Eiger
The north face of the Eiger
Elevation	3,970 metres (13,025 (feet)
Location	Switzerland
Range	Bernese Alps
Prominence	356 m
Coordinates	46°34′44″N, 8°00′23″E
First ascent	August 11, 1858
Easiest route	basic rock/snow/ice climb

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". Download high resolution version (695x968, 485 KB)The features of the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland. ... A topographical summit is a point on a surface which is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. ... The Himalaya as seen from the International Space Station A mountain range is a group of mountains bordered by lowlands or separated from other mountain ranges by passes or rivers. ... The Bernese Alps (German: Berner Alpen) is a group of mountain ranges in the western part of the Alps, in Switzerland. ... In topography, prominence, also known as autonomous height, relative height or shoulder drop (in America) or prime factor (in Europe), is a concept used in the categorization of hills and mountains, also known as peaks. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ... In climbing, a first ascent (FA) is the first climb to reach the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route. ... August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Southern and northern Mount Everest climbing routes as seen from the International Space Station. ... Eiger can be: The Eiger, a mountain in the Canton of Bern (Switzerland). ... Lyskamm, 4 527 m, Pennine Alps A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ... The west face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ... The Mönch (German: monk) is a mountain in the Swiss Alps. ... The Jungfrau (German: virgin) is the highest peak of a mountain massif of the same name, located in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, overlooking Grindelwald. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ...

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. In climbing, a first ascent (FA) is the first climb to reach the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route. ... This article is about the island of Ireland. ... August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

The Jungfraubahn railway runs in a tunnel inside the Eiger, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows in the mountainside. The Jungfraubahn (JB) is an 1000 millimetre gauge rack railway electrified at 3-phase 1,125 volts, which runs 9 kilometres from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch. ...

In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger, amounting to approximately 2 million cubic metres 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.[1]

The Nordwand

The Nordwand, German for "north wall", is the spectacular north (or, more precisely, north-west) face of the Eiger (also known as the Eigerwand, "Eiger wall"). It is one of the six great north faces of the Alps, towering over 1,800 m (5,900 ft) above the valley in the Bernese Oberland below. The six great north faces of the Alps are known for their difficulty and great height. ... View of Thun and Lake Thun from the Niederhorn The Bernese Oberland (Bernese highlands) is the higher part of the canton of Bern, Switzerland, in the South of the canton: The area around Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and the valleys of the Bernese Alps (thus, the inhabitable parts from...

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 (who didn't 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 group had left across the "Hinterstoisser 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 this 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. July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Andreas Heckmair (known as Anderl) (born October 12, 1906, Munich, Germany. ... Heinrich Harrer Heinrich Harrer (July 6, 1912 – January 7, 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer and author. ... Crampons on a ski boot Crampons are outdoor footwear that are made from spikes and are worn on boots to provide traction on snow and ice. ... Diversity 111 families, 40,000 species Suborders Mesothelae Mygalomorphae Araneomorphae  See table of families Closeup image of a Wolf Spider Wikispecies has information related to: Spiders Spiders are predatory invertebrate animals that have two body segments, eight legs, no chewing mouth parts and no wings. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger is a non-fictional book by Heinrich Harrer and Hugh Merrick documenting the first attempts to climb the Eiger Nordwand alpine face. ...

Subsequently the face has been climbed many times, and today is regarded as a formidable challenge more because of the increased rockfall and diminishing ice-fields caused by climate change than because of its technical difficulties, which are not at the highest level of difficulty in modern alpinism. In summer the face is often unclimbable because of rockfall, and climbers are increasingly electing to climb it in winter, when the extreme cold solidifies the crumbling face.

Since 1935, over fifty climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname, Mordwand, or "murder face", a play on the face's real German name Nordwand.

Timeline

• 1858: First ascent by the west flank, 11 August (Charles Barrington, Christian Almer and Peter Bohren).
• 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 time (Mead and Woodroffe, with guides Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi).
• 1921: First ascent by the Mittellegi ridge, 10 September. {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 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 one-day ascent of north face by Leo Forstenlechner and Erich Wascak, in 18 hours.[2]
• 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 leaving 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 a storm, Ernesto Navarro and Alberto Rabadá.
• 1963: December 27-31: Three Swiss guides complete the first descent of the North Face, retrieving the bodies of Ernesto Navarro and 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.
• 1968: 28–31 July: First ascent of the north ridge, by Polish team: Cielecki, Łaukajtys, Szafirski, Zyzak.
• 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: Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler climb the north face in 10 hours.
• 1981: 25 August: Swiss guide Ueli Bühler solos the face in 8 hours and 30 minutes.
• 1983: 27 July: Austrian Thomas Bubendorfer solos the face without a rope in 4 hours and 50 minutes, almost halving Bühler's time.
• 2003: 24 March: Italian Christoph Hainz breaks Bubendorfer's record by ten minutes, climbing the face in 4 hours and 40 minutes.
• 2006: 15 July: Approximately 20 million cubic feet (700,000 cubic metres) of rock from the east side collapses. No injuries or damage are reported.[3]
• 2006: 14 June: François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger.[4], [5]
• 2007: 21 February: Swiss alpinist Ueli Steck breaks Hainz's record, soloing the north face in 3 hours and 54 minutes.[6]

1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Toni Kurz was a German mountain climber of the early 20th Century. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Andreas Heckmair (known as Anderl) (born October 12, 1906, Munich, Germany. ... Heinrich Harrer Heinrich Harrer (July 6, 1912 – January 7, 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer and author. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Lionel Terray (born July 25, 1921 in Grenoble) is a French climber who did many first ascents, including the first ascent of Makalu with Jean Couzy on 15 May 1955 and the first ascent of the Fitz-Roy in the Andes. ... Louis Lachenal (17 July 1921–25 November 1955), a French climber born in Annecy, was one of the first to climb a summit of more than 8,000 metres. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Claudio Corti was a mountain climber from Olginate, Italy. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Armando Aste Armando Aste (January 6, 1926, Rovereto near Trent, South Tyrol, Italy) is one of the most influential Italian alpinists of the postwar period. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Sir Chris Bonington Sir Christian John Storey Bonington (born August 6, 1934 in Hampstead), is a British mountaineer. ... Ian Clough (1939-1970) was a British mountaineer who was killed on an expedition to climb the south face of the Himalayan massif Annapurna. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... John Harlin (full name John Elvis Harlin II) (1934-1966) was an American mountaineer who was killed making an ascent of the north face of the Eiger. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Reinhold Messner (born September 17, 1944) is an Italian mountaineer and explorer, often cited [1] as the greatest mountain climber of all time, noted for making the first solo ascents of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and for being the first climber to ascend all fourteen eight-thousanders (peaks over... Peter Habeler (born July 22nd 1942 in Mayrhofen, Austria) is an Austrian mountaineer. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ...

Pictures

Maximilien de Meuron, early 19th century Download high resolution version (1256x1508, 108 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...	Sunrise above the Eiger Mittelegi-Ridge Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 820 KB) Summary Description: Sunrise over the Eiger Mittelegi-Ridge (Northeast Ridge) Source: selfmade Date: created Oct. ...	The North Face on a clear summer day Image File history File linksMetadata The_Eiger_In_Summer. ...	Eiger North-Face with fresh snow. View from Beatenberg, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 269 KB) Summary Eiger North-Face with fresh snow. ...
View from the face of the Eiger looking down at the town of Grindelwald, Switzerland below. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 745 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (1080 × 869 pixel, file size: 248 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) The town of Grindelwald, Switzereland taken from inside the face of the Eiger. ...

Popular culture

• The 1972 novel The Eiger Sanction is an action/thriller story based around the climbing of the Eiger by Rodney William Whitaker, written under the pseudonym Trevanian. This was then made into a 1975 film starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy.
• Eiger Dreams, a collection of short stories by Jon Krakauer, begins with an account of Krakauer's own attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger.
• A track in the game Gran Turismo HD is set around the peak.
• Skiiers Shane McConkey and J. T. Holmes "skibase"-jumped off the western flank of the north face. This footage can be seen in the film Yearbook by Matchstick Productions.

See also: 1971 in literature, other events of 1972, 1973 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The Eiger Sanction is a 1975 action/thriller film based on a 1972 novel by American author Dr. Rodney William Whitaker, under the pen name Trevanian, and directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood as Dr. Jonathan Hemlock. ... Trevanian is a pen name of Dr. Rodney William Whitaker, born June 12, 1931 in Granville, New York. ... The Eiger Sanction is a 1975 action/thriller film based on a 1972 novel by American author Dr. Rodney William Whitaker, under the pen name Trevanian. ... Clint Eastwood (born Clinton Eastwood, Jr. ... George Kennedy George Kennedy (born February 18, 1925 in New York City, New York) is an actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. ... Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains is a non-fiction short story collection by Jon Krakauer published in 1990 by Doubleday. ... Jon Krakauer Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954), is an American non-fiction author and mountaineer, well-known for outdoor and mountain-climbing writing. ... Gran Turismo HD (High Definition), previously known as Vision Gran Turismo at E3 2006, was to be the first installment of the Gran Turismo racing series to be released on the PlayStation 3. ...

See also

• Bernese Oberland

View of Thun and Lake Thun from the Niederhorn The Bernese Oberland (Bernese highlands) is the higher part of the canton of Bern, Switzerland, in the South of the canton: The area around Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and the valleys of the Bernese Alps (thus, the inhabitable parts from...

References

• 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)

Heinrich Harrer Heinrich Harrer (July 6, 1912 – January 7, 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer and author. ...

External links

• TierraWiki.org: Hike on the Eiger Trail
• Eiger on Summitpost
• Eiger on Peakware - photos
• Live Webcam view of the Eiger Northface