The Eiger Myth Compiled by Marco Bomio

Compiled by Marco Bomio, 3818 Grindelwald

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1 The Myth If the wall can be done, then we will do it or stay there! This assertion by Edi Rainer and Willy Angerer proved tragically true for them both they stayed there. The first attempt on the Eiger North Face in 1936 went down in history as the most infamous drama surrounding the North Face and those who tried to conquer it. Together with their German companions Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, the two Austrians perished in this wall notorious for its rockfalls and suddenly deteriorating weather. The gruesome image of Toni Kurz dangling in the rope went around the world. Two years later, Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vrg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek managed the first ascent of the 1800-metre-high face. 70 years later, local professional mountaineer Ueli Steck set a new record by climbing it in 2 hours and 47 minutes.

1.1 How the Eiger Myth was made In the public perception, its exposed north wall made the Eiger the embodiment of a perilous, difficult and unpredictable mountain. The persistence with which this image has been burnt into the collective memory is surprising yet explainable. The myth surrounding the Eiger North Face has its initial roots in the 1930s, a decade in which nine alpinists were killed in various attempts leading up to the successful first ascent in July 1938. From 1935 onwards, the climbing elite regarded the North Face as the last problem in the Western Alps. This fact alone drew the best climbers mainly Germans, Austrians and Italians at the time like a magnet to the Eiger. The unquenchable desire to be the first to conquer this wall brittle, weather exposed and susceptible to rockfall led to a number of unwise attempts in dubious climbing and weather conditions. This resulted in tragedies some of which are unexplained to this day that unfolded over several days in front of the eyes of the gathered press, with journalists reporting the dramatic events extensively from their comfortable ringside vantage points on the hotel terraces of the Kleine Scheidegg. The public too benefited from the mountains location and the touristic infrastructure. Nowhere else could mountaineering history in the making be experienced as up close and as tangibly as on the Eiger. On hiking trails beneath the North Face, for instance. Nothing was easier than to take a ride on the Jungfrau Railway to the Eigerwand station in order to peer out at the spine-curdling scene. The Eiger became a perpendicular amphitheatre. No other mountain was as talked about before the Second World War at least not in the Alps. The newspaper articles and radio reports were soon followed by the first books, bringing posthumous fame to the fallen and celebrity to the successful protagonists of the era of heroic alpinism. A detailed compilation of this vivid period with many hitherto unseen images was recently published in the book Eiger. Triumphe und Tragdien 1932-1938, AS Verlag, Zurich. (Eiger. Triumphs and Tragedies 19321938). The mountain reached the pinnacle of its publicity in the years between 1957 and 1966. During this time, almost every attempt on the North Face made the headlines in the wake of a series of spectacular disasters. The evolving media landscape nurtured the fascination emerging tabloid or red-top newspapers were now successfully bringing their stories to the masses. 1958 was the year in which The White Spider was published, a bestseller written by first ascensionist Heinrich Harrer that evoked with much pathos the dramas of the pre-war period. This hugely successful volume was reprinted several times and translated into numerous languages. The Eiger had established itself as a global phenomenon.

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Since then, interest in the Eiger has never completely subsided in fact the myth has been enjoying something of a renaissance since 1999, when an ascent of the classic North Face route was broadcast live on television with excellent ratings. And even though climbing the Eiger has fundamentally changed since the days of the pioneers new, even more challenging routes are still being opened on the face it is often the old, dramatic tales of yore that keep the Eiger in the public eye: in 2008, an elaborate production of the spectacular tragedy of 1938 titled Nordwand came to Swiss, German and Austrian cinema screens.1

2 The mountain The Eiger stands at a height of 3970 metres in the Bernese Alps. Together with the Mnch and Jungfrau, it forms the world-famous and unparalleled triptych of the Eiger, Mnch and Jungfrau. The ascent of this mountain was long considered an impossible feat by the inhabitants of the valley and even by mountaineering pioneers. Irishman Charles Barrington proved them wrong by making the first ascent in 1858. He had been able to persuade the well-known Grindelwald guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren to attempt the climb. Their climb started at Wengernalp, leading to the summit without notable difficulties and from there back down to the Kleine Scheidegg. Their feat well and truly dismantled the Eigers aura of invincibility. The first ascensionists route over the West Flank is still the regular route in use today. The Eiger has a lot to offer elite, amateur and non-climbers alike. Its appearance at different times of day, in different seasons, the ever-changing moods elicited by the interplay of clouds and fog never fails to captivate and will surely continue to do so.

2.1 Whats in a name? So what does the mountains name mean? There is to date no convincing explanation. Name researcher Professor J.U. Hubschmid is of the opinion that the place name under Eiger derives from the name of the first settler: in Old High German Agiger, Aiger. He would have also owned land further uphill, maybe grazing pasture for goats (Geisse). The mountain towering above Wrgistal would have been named after him or his pastures, also formerly known as Eigers Schneeberg, Eigers Geissberg or, in short, Geissberg. Emanuel Friedli suggests another possible explanation in his Bernese German volume Grindelwald: an etymological link between the word Eiger and the Latin acer and Greek akros (pinnacle, peak, outermost), and also the Greek akd (peak, edge, sharp), acutus and aigu etc. bringing it close to the old spelling Eger, Eeger. The earlier spelling Heiger finally invites us to consider whether the name might be derived from the dialect term dr hej Ger. The ger was a sharp, pointed weapon used by the Germanic tribes. And does the Eiger not thrust from the valley high (hej) up towards the skies like a spearhead of gigantic proportions? It is highly unlikely though that the name Eiger has anything to do with the Ogre, the man-eating giant of fairytale lore.2

1 Rainer Rettner

2 Der Eiger (The Eiger) by Rudolf Rubi, Verlag Paul Haupt Bern