Good so far
htf did they build a railway up there!
Have you read fiennes version of him scaling it? I got jeepers just reading it( I've got vertigo.)
There was a french guy climbed it solo, at night, in winter! total nutjob. BTW the tunnel was made with dynamite and lots of it
Good programme but blooming annoying music.
Thanks for highlighting that pedlad. Back to my youth and reading TWS and Bonington. Good programme and the shots down the face scare me senseless these days.
What about that Swiss nutter - free climbed it in just over 2 hours 😯
That guy who ascended in two frickin hours. 😯
Saw the doc a while back but thanks for PSA. Definitely worth watching twice. That story of the guy hanging by the Stollenloch window - gutting. "We can't do anything for you tonight..." What must it be like to hear those words.
There's a DVD someone lent me. It's narrated by Joe Simpson and tells the tale of that poor lad, left hanging. Well worth a watch.
Tony Kurtz, there are many other disasters, but compelling tails, especially from the early days and including the first controversial British attempt, ending in disaster and the Bonnington/Whillans rescue of their fellow surviving countryman. The White Spider is a classic book written by Heinrich Harrer (one of the group who first climbed it). I can lend you it J, definitely worth reading.
Yes please 🙂
Was on again last night, very good programme.
The Swiss guy was seriously impressive. He was up Everest a few days ago but i dont know if it was a speed ascent or not, i'd be surprised if it was possible at that sort of altitude.
The Swiss guy (Ueli Steck) has done speed ascents on most of the famous European peaks. He's done the Matterhorn in something silly like 2 hours and some loose change too. Someone (another Swiss bloke) has beaten his time on the Eiger now though. I think the new guy did it in 2:09.
Steck did Everest two days before three people died on it. It wasn't a speed ascent but he climbed before they had put the fixed ropes in and beat his "accompanying" Sherpa to the top by 90 minutes and beat him by nearly 3 hours back to camp 4... All without supplemental oxygen.
I've seen a few Swiss documentaries about the guy, he comes across as a really down to earth guy who loves the mountains. It's always funny when people ask him about danger and he reckons running up the Eiger with no rope is actually quite safe!
I've been up the railway and looked out of the viewing windows, which are just up the line from the famous rescue window. When the train passed the window my hair stood on end. It's impressive looking straight down the face, you'd have to have your head well sorted to spend a couple days out there.
Have also done a 10 minute helicopter trip right along the face to see the windows from outside, it was hard to spot them as they are so tiny in that mass of rock and ice.
The nearest I've ever come to actually experiencing such a big airy place was at the beginning of the Vallee Blanche ski run when you emerge from the Aiguille du Midi and walk down the snow ridge.