Eiger

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For other uses, see Eiger (disambiguation)}}}.

The Eiger is a mountain in the Alps of Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge-crest that extends to the Mönch (4,099 m) and across the Jungfraujoch to the Jungfrau (4,158 m). The peak 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 sometimes referred to as the Virgin (Jungfrau, lit. 'Young Woman'), the Monk (Mönch) and the Ogre (Eiger). The name has been linked to the Greek term akros, meaning 'sharp' or 'pointed', but more commonly to the German eigen, meaning 'characteristic'.

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington on August 11th, 1858.

The Jungfraubahn railway runs in a tunnel inside the Eiger, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows in the mountainside.

In July, 2006 a piece of the Eiger amounting to approximately 2 million cubic meters of rock, fell from the East Face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks prior and it fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit.[link]

Contents

1 The Nordwand
2 Timeline
3 Pictures
4 Popular culture
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

The Nordwand

The Nordwand, German for "north wall", is the spectacular north face of the Eiger (also known as the Eigerwand, "Eiger wall" and Mordwand, "death wall"). It is one of the six great north faces of the Alps. It towers over 1,800 m (5,900 ft) above the valley in the Bernese Oberland below and has claimed the lives of many climbers. Regarded even today as one of the most formidable challenges in mountaineering, it was first climbed on July 24, 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek of 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 "Hinterstoissier Traverse." The two groups, led by the experienced Heckmair co-operated on the more difficult later pitches, and finished the climb roped together as a single group of four.

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 the name for the title of his book about his successful climb, Die Weisse Spinne (translated into English as The White Spider). 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 1935, over fifty climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname, Mordwand, or "Death face", a play on the face's real German name Nordwand.

Timeline

1858: First ascent.
1871: First ascent by the southwest ridge.
1921: On September 10, first ascent by the Mittellegi ridge.
1924: First ski ascent via the Eiger glacier.
1932: First ascent via the Lauper route on the NE face.
1934: First attempt on the north face by Willy Beck, Kurt Löwinger and Georg Löwinger reaching 2,900 m.
1935: First attempt on north face 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-German climbers, Andreas Hinterstoisser, Toni Kurz, Angerer and Rainer, died on the north face in severe weather conditions during a retreat from Death Bivouac.
1938: First ascent of north face by Anderl Heckmair, Heinrich Harrer, Fritz Kasparek and Ludwig Vorg (three days).
1947: Second ascent of north face by Lionel Terray and Louis Lachenal.
1950: First ascent of north face in a single day.
1957: An inexperienced Italian pair, Claudio Corti and Stefano Longhi run into extreme difficulties above the second ice field. Corti becomes the first man rescued from the face from above, when German guide Alfred Hellepart is lowered from the summit on a steel cable. The injured Longhi is not so lucky, and dies of exposure before he can be rescued. Franz Mayer and Gunther Nothdurft, two highly skilled German climbers, are also killed after they stop to help the stranded Italians.
1961: First winter ascent of the north face by Toni Kinshofer, Anderl Mannhardt, Walter Almberger and Toni Hiebeler.
1962: First all-Italian ascent of the north face by Armando Aste, Pierlorenzo Acquistapace, Gildo Airoldi, Andrea Mellano, Romano Perego, and Franco Solina.
1962: First all-British ascent of the north face by Chris Bonington and Ian Clough.
1963: August 2-3: First solo ascent of the north face by Michel Darbellay, in around 18 hours of climbing.
1963: August 15: Two spanish climbers die in an storm, Ernesto Navarro y Alberto Rabadá.
1963: December 27-31: Three Swiss guides complete the first descent of the North Face, retrieving the bodies of Ernesto Navarro y Alberto Rabadá from the White Spider.
1964: German Daisy Voog becomes the first woman to summit via the north face.
1966: After a fixed rope breaks, American John Harlin falls to his death while making an ascent of the north face by the direttissima, or "most direct" route. His colleagues (Haston, Lehne, Votteler and Hupfauer) push on to achieve the first direttissima ascent, which is named the "John Harlin route" in his honor.
1970: First ski descent, on the west flank, by Sylvain Saudan.
1971: Peter Siegert and Martin Biock are winched from above the Death Bivouac to a helicopter, the first such successful rescue.
1974: Legendary climbers Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler climb the North Face in 10 hours, descending to safety the same day.
1981 Uehli Buhler solos the face in eight and a half hours, shattering Messner and Habeler's record.
2006 Approximately 20 million cubic feet of rock from the east side collapsed on July 15. No injuries or damage was reported.

Pictures

Image:Maximilien de Meuron 001.jpg|Maximilien de Meuron, early 19th century Image:Eiger_Mittelegi.jpg|Sunrise above the Eiger Mittelegi-Ridge Image:The_Eiger_In_Summer.JPG|The North Face on a clear summer day Image:Eiger_blue_hour.jpg|Eiger North-Face with fresh snow. View from Beatenberg, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.

Popular culture

The 1975 film The Eiger Sanction, starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy, was an action/thriller story based around climbing the Eiger mountain.

References

Heinrich Harrer, The White Spider: the history of the Eiger's north face, translated from German, London 1959 (revised 1965, 1979).

External links

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