Drama on the Eiger

The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer depicts many tails, both failures and achievements, as climbers over the last century attempted to climb the north face of the Eiger. As Harrer is one of the men to climb this route successfully and have lived to tell the tale, he writes to commemorate those who have come both before and after him successful or not. Based on his writing there is no difference between whether you are the first or the 24th to summit from the route of the north face. This attitude may be due to the extreme conditions that all climbers are met with while on the face. With the unpredictability of the Eiger’s weather pattern no summit attempt is ever the same. For all climbers that have summited on the climb state that it is something that they never wish to do again. Since this saying can be said across the board for all climbers that have overcome such a harrowing journey there is something to note of the severity of this great climb. This severity deserves great respect and this respect is given to anyone that has successfully accomplished the climb. This translates into a general respect in the greater climbing/mountaineering community. Upon reading it is seen that many if not all of the “great” climbers came to Alpiglen to climb the north face with little to no money with them. For these men were the breed that would devote all of there time and energy to their true passion of climbing. If you did not truly love the sport one could not climb such a forbidding peak simply for some prize but for personal satisfaction and pride.

As mountaineering came into the fore ground of the sports news the true drama of the sport started to be revealed, and the Eiger’s north face was a great stage for this drama to be witnessed upon. Harrer writes his book it sections each with its own story of the men that climbed the face and the outcome of their efforts. He uses stories and notes from the news writers, guides, and fellow climbers situated at the base in order to piece together stories of other attempts (since he wasn’t present for most of them). These stories and accounts of each attempt drew the attention of society and soon Alpiglen’s hotels were filled with tourists keen on catching a glimpse of the action for themselves. The drama of the climbs came in a number of ways. First there is the classical life vs death scenario, followed by the tedious question if the climbers will make it to the top or not, and the drama of the mountain itself came to be. When climbing began in the summers crowds of tourists would gather around viewing telescopes aimed high on the mountain to track the progress of climbers. The climbs that were aatempted could be almost thought of as plays to them. For they did not know who was climbing, but it was a show in which they could and enjoyed to watch. The Eiger was the stage, and the weather and mist on the mountain acted as a curtain to start and end scenes as well as add suspense to the spectacle. The unpredictability of this mountain from avalanche, rock slide, and blizzard helped to cement the scene as one that can produce some of the most drama possible. In this way the Eiger becomes important to bring these incredible performances of climbing into the limelight of the general public and onto a world stage, thus progressing the future of the climbing community.