Eiger

Eiger is an individualized top of the the Alps entirely located in Suisse in the solid mass of the the Bernese Alps. Its name means the ogre referring to his impressive northern face. The latter, largest face of the the Alps, the 1.800 m height, almost completely vertical or pouring, was regarded as one of the last three major problems of the the Alps, with the faces north of the Cervin and the Grandes Jorasses.

Rises

  • 1858 - First rise on August 11th by the Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren in company of the Irishman Charles Barrington.

  • 1938 - First rise of the northern face on July 24th by the German cord of Anderl Heckmair and Ludwig Vörg and the Austrian cord of Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek.
The second rise immediately took place after the Second world war by French Lionel Terray and Louis Lachenal.

The northern slope

The northern face (actually rather north-western) is famous for its difficulty. The uneven one is approximately 1.650 meters. The first rise was carried out July 21st with the July 24th 1938 by a cord austro-allemande with Heinrich Harrer, Anderl Heckmair, Fritz Kasparek and Ludwig Vörg. In fact two cords were found during the rise (the Austrians Kasparek and Harrer on the one hand, the Heckmair Germans and Vörg on the other hand). This meeting did not have any political character (the four had met, satisfied to have survived an avalanche in the spider ), but the socialist national mode then saw there a symbol of the Anschluss, which had just taken place on March 13rd, 1938, and this first was exploited by propaganda Nazi.

The first winter one was carried out in 1961 by Toni Hiebeler, Walter Almberger, Anderl Mannhard and Toni Kinshofer. The winter following an Italian cord, carried out by the Tyrolean Armando Aste also makes a success of the rise.

The first rise as a recluse was carried out by Switzerland Michel Darbellay in 1963.

In 1968, Reinhold Messner made a success of the first rise of the northern pillar.

In 1974, Peter Habeler and Reinhold Messner made a success of the fastest rise (10 hours). This record for a cord always holds.

In 1978, Tsunéo Hasegawa and Ivano Ghirardini, make a success of successively the first and the second winter recluse of the northern face, at one day of interval. This within the framework of the first solitary winter trilogies of the three large faces north of the Alps (Cervin, Large Jorasses, Eiger)

Rises as a recluse even faster (less than 5 a.m.) followed: in 1983 Thomas Bubendorfer and also Reinhard Patscheider. The record was beaten in 2003 by the Tyrolean of the south Christoph Hainz (4 ½ hours). In 2007, Ueli Steck, German Swiss mountaineer of reputation raised once more the level and carried out the ascenscion in 3:54 minutes.

The northern face is marked several catastrophes: in particular during the rise of Toni Kurz (with Anderl Hinterstoisser, EDI To groove and Willy Angerer in 1936) and at the time of that of Claudio Corti (only survivor of a cord including/understanding Stefano Longhi, Günther Nothdurft and Franz Mayer in 1957). A cord of four mountaineers of German Democratic republic (in 1967) also knew a tragic exit.

Collapse of rocks of Eiger

The July 14th 2006, following the cast iron of part of the Glacier of Grindelwald located at the foot of the slope is mountain, a block of 30 meters height rock, of a volume of almost 200.000 m ³, crumbled. Since, the activity of the slope, though always existing (many small stone falls), slowed down, but one cannot exclude collapse yet from a side of almost 20 million m ³ to still unstable rocks.

See too

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