Climbing the Eiger
After cutting our teeth in Chamonix, Christian Lanley and I got a wild idea: “What if we climbed the Eiger?” It was the end of September; the route was well out of season. We decided that if we got an appropriate weather window, we’d go for it.
Whaddaya know, the weather window appeared. Christian and I left Chamonix behind; cached our extra gear with a friend in Geneva; and boarded a series of trains for Kleine Scheidegg, the mountain pass at the base of the Eiger. With our climbing packs loaded, we took the cog railway into the literal heart of the mountain and got off midway up.
When the train and tourists departed, Christian and I contemplated the silence before burrowing deeper into the belly of the beast through a series of old mining tunnels. One led to a literal hole in the side of the mountain. We rappelled off a rickety doorframe onto the glacier below. Once we pulled our rope, there was no turning back. The only way home was up and over the Eiger, via the Mittellegi Ridge.
When we reached the Mittellegi Hutte’s winter room, there was one other party present: an old man and his climbing guide. Christian and I got the jump on them with an early start the following morning, but the two quickly caught up, so we let them pass. Then they slowed down. Christian and I were stuck behind them for the rest of the day—until the stopped on the ridge’s only flat spot to bivy.
I led one final pitch past sunset and into the blackness of night—a 40m runout with no headlamp—before we anchored to a horn, rappelled into a gully, and bivied on a gravel slope. We slept fitfully through the night, sharing a tiny sleeping bag and cuddling to stave off hypothermia, but to no avail.
It was the longest night of my life, but the following morning brought the kindest sunrise ever. The warm rays literally thawed my face. Two hours later, we climbed out of the gully, finished the route, celebrated on the summit, and the began the long, technical descent over the mountain’s other side.
Summitpost said that the route would take 4-8 hours to complete. 4-8 hours, my ass.
