The Eiger Mordwand

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local1

Mountain climber
CH
Sep 4, 2011 - 03:43pm PT
The first one, with the Finstraerhorn (SP?) in the background, shows what i believe is a peak called the Ochs. That particular north wall is a fearsome looking rig (...)

It's called "Finsteraarhorn" and the peak below is the "Ochs" or "Klein Fiescherhorn". The north wall is called the "Fiescherhorn northwall". It is quite dangerous now because of the warmer temperature and ice melting whitch is causing rockfall.

more one topic: The Eiger northwall is right know "black" - now snow or ice in the 1st icefield, only a little ice on the 2nd icefield and on the white spider...really to warm and/or not enough snow...
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Sep 4, 2011 - 03:51pm PT
Thanks, Tom - were all those photos in the original German account of the climb?
ms55401

Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
Sep 4, 2011 - 04:09pm PT
from the trashy book The Eiger Sanction (paraphrasing):

some person, addressing Hemlock: "Do you want scotch or bourbon?"

Hemlock: "Do you have Laphroaig?"

some person: "No."

Hemlock: "Then it doesn't matter."
michaeld

Sport climber
Near Tahoe, CA
Sep 5, 2011 - 02:14am PT
I literally just watched that last week. Awesome movie.

I was really glad when I didn't see any simul-climbing on separate bolted routes like in Vertical Limit.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jan 19, 2014 - 02:19pm PT

Anderl Heckmair interviewed - Mountain 16 (1971/72)
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jul 26, 2014 - 10:59am PT

A few Heckmair quotes from "My Life"

"Throughout my life when I came to a crossroads I always chose the path that led back to the mountains, even when a woman stood in the other road. Had I chosen otherwise, the course of my life would have been different. Perhaps I would have become a playboy, perhaps the adoptive son of a charming, influential French family. Perhaps...but that's not what happened."

"As a climber, the play of balance that affords such a marvelous feeling of freedom came naturally to me. I was never extravagant in my demands, being happy to make do with small holds. Yet the death of my two comrades had been a salutary and painful lesson. Even if you are lucky enough to have a sixth sense for the mountains, it still needs to be excercised, developed, and sharpened. The early, impetuous years are the most dangerous for a climber."

"What I could never understand was why climbers are so often judged according to the difficulty of the climbs they undertake, when there were so many other beautiful things to experience in the mountains. In this respect I owed a lot to my work, which gave me an eye and a taste for botany and geology. But even the roughest lads among us were sensitive to all the beauties of nature. I am convinced that it has always been so with the mountaineers and always will be."

On Yellowstone:
"We were not hell-bent on only climbing mountains, of course. Yellowstone National Park lay on our route and who could possibly drive past such a wonder of nature? We therefore traveled by Greyhound bus from Calgary to Livingston, where we hired a car to continue the journey via Gardiner to the park. Nowhere in the world are there so many natural marvels all gathered together in one place and easily accessible. The ground steams and puffs; there are not just hundreds but thousands of geysers, big and small, whole valleys of them."

The Eiger:
"I am often asked whether I would climb that route again. I cannot think of any reason why I would do so. I did not climb the North Face for prestige or glory, but for the experience it gave me. The record-breaking ascents of recent years do not interest me at all. There is an old poachers' saying that states, 'Freedom is to be found in the mountains.' The sentiment is equally applicable to mountain climbing. We should all be free to do as we please and to find personal pleasure as we see fit."

On adventure:
"How often I have returned from such travels with the fondest memories only to have the question come up, 'Will such a thing ever happen again?' Should I, at the age of 90-plus, close with 'Well, that was it'? Who knows? But at least it ends with a question mark."
Allen Hill

Social climber
CO.
Jul 27, 2014 - 11:25pm PT
Tom,where on earth did you find the book? I must have a copy. I looked all night on the google to no avail. Help. Throw me a bone Tom! Any clue will help.
bhilden

Trad climber
Mountain View, CA/Boulder, CO
Jul 27, 2014 - 11:50pm PT
Ron wrote:
Later that year the bodies (including those of Sedlemayer and Mehringer whose demise the year before had caused the naming of Death Bivouac) were recovered by guides.

Max Sedlmayr's body was found at the foot of the face by guides searching for the remainder of Hinterstoisser's party. But, Kark Mehringer's body was not found until 27 years later at the foot of the Second Icefield.
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Jul 28, 2014 - 12:42pm PT

Two words:

Jello Metanoia
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jul 28, 2014 - 12:51pm PT

Allen Hill.

You find a lot of excellent photos in this book: "Eiger. Triumphe und Tragödien 1932-1938" by Rainer Rettner. Though not as large photos.

Luca Signorelli said on the UKClimbing.com forum:

Rainer, is in my humble opinion, today's greatest writer of mountain history. He's a great writer AND a great historian. His book on the Corti tragedy of 1957 was an amazing achievement, and I think that "Eiger - Triumphe and Tragodien" will ever surpass it. It's really a new generation of mountain histories, something I think it's somehow needed at long last.

Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Apr 19, 2015 - 10:21am PT

Climbing the Eiger Nordwand, The Heckmair
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Climbers: Dongjin Lyu, Age.64. Wook Heo, Age.59. Peelseok Han, Age.54. Myungsik Jin, Age.52
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jun 12, 2015 - 11:40am PT

Die Höfats-Überschreitung aus dem Jahr 1968 mit Bergführer Anderl Heckmair. Kameramann: Bergführer Peter Lechhart - der Mitbegründer von Globetrotter.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

More peaceful times...
Ken M

Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
Jun 12, 2015 - 12:22pm PT
Joe Simpson meets Heckmair, and Heckmair realizes who he is:

https://books.google.com/books?id=LLUNNN_Nq4AC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=joe+simpson+meets+heckmair&source=bl&ots=P1nCWqMqOm&sig=kwi0xWqKof0kha8WIOGhlekWusM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI3JCjyuyKxgIViKWICh3LPAsv#v=onepage&q=joe%20simpson%20meets%20heckmair&
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Jun 12, 2015 - 02:04pm PT
The Eiger in Winter by Toni Hiebler and Diretissima (the story of the John Harlin Route) were two of my earliest mountaineering reads, along with Gaston Rebuffat's
story of meeting up with Hermann Buhl on the Eigerwand (or, as one my friends who is a Buhl sychophant
put it, the story of Buhl rescuing the Frenchmen).

"A Short Walk With Whillans" in One Man's Mountains remains my favorite, however. The comment about the two Japanese climbers,
as I remember it (I'm at the office, the book is at home) went something like Whillans asking them "You going up?" as Patey and
Whillans were hightailing it out. They replied, "Yes, always up. First Japanese ascent." "You-may-be-going-up, mates," said Whillans,
giving each syllable unnecessary emphasis, "but a whole lot 'igher than you think!" . . . after saying goodbye, Whillans commented "'appy
little pair. i doubt we'll ever see them again," but, in fact, they reached Whillans' and Patey's high point, stayed there through a full-
blown Eiger storm, and made it down in one piece. Patey described them, with great admiration, as forerunners of "modern Japanese climbers,
who climb Everest for the purpose of ski-ing [sic] back
down."

John
graniteclimber

Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
Jun 12, 2015 - 03:29pm PT
Andreas Hinterstoisser

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Jun 12, 2015 - 04:41pm PT
bump


http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=478875&tn=20#msg2640740



` thinking about how the world, would be different if KB had passed on the Matterhorn,
where he died ...Bat manning down a short stretch,
un-roped and the anchor block blew leaving his wife ledged out. . . . ,
. .the Nor wand, would have been a better objective. .
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Jun 12, 2015 - 09:42pm PT
hey there say... wow, just going this... soaking it all in...
oh my...


great photos, thank you for sharing these, all you guys...
links, etc, and all...
Poloman

Trad climber
Anna, Il
Jun 12, 2015 - 10:00pm PT
A fellow that I knew in the 80's climbed the Eigerwand solo. I bow "I'm not worthy"
overwatch

climber
Jun 13, 2015 - 08:50am PT
Awesome pile. Huge respect to anyone even attempting that thing. Thanks for the bump.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jun 25, 2015 - 11:13am PT


On July 24 1938 Heckmair, Wiggerl Vörg and the Austrians Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek stood on the summit having defeated the last great problem of the Alps. Their achievement is considered one of the finest moments of alpine mountaineering, and Heckmair made it possible by navigating the way through the labyrinth of ice gullies and by leading the most difficult sections. On their return they were greeted as heroes of the German Reich, to Heckmair's disquiet.

Mountaineers turned to the great north faces in the early 1930s. Those of the Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses were conquered in 1931 and 1935, and only the Eiger remained. By 1938 it had exacted a high rate of attrition: of the 12 climbers who attempted the north face - or Eigerwand - in the 1930s, only three survived. The death of Toni Kurz in 1936 was especially tragic: he perished within earshot of his rescuers while dangling from a rope.

The press dubbed the Eiger's north face the Mordwand ("death wall"). The Swiss even passed a law banning all attempts, although it was repealed after protests. Even the guides had officially declared that they would not participate in rescues. It was in this atmosphere that Heckmair and Vörg arrived in early July, hiding their climbing gear so as to keep their attempt secret.

The 5,905-ft wall of the face posed a formidable challenge. The combination of crumbling rock, ice and loose snow required techniques that were ahead of their time. Avalanches and snow-storms were to be expected. Once committed, it was almost impossible to retreat.

Harrer and Kasparek set off on July 21, Heckmair and Vörg caught up with them the following day. Despite obvious rivalry, they realised that if they were to succeed they should unite. They shared their loads so that Heckmair, the best climber, led with the lightest sack. "Anderl led like a hero all the way up the climb - a real hero, quietly doing the job and serving his friends," wrote Harrer in White Spider, his account of the ascent.

In full view of the tourists at the Scheidegg hotel, who watched through telescopes, they inched their way upwards through the now famous landmarks of the face: the "difficult crack", the Hinterstoisser Traverse, the second and third icefields. At the first bivouac at "the ramp", some two thirds of the way up, Heckmair became ill after eating sardines that were off. Cured by a cup of peppermint tea, he then attacked the hardest pitch of the climb.

First he tried to follow the rock, but a hold broke off and he fell. Angry, he attacked again, this time with a set of revolutionary crampons that had front points. "He then treated us to an acrobatic tour de force," recalled Harrer. "It was half superb rock-technique, half a toe-dance on the ice - a toe-dance above a perpendicular drop."

At one point, Heckmair's crampons had a purchase of only a few millimetres, but he defeated the pitch, cut footholds and made himself safe. He attacked the next pitch in a similar spirit, but fell again; the piton held. With each fall his anger increased, yet he continued to venture upwards until he was successful. "It was the hardest part of the climb so far," he remembered. "I was satisfied, but not inclined to wish for any further heightening of the satisfaction."

Nevertheless, it came. He fell again, this time landing on Vörg, piercing his hand with a crampon point. Heckmair prevented his friend from going into shock with the advice: "Pull yourself together, everything depends on it." Vörg responded, and they reached the summit. When they returned to the valley below, they were mobbed by an ecstatic crowd.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1482809/Anderl-Heckmair.html

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