Throughout the book of White Spider, I felt a sense of politeness and humbleness that possessed each climber that in one way or another, had made a successful climb whether big, small, or losing their lives in pursuit of this ascent. These feelings of respect to past climbers and past explorers who had dared to make that dangerous climb was evident throughout Harrer’s own climb of the Eiger, throughout his climb he thanked and gave respect to the men that had lost their lives, limbs, and who had failed to scale this dangerous wall. Had it not been for past men from all nations, the Eiger would not and could not have been climbed, for it appeared to me that all men seemed to have come together throughout the decades and unknowingly shared their knowledge so that man could finally make that last first ascent.

I found this to be quite refreshing and uplifting because the discussions we have had throughout the semester have always had a recurring theme, the first for a specific man or nation was most important of all; that climbing a mountain of such heights surely had to come from a selfish place within a man because for one to leave behind their comforts for something so dangerous and uncertain as the Eiger had to be selfish and it had to be rude, unkind, and disrespectful to life. This was not the case when it came to attempting to climb the Eiger, for each climber helped the other when it was needed, rescue teams from differing nationalities tried their best to help men who needed help, and respect was given and mentioned throughout the book to each man who provided even a small amount of knowledge. I guess it really just sort of restored my faith in mountaineering humanity because each climber seemed to really ponder, reflect, and value life because of how dangerous and how close to death they were, it seemed almost euphoric and peaceful.

The sense of pride and immortality also seemed to fade away as each attempt at a successful climb became more and more unsuccessful. Not only did Berner restrict the attempt of a climb, but it also appeared that the Eiger herself was not going to make this climb easy in the least bit, she was always changing her weather patterns and because of the unpredictability, new techniques such as the speed of climbing came into play; it was the challenges that the mountain herself presented that allowed the old and the new to bridge the gap and evolve into something productive and each climber had a respect of some sort to the men who tried and dared to think that they could be the first. If it had not been for the “old,” the new would not have been able to successfully scale this face of the Eiger, it was really positive and uplifting to see history work together toward a goal that seemed impossible and to incorporate the slow techniques with the faster approach to climbing.

Had it not been for the past climbers, the new climbers and the youth who were chomping at the bit for their shot at the mountain would have never been given that opportunity or feeling, for each unsuccessful outcome was not really unsuccessful because of the knowledge, the discoveries of landscape, and learning from their shortcomings and past mistakes of each respective climber allowed for the future success of another climber.