Fascinating stuff. My connection with the Eiger isn't as impressive as climbing the Mittelleggi (but I do remember that view from the summit of the Wetterhorn). That was 1991, I think. My second visit was in 2013 on a press trip marking the 75th anniversary of the FA of the face. We got to see some of the original gear in the museum in Grindelwald, we rode the railway and looked out of those windows, and we had a bivouac on top of the Rotstock, which would be a major crag by UK standards but here is just an afterhtought tacked on to the side of the Eigerwand. And then we walked down by the Eiger Trail and had a near miss (near enough!) from a fridge-sized boulder casually shed from the face.
I have just enough of an idea what climbing the North Face would be like to know it was always beyond me.
Fascinating stuff. My connection with the Eiger isn't as impressive as climbing the Mittelleggi (but I do remember that view from the summit of the Wetterhorn). That was 1991, I think. My second visit was in 2013 on a press trip marking the 75th anniversary of the FA of the face. We got to see some of the original gear in the museum in Grindelwald, we rode the railway and looked out of those windows, and we had a bivouac on top of the Rotstock, which would be a major crag by UK standards but here is just an afterhtought tacked on to the side of the Eigerwand. And then we walked down by the Eiger Trail and had a near miss (near enough!) from a fridge-sized boulder casually shed from the face.
I have just enough of an idea what climbing the North Face would be like to know it was always beyond me.
An interesting and sad story about the epic wall. Thank you for your good posts