"In the Alps, a Conquest Takes Two Generations

By STEPHEN VENABLES
Published: August 4, 2007

John Harlin III was 9 years old when a frayed rope sliced over a rough edge of limestone, sending his father plunging 4,000 feet to his death. It was the winter of 1966, and John Harlin II’s climbing team was nearing the end of a grueling siege against a new route on perhaps the biggest, most notorious mountain wall in Europe — the North Face of the Eiger, in the Swiss Alps.

None of the other climbers witnessed the accident; they were all above the broken rope. But when news of the calamity was radioed through, they decided to complete the new direct route in Harlin’s memory, battling through a storm to reach the summit on the day of his funeral...

...To climb the Eiger is to follow in the steps of climbing legends, to witness the Hinterstoisser Traverse, where Toni Kurz hung on a rope, freezing to death just 20 feet from his would-be rescuers, in 1936; to sleep at the tiny niche of Death Bivouac, where the very first Eiger candidates perished in a freak storm in 1935; to continue, if you are blessed with luckier weather, up the intricate Ramp, the Waterfall Pitch, the dizzy Traverse of the Gods, the gloomy icefield of the Spider and, finally, the Exit Cracks, where a brilliant Bavarian named Anderl Heckmair led the first team to success in 1938. He was rewarded by a victory parade with Adolf Hitler.

Fascist overtones might have soured the first ascent, but most serious alpinists still dreamt of making a pilgrimage on Heckmair’s path. John Harlin II was the first American to succeed, in 1962, five years before returning to attempt his ill-fated Direct Route. More than three decades later, John Harlin III, despite that promise to his mother, also wanted to experience the Eiger for himself, to climb the face where his father spent his last days...."

Stephen Venables, president of the Alpine Club, has written several books on mountain climbing and the script for the Imax film “The Alps,” which is in theaters now.

Powerfull - looking forward to the movie.

R