Elevation
3,967m
13,015 ft
First Ascent
1858
Charles Barrington, Christian Almer, Peter Bohren
Western flank ascent, modest by later standards. The Nordwand was first climbed in 1938 by Heckmair, Vörg, Harrer, and Kasparek after eight earlier deaths.
Best Season
July–September
Summit Days
2–4 days
Permits
Not required
Overview
A 3,967-metre peak in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, the easternmost of the three peaks that include the Mönch and Jungfrau. The Eiger is significantly lower than Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa but has earned a position in the climbing canon disproportionate to its altitude. The north face — the Nordwand — is one of the most famous mountain walls in the world. Eighteen hundred vertical metres of mixed rock and ice on the north side of the peak, climbed first only in 1938, the wall has produced more first ascents, more technical innovations, and more climbing deaths than any face of comparable size in the Alps. The Eiger Nordwand is, in terms of climbing significance, larger than the mountain itself.
The first ascent of the peak came in 1858 via the western flank — a relatively straightforward climb that received minimal attention at the time. The first ascent of the Nordwand, in 1938, came after a decade of failed attempts that had killed eight climbers. The successful expedition was an Austrian-German team — Heinrich Harrer, Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, and Fritz Kasparek — climbing in two ropes that combined on the upper face. Harrer would later spend seven years in Tibet during the war and become one of the most prominent figures in mid-century European climbing literature.
The Nordwand is climbed today by approximately 100 to 200 ascents per year, with another similar number of attempts that turn back below the summit. The technical difficulty is sustained — vertical and overhanging rock, sustained mixed climbing, several pitches of vertical ice, and serious objective hazard from rockfall and icefall throughout the route. The standard line, the 1938 route, has been progressively improved with fixed equipment but remains a serious undertaking. The fatality rate on the face has been substantially above the rate on comparable mountains; over 60 climbers have died on the Nordwand since the first ascent.
What Eiger represents is a particular kind of mountain — a peak whose climbing reputation exceeds its altitude, where the technical and historical density of the climbing has produced cultural weight that more famous higher mountains do not carry. Climbers who summit the Nordwand are climbers who have engaged with one of the central objects of European alpine history.