the 6,000-foot (1,800 m) face, the so-called "John Harlin route". At 1300 m, his rope broke, and he fell to his death. James Swearingen created a piece named Eiger: Journey to the Summit in memory of him.
• The 2007 docu/drama film The Beckoning Silence features mountaineer Joe Simpson, of Touching the Void fame, recounting—with filmed reconstructions—the ill-fated 1936 expedition up the north face of the Eiger and how Heinrich Harrer's book The White Spider inspired him to take up climbing. The film followed Simpson's 2003 book of the same name. Those playing the parts of the original climbing team were Swiss mountain guides Roger Schäli (Toni Kurz), Simon Anthamatten (Andreas Hinterstoisser), Dres Abegglen (Willy Angerer) and Cyrille Berthod (Edi Rainer).
• Nordwand, a 2008 German/Swiss/Austrian feature film directed by Philipp Stölzl, recreates the fatal 1936 attempt by Hinterstoisser's party.^[29]
• Eiger, specifically its north face, is a location of the headquarters of the fictional private military contractor Génération Bleu in the 2012 anime Eureka Seven AO.

References[link]

• Anker, Daniel (ed.) Eiger: The Vertical Arena, Seattle: The Mountaineers, 2000
• Harrer, Heinrich, The White Spider: The History of the Eiger's North Face, translated from German, London, 1959 (revised 1965, 1979)
• David Pagel, My Dinner with Anderl, Ascent, AAC Press, Golden, CO, 1999, pages 13–26.
• Joe Simpson, The Beckoning Silence, Jonathan Cape Publ., London 2002, ISBN 0-09-942243-3, The Mountaineers, Seattle 2003, ISBN 0-89886-941-2, pp. 315.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eiger

• The Eiger on Summitpost
• The Eiger on Peakware - photos
• The Eiger on Hikr
• The Eiger on Flickr
• Live webcam view of the Eiger north face
• New and Old Explorations of the Eiger, Photos & Video
• Ueli Steck wins inaugural Eiger Award 2008
• Are you still here? A bagman's view of climbing the Eigerwand, by Charles Sherwood.
• Obituary of Anderl Heckmair, The Independent, Feb. 3, 2005

Dean Potter
Dean Potter
Born	(1972-01-18) January 18, 1972 (age 40)
Occupation	Rock Climber
Known for	rock climbing, alpinist, BASE jumper, and highliner

Dean Potter (born January 18, 1972 in the United States) is an American free climber, alpinist, BASE jumper, BASEliner, and highliner who grew up in New Hampshire. He is noted for hard first ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite and Patagonia.

Free climbing and free spiriting[link]

Dean Potter has made several new routes and solo ascents in Patagonia.

Speed climbing[link]

In July 2006, he climbed The Reticent Wall, one of the hardest routes on El Capitan, in 34 hours and 57 minutes with Ammon McNeely and Ivo Ninov, shaving five days off the existing time.^[1]

Highlining and BASE jumping[link]

Potter is known for his exploits in highlining and BASE jumping. He was introduced to slacklining by Chongo,^[2] aka Charles Victor Tucker III, one of the first three people to highline across Lost Arrow Spire. Potter has completed a variety of highline crossings without benefit of a safety lanyard, backup line, or BASE-jumping parachute. Some of these include lines suspended as much as 3,000 feet above the ground in Yosemite National Park. He has also done few of the most thrilling base jumps in the world.

Delicate Arch climb[link]

Potter generated controversy by climbing Delicate Arch, for which he lost his sponsorship from the Patagonia clothing company. "There wasn't any legal reason for me not to climb it," Potter said of Delicate Arch, despite well-established tradition forbidding climbing named features in the park. This incident resulted in a blanket ban on the activity within Arches National Park. Potter had previously created conflict with Park authorities by slacklining between the Three Gossips.^[3]

"I didn't see any moral reason not to climb it. I didn't hurt it,"^[4] he claimed, though deep rope grooves later came to light, possibly created or enhanced by the professional photographers Potter brought along to publicize the climb.^[3]

Potter said he would not climb Totem Pole, the spire in Monument Valley that Navajo imbue with religious significance. Delicate Arch, despite its prominence on Utah license plates, doesn't have the stature of that sacred Arizona tower, he said. "I didn't see a reason why it's wrong, why we shouldn’t mesh with nature," Potter said.^[4]

"At first Potter's handler in Patagonia spread the word of his climb by calling a press release to the Salt Lake Tribune. Public outrage was immediate, though, especially in Utah, where many see Delicate Arch as a symbol for the state's wild beauty."^[3]

Potter's Delicate Arch climb became the topic of the song Not All Roses by rapper Odub (Kris Hampton), released on the web on April 2, 2007. On April 11, 2007, Potter's lawyer sent Hampton a Cease and Desist letter advising him to halt all distribution of the song. Hampton subsequently released a follow-on song called Cease and Desist.^[5]

Notable ascents[link]

• 2002 Supercanaleta, Cerro Fitz Roy, Patagonia. First solo of route.^[6]
• 2003 Concepcion 5.13+ (67m), Day Canyon, Moab, Utah. First ascent.^[7]
• 2006 Heaven (5.12d/13a) Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley. First solo ascent.^[8]
• 2006 Southern Belle (V 5.12d R/X), Half Dome, Yosemite Valley. Second ascent with Leo Houlding.^[9]
• 2008 Deep Blue Sea (5.12+), Eiger, Bernese Alps, Switzerland. First FreeBASE ascent of the Eiger. ^[10]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Outside Magazine feature
• Dean Potter's climbing profile on Climbandmore.com
• New York Times article
• Video interview about Potter's childhood dreams of flying, wingsuit piloting and BASE jumping