Reinhold Messner's brother Gunther was actually killed on Nanga Parbat when he and Reinhold climbed it back in 1970, they were attempting to descend the Diamir face when Gunther disappeared, likely swept away by an avalanche. The mountain is ridiculously intimidating, Nanga Parbat is another one of the most dangerous mountains in the world, it has a high fatality to summit ratio. The summit to fatality ratio, in the context of mountaineering, is a metric that represents the proportion of climbers who successfully reach the summit of a mountain compared to the number who die during the attempt. It essentially quantifies the risk associated with climbing a particular mountain. A higher ratio indicates a more dangerous climb. There is a sign near Nanga Parbat, sort of a last second warning to anyone who wants to climb the mountain.
Annapurna 1 is one of the most dangerous mountains in the world, Annapurna I has the highest fatality rate of all 14 death zone peaks, with a fatality to summit ratio is approximately 32%. This means that for every 100 climbers who summit, about 32 do not return, according to climbing statistics. The mountain's treacherous conditions, including avalanches, unpredictable weather, and technical climbing, contribute to this high mortality rate. While Annapurna was the first death zone peak to be summited, it remains one of the least attempted and least summited due to its high risk. The south face, in particular, is renowned for its difficulty and dangerous climbing routes.
Kangchenjunga, this is the third highest mountain in the world at 28,169 feet, very intimidating mountain, it has a very sinister appearance to it as well, it looks like it has two horns protruding from it. One of the things that draws people to mountains, makes people want to climb, is the level of dangerousness, if a mountain was easy to climb, there would be no challenge to it, no adversity to overcome.
Can't talk about mountaineering without mentioning the North Face of the Eiger. Gosh, I don't even know where to begin, it's a terrifying climb, a vertical wall of rock and ice that is 6,000 feet high, it's history is just littered with death, it has a fearsome reputation, it isn't nicknamed "The Murderous Wall" and the "Wall of Death" for nothing.
If you haven't seen the film "The Eiger Sanction" starring Clint Eastwood, I would highly recommend it. They went to Switzerland and filmed some of it at the Eiger itself, and the mountain is so damn dangerous that a member of the production crew was actually killed while filming it, he was a climber named David Knowles, he was killed by a falling rock on the second day of filming. Clint Eastwood, who directed and starred in the film, was reportedly close to the location where the rockfall occurred just moments before the accident. Eastwood considered abandoning the project after the death but ultimately decided to continue filming, partly due to encouragement from other climbers who felt Knowles would not have wanted the project abandoned. The accident happened during a sequence where Knowles was rappelling down the mountain, and a barrage of fake foam rocks was being released. An actual real large rock broke free from the North Face and struck him. The incident also resulted in injuries to Mike Hoover, who was also involved in the filming and narrowly escaped death. That's one of the things that makes the Eiger North Face so dangerous, rocks are constantly breaking off and falling down the North Face, it can happen out of the Blue, at any time, and these rocks are big, big enough kill you if they hit you in the head, big enough to knock you clean off the North Face and thousands of feet down to the end. You can see in these photos how things can turn bad in an instant on the North Face of the Eiger.
One of the most famous stories of the Eiger North Face is that of John Harlin III, his father was killed on the North Face of the Eiger in the 1966 when his rope broke. His father's death haunted him for years and he became obsessed with the Eiger and decided that he had to climb the North Face himself. Great book here, and there is also a documentary about it.
You can see in that photo above why the Eiger North Face is so dangerous, a 6,000 feet high vertical wall of rock and ice, it can throw everything at you, technical rock climbing and ice climbing, plus the threat of falling rocks and storms blowing in on the North Face, all of those factors make it a monster.
Kleine Scheidegg is a mountain pass in Switzerland, located right near the North Face of the Eiger, it's basically a little town with restaurants and such, and people actually bring telescopes to the establishments in the town and watch the climbing on the North Face of the Eiger.
Interesting tidbit here, on this day 80 years ago, the first nuclear weapon in history was exploded near Alamogordo, NM, the Trinity Test. If you've never seen a nuclear explosion on film, it's a very humbling site, the power and destruction. Of course the creation of the nuclear weapon changed the world forever, in a very bad way, and there's no going back.
This is footage of the Trinity Test, it occured at 5:29 a.m. just before sunrise, it was still a bit dark out and the detonation of the bomb lit up the sky, the brightness could be seen for hundreds of miles, that's the power of a nuclear bomb, it's quite humbling and frightening.
This is footage of the Trinity Test where you can see the actual power of the blast. I watched the film "Oppenheimer" about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the Manhattan Project, which was the secret program that developed the bomb, and their portrayal of the test didn't do it justice.
What's really insane is, the Trinity Test bomb is a firecracker compared to the nuclear weapons we have today, the RDS-37 was the Soviet Union's first two-stage thermonuclear bomb, also known as a hydrogen bomb. It was tested on November 22, 1955, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. The bomb was air-dropped from a Tupolev Tu-16 bomber and detonated at an altitude of 1,550 meters, with a yield of 1.6 megatons.
Hmm, on the above post you can see on the North Face where it says "Eigerwand station", there is actually a train station built inside the Eiger mountain, and the Windows protrude from the North Face. Passengers aboard the trains inside the mountain can actually get off the train and look out the windows and see climbers if they're near the windows. In this photo you can actually see the windows in the North Face, circled in Red, and an up close look at the windows. It's insane, you could be trying to climb the North Face and come face to face with a passenger inside the mountain staring at you.
There's actually a door that opens on the North Face of the Eiger, known as the Stollenloch. It's not a typical door for entry or exit in the sense of a building, but rather a small wooden door that opens into the railway tunnel within the mountain. This door has been used as a rescue point for climbers in distress. The door was built for the purpose of dumping debris from the construction of the train station, but the door sure has come in handy to rescue climbers. The door was portrayed at the end of the film "The Eiger Sanction.", when Clint Eastwood gets rescued at the end of the film.
I have many heroes in life, my family, the soldiers that fought and died for us, people that put their lives on the line to save others. But I also have other heroes, athletes and such, people I look up to, and climbers are my heroes. They have serious balls, like you don't even know, I admire the hell out of them. North Face of the Eiger. Toni Kurz. 1936.
Exposure: Agony on the Eiger
by Safwaan A June 24, 2025
17th June 2025
There are few accounts of mountaineering as harrowing, poignant and downright tragic as that of Toni Kurz, Anderl ‘Andreas’ Hinterstoisser, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer. The cruel fate that awaited them as they traversed the north face of the Eiger during July 1936 and the almost unimaginable hardship endured by one of the era’s brightest climbing stars, has cemented this heroic expedition into the highest echelon of climbing folklore. To read about it is to discover what it truly means to endure against all the odds – only for the toughest of spirits to be extinguished when a rescue was almost within reach. It is a heartbreaking yet deeply inspiring tale that needs to be retold.
An intimidating presence
It is apt that the English translation of Eiger is ‘Ogre’; a cruel and terrifying man-eating giant. For anyone standing at the foot of the north face’s 5,900 feet of vertical rock and ice, being terrified comes with the territory. It’s a gargantuan mass of limestone and black ice that never gets the sun, with the most precipitous of slopes prone to avalanches and rockfalls unsettled by some of the wildest storms Europe has to offer. It’s a profoundly volatile place, where conditions can change in seconds.
Some who have experienced these conditions first-hand speak of the mountain feeling like it’s alive. A dynamic – even malicious – environment where it feels like the mountain is out to get you no matter how well prepared or adept you might be. In Germany it has earned the nickname Mordwand, literally meaning ‘Murder Wall’, while the editor of Alpine Journal referred to it in 1938 as “an obsession for the mentally deranged.” Since the first ascent via the western flank in 1858, the north face of the ogre has claimed at least 64 lives.
High hopes
But when Kurz and his climbing partners set foot on the Eiger’s north face on the 18th July 1936, there was no element of derangement, only hope for a successful summit. This, despite two gifted climbers – Max Sedlmayer and Karl Mehringer – having frozen to death at the ‘Death Bivouac’ a year earlier while attempting to be the first to conquer the north face. Yet the group’s confidence was burning brightly, fuelled by the exuberance of youth and a rock-solid reassurance stemming from their collective ability, which was outstanding. They were men in their prime, hungry for anything the Eiger was going to serve up, and their place in the history books beckoned.
The German duo Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz were two of the most promising climbers of their age.
Kurz and Hinterstoisser were highly regarded mountain guides from Bavaria who had joined up with Austrians Angerer and Rainer during their preparations on the Eiger. Angerer was an immensely capable mountaineer; Rainer, a vastly experienced climber and masterful route-finder. As they began their ascent at astonishing speed, a crowd of spectators and reporters formed in the resort of Kleine Scheidegg below – peering through scopes to get a glimpse of this extraordinary unfolding spectacle.
Eduard Rainer and Willy Angerer prior to their attempted 1936 ascent of the Eiger’s North Face, which can be seen in the background.
An awe-inspiring traverse
They covered 1,500 feet on that first morning, before their momentum came to a standstill as they reached a smooth slab of rock that looked different to anything they’d encountered before. It was a new route and a gamble. A gamble that involved following the ice fields at its centre, aiming for a left-hand corner of an immense overhanging rock wall feature known as the Rote Fluh which separated them from the first ice field.
Hinterstoisser was the best rock climber of the group and set about placing pegs for this perilous traverse. Working with the most miniscule of holds and straining every sinew, this remarkable athlete hugged the face and contorted his body at angles few in the world could manage as the others held him, looking on with admiration and trepidation. It was a masterly piece of climbing and he soon reached the other side. The team were euphoric – this opened a door to the rest of the mountain and surely the most difficult obstacle was now behind them. The fact that a fixed rope is now kept in place over this section – known forever afterwards as the Hinterstoisser Traverse – speaks volumes for how incredible a feat it was back in 1936. Back then, he gathered up the rope and on they went, oblivious to the fact he had unwittingly sealed their fate.
The Hinterstoisser Traverse on the Eiger North Face, from a 2007 expedition. Today a fixed line is in place across the rock face.
As they hit 3,000 feet, a new danger emerged. When the early afternoon sun strikes the edge of the face, rocks in the ice field begin to loosen and tumble down at bone-shattering speeds. The climbers were directly in the firing line. It was soon raining rocks of all shapes and sizes as they clung to the slope with ice axes, doing their best to dodge the projectiles. Then with an awful thud, the inevitable happened. Willy Angerer took a direct hit to the head – no helmets back then, only felt caps.
Dilemmas, delays and dismay
They were now halfway to the summit of the Eiger with a medical emergency to deal with. As they examined his bloodied head, there was a critical decision to be made: do we turn back, or keep going? They opted to rope themselves to a ledge for the night and reassess in the morning.
That morning brought a renewed sense of hope with Angerer showing slight signs of improvement. With onlookers in the valley below still engrossed in the drama, they made their way to a second vast and exposed ice field. Kurz and Hinterstoisser knew how vital it was to cover this ground quickly while conditions were good, but they had a badly concussed man in tow and progress was faltering. As daylight morphed into dusk, they were still traversing the frozen terrain. They set up camp for the night. By this point the buoyant mood had dissolved. In its place was exasperation and apprehension. With bad weather never far away on the Eiger, it was not somewhere you wanted to spend any longer than needed.
Another dawn brought fresh impetus and drive to get it done while the weather window was open. Hinterstoisser and Kurz surged ahead, hoping their newfound enthusiasm would rub off on the Austrians. It soon became apparent, however, that Angerer had deteriorated overnight. Once again, progress came to a halt with a palpable sense of dismay, and this time it was a game-changer. Their objective now was not summiting, but getting Angerer down to safety. This tortuous retreat was not in their script – they hadn’t planned to come back down the same way. As they descended, storm clouds began to gather in the valley – their luck was running out as the depressing prospect of a third night on the face loomed.
German climber Toni Kurz. He was just 23 in 1936, when he attempted the Eiger North Face ascent.
Treacherous conditions
The following day they reached the Hinterstoisser Traverse once again, but this time conditions had worsened. Every surface was now wet as the mountain was wreathed in cloud. Visibility was poor, the wind had picked up and the temperature was plummeting. They couldn’t go up, they couldn’t go down – the traverse was their only hope for safety. But unbeknownst to them, it would be virtually impossible to climb from this side, with no high piton placements in reach to give the necessary tension.
To compound matters, the limestone was now covered in verglas – a treacherous type of black ice that forms a near invisible glaze when moisture-laden clouds meet extremely cold rock, or temperatures around wet rock drop suddenly below freezing. It must have been a gut-wrenching moment as they approached what looked like wet rock, only to discover every square inch was as slippery as it gets. What now?
Hinterstoisser would attempt another virtuoso piece of rock climbing repeatedly for five hours until he could no longer move from exhaustion. It was impossible. As he clung on intensely – spread-eagled against the face – despair had well and truly set in. They were stranded. But with the weather closing in around them, to stay put would mean freezing to death. They had to find another way.
A gathering storm
They had little time to think before the storm hit with ferocious intensity. There was now only one option; to get roped up and descend vertically over increasingly steep terrain that would lead them to a 200-foot barrier of overhanging rock. Make it over that and they would get to a chain of ledges that would take them to the safety of a railway tunnel door. But they were descending directly into avalanche and rockfall territory as the wind speeds found another gear. Under any other circumstances it would have been unthinkable to attempt it.
But they had no choice, and so down they went laden with a barely conscious Angerer and energy reserves at rock bottom. Not long into their descent they heard a voice calling to them through what was now a blizzard. It was a railway guard coming to check if they were alright. “All’s well,” they answered, with no hint of the hardship they’d suffered. It was a matter of pride.
Buoyed by the realisation that an escape from the ogre’s trap was within shouting distance, they got to work once again, only a handful of abseils between them and the safety of the railway line. Cups of revitalising tea awaited them on their arrival – the guard had gone to put the kettle on – and their ordeal would be over.
By 2pm Hinterstoisser was unclipping from the rest and set about preparing the final abseil, 200 feet from safety. As yet another peg was hammered in, a huge avalanche hit. Angerer and Kurz were thrown off the ledge. Kurz was left hanging in the abyss while Angerer was killed; either on impact as he smashed against the face, or strangled by the entangled rope. The force of this had ensnared Rainer, pulling him up against a snap-link, slowly squeezing the life out of him as the weight of his fellow climbers below crushed his diaphragm. Hinterstoisser was blasted straight off to his death, some 2,000 feet below.
Kurz was the only survivor. He had been left hanging way out from the rock, caught between the dead and dying. By 3pm the railway guard was back at the door calling up. Now he was only met with the voice of Kurz, panic-stricken. “Help! Help! I’m the only one alive!” Within an hour a rescue party were making their way towards the railway door, despite a recent instruction from the chief mountain guide of Grindelwald that no rescue attempts were to be made in such conditions.
Impasse
After traversing the system of ledges, they managed to position themselves under Kurz, but still 150 feet away. Kurz knew he couldn’t be rescued from below. They would have to climb up through a crack where they’d left some pitons on their way up, then descend three times on the doubled rope. But with so much ice around, his rescuers thought it unclimbable. They were at an impasse, and with daylight fading fast, an awful decision had to be made. To rescue him from above in the dark would have been suicidal.
“Can you stick it for one more night, pal?” they shouted. “No! No! No!” came the reply. However their minds were made up, and they left to return in the morning, with Kurz’s heartbreaking cries hanging heavy in the air as they climbed back down – cries that would come to haunt them. And for Kurz, can you imagine a more agonising moment as he was left to contemplate another freezing night – alone – on the Eiger, hanging over a void in frigid conditions? They would surely arrive back to find a frozen corpse.
The final effort
Somehow, he did survive, swinging back and forth in his rope sling while being hit by small rocks and enduring unimaginable cold. Icicles eight inches long were now dangling from his crampons, and he’d lost a glove. And yet, Kurz still had fight left in him. But the Eiger had other ideas, with the north face now coated in even more ice. The crack that Kurz so desperately needed them to climb was impossible. If he had another rope on which to descend to them, he could be saved. Attempts to fire one up with a rocket failed. The only option left was for Kurz to climb down as far as he dare, cut away Angerer’s body and then climb up again to sever the rope above him. He would then have to untwist the frozen strands of additional rope and join them to his existing line.
Holding on with one frozen hand and using his knife as a saw with the other, he cut the rope loose and began the tortuous task of untwisting it. Working with one hand and his teeth it took him five tormenting hours. Yet, his unbelievable feat was to be undone by the cruellest twist of fate.
The body of Toni Kurz hangs suspended off the North Face of the Eiger after his superhuman but ultimately doomed attempt to save himself.
As he swung the fabricated line to his rescuers and they attached more rope it was clear another length was required, and so they tied on another. Now Kurz began making his way down, beyond exhaustion. Finally, they could see his legs dangling below the overhang – he would make it! And then...the junction knot jammed in the snap-link of Kurz’s sling. The knot was too thick. He couldn’t force it through. The guides below could hear his moans and groans as he fought with the knot – encouraging him through every excruciating minute.
Toni Kurz’s energy was now running on empty. He had given all he had, and more. The guides were pleading with him, “Try lad, try! It’ll go!” He tried one last time with his teeth before shouting clearly, “I’m finished.” His body tilted forward and his sling – now almost within touching distance – swung out. Toni Kurz was gone.
My goodness, just got word that the Blue Lagoon volcano in Iceland has erupted again and tourists are being evacuated. Look at these images of the lava making it's way across the land, consuming everything in its path. Keep in mind, this lava is about 2,000°F.
Lava has a very hypnotic effect to it, especially at night, this is not from the Iceland volcano, but you can see the hypnotic effect it has to it, the lava just draws you in and makes you stare at it.
Mountain climbing has all kinds of crazy stories of people attempting to climb mountains, this is the story of Maurice Wilson, a legendary figure in mountaineering history. He famously hatched a plan to try and cheat his way up Mt. Everest, he learned to fly and he was going to crash land a small plane high on Everest, bypassing half the climb in the process, and then try to climb the rest of the way to the summit. When it didn't work out, he snuck into Tibet disguised as a monk and took a crack at Everest anyway, solo. This was in 1934, before Everest had been climbed, and people were really trying hard to be the first person to conquer it.
A Pilot Wanted to Crash-Land on Everest and Climb It
Maurice Wilson flew illegally and then, with no experience or training, tried to solo the world's highest peak five decades before anyone succeeded
There were some bold attempts to climb Mount Everest before the first ascent in 1953, but none might be so crazy as the one by Maurice Wilson in 1934. The British soldier and aviator had never climbed before, but made a plan to learn how to fly, crash-land a plane near the top of Everest and then climb to the summit.
During WWI, Wilson was injured from gun fire but refused a pension from the military. His wounds never fully healed. After learning about George Mallory and Andrew Irvine’s failed Everest attempt in 1924, Wilson was inspired to try himself. He believed that faith and prayer would enable him to succeed. He described climbing Everest as “the job I’ve been given to do.”
No climber had ever tried to solo Everest and it wouldn’t be accomplished until 1980 by Reinhold Messner, and making a solo flight halfway around the world was only done by the best pilots at the time. Despite not knowing anything about mountaineering or flying, he bought a de Havilland DH.60 Moth, which he named Ever Wrest. His instructor told him that he’d never reach India, but Wilson said he’d make it or die trying.
He had no technical climbing training or equipment and had never climbed a mountain, but set off anyway. At the time, little was known about the dangers of climbing in the Himalayas, as reports often left out details about avalanche slopes and crevasses.
Maurice Wilson
The Flight
After surviving an accidental crash in his plane, his departure date was delayed. By this time, the Air Ministry and press had caught word about his plan. The Ministry banned him from flying, but he illegally left on May 21 and landed in Cairo. He was not allowed to fly over Persia, so landed in Bahrain, where officials there ordered him back to England. After taking off, he flew to Gwadar in western India, which was beyond the flight range of his plane, but he somehow made it anyway. He continued to Lalbalu where authorities impounded his plane.
The Walk
Wilson was denied entry into Tibet, so spent the winter in Darjeeling. While fasting, he randomly met three Sherpas: Tewang, Rinzing and Tsering. They had all worked for Hugh Ruttledge on a 1933 Everest attempt, and agreed to accompany Wilson. On the first day of spring in 1934, Wilson, Tewang, Rinzing and Tsering left disguised as Buddhist monks. They reached the Rongbuk Monastery on in mid-Aprl, after 21 days of travel. They were welcomed and given equipment left behind by Ruttledge’s expedition. Wilson stayed for two days before leaving for Everest alone.
The Climb
The Rongbuk Glacier was his the first time he’d been on ice. He found it difficult, and despite finding crampons didn’t use them. After nearly a week in bad weather, he turned around. In his diary, he wrote, “It’s the weather that’s beaten me – what damned bad luck.” He returned to the monastery snow blind, in pain and with an injured ankle. After 18 days, he left again on May 12 joined by Tewand and Rinzing. They reached camp three below the north col. In his diary, he said, “Not taking short cut to Camp V as at first intended as should have to cut my own road up the ice and that’s no good when there is already a hand rope and steps (if still there) to Camp IV.” For four days, he climbed slowly up to 6,900 metres. On May 29, he wrote, “This will be a last effort, and I feel successful.” Then on May 31, he wrote, “Off again, gorgeous day.” Days went by without a sign of him, so Tewand and Rinzing left the mountain and shared the news of his death.
Body Found
In 1935, Eric Shipton found Wilson’s body at the foot of the north col, lying on its side in the snow. Wilson’s tent had been torn apart by the wind and storms. Shipton found a pack with Wilson’s diary. Shipton and his team buried Wilson in a crevasse. It’s assumed that Wilson died of exhaustion or starvation, but it’s unknown when.
Did Wilson Summit?
In 2003, Thomas Noy proposed that Wilson could have reached the summit and died on his descent. In 1960, a Tibetan climber named Gombu said he found the remains of a tent at 8,500 metres, which shouldn’t have been there. Noy said it could have been left by Wilson. Expert Himalayan climber Chris Bonington has said, “I think you can say with absolute certainty that Wilson would have had no chance whatsoever.” And climbing historian Jochen Hemmleb and Wilson’s biographer, Peter Meier-Hüsing, suggested Gombu was mistaken about the altitude of the tent. However, it may never be known for sure just how high Wilson got.
Soviet Expedition
It has also been suggested that if there was a tent at 8,500 metres, then it might have been a relic of the rumoured Soviet expedition of 1952. The alleged expedition, apparently led by Pavel Datschnolian, was rumoured to have failed and led to the death of Datschnolian and five other climbers. Russian and Chinese authorities have denied that such an attempt took place, and no physical evidence has ever been found, nor is there any record of a person named Pavel Datschnolian.
Books
Wilson’s expedition has been covered in several books, including one in 1957 by Dennis Roberts called I’ll Climb Everest Alone, which was reprinted in paperback by Faber in 2011. It was also mentioned in Tony Astill’s Mount Everest The Reconnaissance 1935, and in Walt Unsworth’s book Everest. In 2020, Ed Caesar wrote about Wilson in The Moth and The Mountain: A True Story of Love, War and Everest.
Comments
Nanga Parbat, from a distance and up close, 26,660 feet, located in Pakistan, just a beast of a mountain, absolutely beautiful.
Reinhold Messner's brother Gunther was actually killed on Nanga Parbat when he and Reinhold climbed it back in 1970, they were attempting to descend the Diamir face when Gunther disappeared, likely swept away by an avalanche. The mountain is ridiculously intimidating, Nanga Parbat is another one of the most dangerous mountains in the world, it has a high fatality to summit ratio. The summit to fatality ratio, in the context of mountaineering, is a metric that represents the proportion of climbers who successfully reach the summit of a mountain compared to the number who die during the attempt. It essentially quantifies the risk associated with climbing a particular mountain. A higher ratio indicates a more dangerous climb. There is a sign near Nanga Parbat, sort of a last second warning to anyone who wants to climb the mountain.
Annapurna 1 is one of the most dangerous mountains in the world, Annapurna I has the highest fatality rate of all 14 death zone peaks, with a fatality to summit ratio is approximately 32%. This means that for every 100 climbers who summit, about 32 do not return, according to climbing statistics. The mountain's treacherous conditions, including avalanches, unpredictable weather, and technical climbing, contribute to this high mortality rate. While Annapurna was the first death zone peak to be summited, it remains one of the least attempted and least summited due to its high risk. The south face, in particular, is renowned for its difficulty and dangerous climbing routes.
Dhauligiri 1, Another one of the most dangerous mountains in the world.
Kangchenjunga, this is the third highest mountain in the world at 28,169 feet, very intimidating mountain, it has a very sinister appearance to it as well, it looks like it has two horns protruding from it. One of the things that draws people to mountains, makes people want to climb, is the level of dangerousness, if a mountain was easy to climb, there would be no challenge to it, no adversity to overcome.
Can't talk about mountaineering without mentioning the North Face of the Eiger. Gosh, I don't even know where to begin, it's a terrifying climb, a vertical wall of rock and ice that is 6,000 feet high, it's history is just littered with death, it has a fearsome reputation, it isn't nicknamed "The Murderous Wall" and the "Wall of Death" for nothing.
This should give you a pretty good picture of the North Face of the Eiger.
If you haven't seen the film "The Eiger Sanction" starring Clint Eastwood, I would highly recommend it. They went to Switzerland and filmed some of it at the Eiger itself, and the mountain is so damn dangerous that a member of the production crew was actually killed while filming it, he was a climber named David Knowles, he was killed by a falling rock on the second day of filming. Clint Eastwood, who directed and starred in the film, was reportedly close to the location where the rockfall occurred just moments before the accident. Eastwood considered abandoning the project after the death but ultimately decided to continue filming, partly due to encouragement from other climbers who felt Knowles would not have wanted the project abandoned. The accident happened during a sequence where Knowles was rappelling down the mountain, and a barrage of fake foam rocks was being released. An actual real large rock broke free from the North Face and struck him. The incident also resulted in injuries to Mike Hoover, who was also involved in the filming and narrowly escaped death. That's one of the things that makes the Eiger North Face so dangerous, rocks are constantly breaking off and falling down the North Face, it can happen out of the Blue, at any time, and these rocks are big, big enough kill you if they hit you in the head, big enough to knock you clean off the North Face and thousands of feet down to the end. You can see in these photos how things can turn bad in an instant on the North Face of the Eiger.
One of the most famous stories of the Eiger North Face is that of John Harlin III, his father was killed on the North Face of the Eiger in the 1966 when his rope broke. His father's death haunted him for years and he became obsessed with the Eiger and decided that he had to climb the North Face himself. Great book here, and there is also a documentary about it.
You can see in that photo above why the Eiger North Face is so dangerous, a 6,000 feet high vertical wall of rock and ice, it can throw everything at you, technical rock climbing and ice climbing, plus the threat of falling rocks and storms blowing in on the North Face, all of those factors make it a monster.
Check out this wingsuit jump out of a helicopter over the Eiger, pure insanity.
Kleine Scheidegg is a mountain pass in Switzerland, located right near the North Face of the Eiger, it's basically a little town with restaurants and such, and people actually bring telescopes to the establishments in the town and watch the climbing on the North Face of the Eiger.
Beautiful valley underneath the Eiger.
Interesting tidbit here, on this day 80 years ago, the first nuclear weapon in history was exploded near Alamogordo, NM, the Trinity Test. If you've never seen a nuclear explosion on film, it's a very humbling site, the power and destruction. Of course the creation of the nuclear weapon changed the world forever, in a very bad way, and there's no going back.
This is footage of the Trinity Test, it occured at 5:29 a.m. just before sunrise, it was still a bit dark out and the detonation of the bomb lit up the sky, the brightness could be seen for hundreds of miles, that's the power of a nuclear bomb, it's quite humbling and frightening.
This is footage of the Trinity Test where you can see the actual power of the blast. I watched the film "Oppenheimer" about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the Manhattan Project, which was the secret program that developed the bomb, and their portrayal of the test didn't do it justice.
What's really insane is, the Trinity Test bomb is a firecracker compared to the nuclear weapons we have today, the RDS-37 was the Soviet Union's first two-stage thermonuclear bomb, also known as a hydrogen bomb. It was tested on November 22, 1955, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. The bomb was air-dropped from a Tupolev Tu-16 bomber and detonated at an altitude of 1,550 meters, with a yield of 1.6 megatons.
Time for a music break, one more from Tears for Fears, man I miss the 80s.
Let's get some good mountain climbing photos on here. Some more good photos of the North Face of the Eiger in warm weather and in the Winter.
Hmm, on the above post you can see on the North Face where it says "Eigerwand station", there is actually a train station built inside the Eiger mountain, and the Windows protrude from the North Face. Passengers aboard the trains inside the mountain can actually get off the train and look out the windows and see climbers if they're near the windows. In this photo you can actually see the windows in the North Face, circled in Red, and an up close look at the windows. It's insane, you could be trying to climb the North Face and come face to face with a passenger inside the mountain staring at you.
A view from inside the train station looking out.
There's actually a door that opens on the North Face of the Eiger, known as the Stollenloch. It's not a typical door for entry or exit in the sense of a building, but rather a small wooden door that opens into the railway tunnel within the mountain. This door has been used as a rescue point for climbers in distress. The door was built for the purpose of dumping debris from the construction of the train station, but the door sure has come in handy to rescue climbers. The door was portrayed at the end of the film "The Eiger Sanction.", when Clint Eastwood gets rescued at the end of the film.
Here it is, The Eiger Sanction, this is the scene with the Stollenlach door.
I have many heroes in life, my family, the soldiers that fought and died for us, people that put their lives on the line to save others. But I also have other heroes, athletes and such, people I look up to, and climbers are my heroes. They have serious balls, like you don't even know, I admire the hell out of them. North Face of the Eiger. Toni Kurz. 1936.
Exposure: Agony on the Eiger
by Safwaan A June 24, 2025
17th June 2025
There are few accounts of mountaineering as harrowing, poignant and downright tragic as that of Toni Kurz, Anderl ‘Andreas’ Hinterstoisser, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer. The cruel fate that awaited them as they traversed the north face of the Eiger during July 1936 and the almost unimaginable hardship endured by one of the era’s brightest climbing stars, has cemented this heroic expedition into the highest echelon of climbing folklore. To read about it is to discover what it truly means to endure against all the odds – only for the toughest of spirits to be extinguished when a rescue was almost within reach. It is a heartbreaking yet deeply inspiring tale that needs to be retold.
An intimidating presence
It is apt that the English translation of Eiger is ‘Ogre’; a cruel and terrifying man-eating giant. For anyone standing at the foot of the north face’s 5,900 feet of vertical rock and ice, being terrified comes with the territory. It’s a gargantuan mass of limestone and black ice that never gets the sun, with the most precipitous of slopes prone to avalanches and rockfalls unsettled by some of the wildest storms Europe has to offer. It’s a profoundly volatile place, where conditions can change in seconds.
Some who have experienced these conditions first-hand speak of the mountain feeling like it’s alive. A dynamic – even malicious – environment where it feels like the mountain is out to get you no matter how well prepared or adept you might be. In Germany it has earned the nickname Mordwand, literally meaning ‘Murder Wall’, while the editor of Alpine Journal referred to it in 1938 as “an obsession for the mentally deranged.” Since the first ascent via the western flank in 1858, the north face of the ogre has claimed at least 64 lives.
High hopes
But when Kurz and his climbing partners set foot on the Eiger’s north face on the 18th July 1936, there was no element of derangement, only hope for a successful summit. This, despite two gifted climbers – Max Sedlmayer and Karl Mehringer – having frozen to death at the ‘Death Bivouac’ a year earlier while attempting to be the first to conquer the north face. Yet the group’s confidence was burning brightly, fuelled by the exuberance of youth and a rock-solid reassurance stemming from their collective ability, which was outstanding. They were men in their prime, hungry for anything the Eiger was going to serve up, and their place in the history books beckoned.
The German duo Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz were two of the most promising climbers of their age.
Kurz and Hinterstoisser were highly regarded mountain guides from Bavaria who had joined up with Austrians Angerer and Rainer during their preparations on the Eiger. Angerer was an immensely capable mountaineer; Rainer, a vastly experienced climber and masterful route-finder. As they began their ascent at astonishing speed, a crowd of spectators and reporters formed in the resort of Kleine Scheidegg below – peering through scopes to get a glimpse of this extraordinary unfolding spectacle.
Eduard Rainer and Willy Angerer prior to their attempted 1936 ascent of the Eiger’s North Face, which can be seen in the background.
An awe-inspiring traverse
They covered 1,500 feet on that first morning, before their momentum came to a standstill as they reached a smooth slab of rock that looked different to anything they’d encountered before. It was a new route and a gamble. A gamble that involved following the ice fields at its centre, aiming for a left-hand corner of an immense overhanging rock wall feature known as the Rote Fluh which separated them from the first ice field.
Hinterstoisser was the best rock climber of the group and set about placing pegs for this perilous traverse. Working with the most miniscule of holds and straining every sinew, this remarkable athlete hugged the face and contorted his body at angles few in the world could manage as the others held him, looking on with admiration and trepidation. It was a masterly piece of climbing and he soon reached the other side. The team were euphoric – this opened a door to the rest of the mountain and surely the most difficult obstacle was now behind them. The fact that a fixed rope is now kept in place over this section – known forever afterwards as the Hinterstoisser Traverse – speaks volumes for how incredible a feat it was back in 1936. Back then, he gathered up the rope and on they went, oblivious to the fact he had unwittingly sealed their fate.
The Hinterstoisser Traverse on the Eiger North Face, from a 2007 expedition. Today a fixed line is in place across the rock face.
As they hit 3,000 feet, a new danger emerged. When the early afternoon sun strikes the edge of the face, rocks in the ice field begin to loosen and tumble down at bone-shattering speeds. The climbers were directly in the firing line. It was soon raining rocks of all shapes and sizes as they clung to the slope with ice axes, doing their best to dodge the projectiles. Then with an awful thud, the inevitable happened. Willy Angerer took a direct hit to the head – no helmets back then, only felt caps.
Dilemmas, delays and dismay
They were now halfway to the summit of the Eiger with a medical emergency to deal with. As they examined his bloodied head, there was a critical decision to be made: do we turn back, or keep going? They opted to rope themselves to a ledge for the night and reassess in the morning.
That morning brought a renewed sense of hope with Angerer showing slight signs of improvement. With onlookers in the valley below still engrossed in the drama, they made their way to a second vast and exposed ice field. Kurz and Hinterstoisser knew how vital it was to cover this ground quickly while conditions were good, but they had a badly concussed man in tow and progress was faltering. As daylight morphed into dusk, they were still traversing the frozen terrain. They set up camp for the night. By this point the buoyant mood had dissolved. In its place was exasperation and apprehension. With bad weather never far away on the Eiger, it was not somewhere you wanted to spend any longer than needed.
Another dawn brought fresh impetus and drive to get it done while the weather window was open. Hinterstoisser and Kurz surged ahead, hoping their newfound enthusiasm would rub off on the Austrians. It soon became apparent, however, that Angerer had deteriorated overnight. Once again, progress came to a halt with a palpable sense of dismay, and this time it was a game-changer. Their objective now was not summiting, but getting Angerer down to safety. This tortuous retreat was not in their script – they hadn’t planned to come back down the same way. As they descended, storm clouds began to gather in the valley – their luck was running out as the depressing prospect of a third night on the face loomed.
German climber Toni Kurz. He was just 23 in 1936, when he attempted the Eiger North Face ascent.
Treacherous conditions
The following day they reached the Hinterstoisser Traverse once again, but this time conditions had worsened. Every surface was now wet as the mountain was wreathed in cloud. Visibility was poor, the wind had picked up and the temperature was plummeting. They couldn’t go up, they couldn’t go down – the traverse was their only hope for safety. But unbeknownst to them, it would be virtually impossible to climb from this side, with no high piton placements in reach to give the necessary tension.
To compound matters, the limestone was now covered in verglas – a treacherous type of black ice that forms a near invisible glaze when moisture-laden clouds meet extremely cold rock, or temperatures around wet rock drop suddenly below freezing. It must have been a gut-wrenching moment as they approached what looked like wet rock, only to discover every square inch was as slippery as it gets. What now?
Hinterstoisser would attempt another virtuoso piece of rock climbing repeatedly for five hours until he could no longer move from exhaustion. It was impossible. As he clung on intensely – spread-eagled against the face – despair had well and truly set in. They were stranded. But with the weather closing in around them, to stay put would mean freezing to death. They had to find another way.
A gathering storm
They had little time to think before the storm hit with ferocious intensity. There was now only one option; to get roped up and descend vertically over increasingly steep terrain that would lead them to a 200-foot barrier of overhanging rock. Make it over that and they would get to a chain of ledges that would take them to the safety of a railway tunnel door. But they were descending directly into avalanche and rockfall territory as the wind speeds found another gear. Under any other circumstances it would have been unthinkable to attempt it.
But they had no choice, and so down they went laden with a barely conscious Angerer and energy reserves at rock bottom. Not long into their descent they heard a voice calling to them through what was now a blizzard. It was a railway guard coming to check if they were alright. “All’s well,” they answered, with no hint of the hardship they’d suffered. It was a matter of pride.
Buoyed by the realisation that an escape from the ogre’s trap was within shouting distance, they got to work once again, only a handful of abseils between them and the safety of the railway line. Cups of revitalising tea awaited them on their arrival – the guard had gone to put the kettle on – and their ordeal would be over.
By 2pm Hinterstoisser was unclipping from the rest and set about preparing the final abseil, 200 feet from safety. As yet another peg was hammered in, a huge avalanche hit. Angerer and Kurz were thrown off the ledge. Kurz was left hanging in the abyss while Angerer was killed; either on impact as he smashed against the face, or strangled by the entangled rope. The force of this had ensnared Rainer, pulling him up against a snap-link, slowly squeezing the life out of him as the weight of his fellow climbers below crushed his diaphragm. Hinterstoisser was blasted straight off to his death, some 2,000 feet below.
Kurz was the only survivor. He had been left hanging way out from the rock, caught between the dead and dying. By 3pm the railway guard was back at the door calling up. Now he was only met with the voice of Kurz, panic-stricken. “Help! Help! I’m the only one alive!” Within an hour a rescue party were making their way towards the railway door, despite a recent instruction from the chief mountain guide of Grindelwald that no rescue attempts were to be made in such conditions.
Impasse
After traversing the system of ledges, they managed to position themselves under Kurz, but still 150 feet away. Kurz knew he couldn’t be rescued from below. They would have to climb up through a crack where they’d left some pitons on their way up, then descend three times on the doubled rope. But with so much ice around, his rescuers thought it unclimbable. They were at an impasse, and with daylight fading fast, an awful decision had to be made. To rescue him from above in the dark would have been suicidal.
“Can you stick it for one more night, pal?” they shouted. “No! No! No!” came the reply. However their minds were made up, and they left to return in the morning, with Kurz’s heartbreaking cries hanging heavy in the air as they climbed back down – cries that would come to haunt them. And for Kurz, can you imagine a more agonising moment as he was left to contemplate another freezing night – alone – on the Eiger, hanging over a void in frigid conditions? They would surely arrive back to find a frozen corpse.
The final effort
Somehow, he did survive, swinging back and forth in his rope sling while being hit by small rocks and enduring unimaginable cold. Icicles eight inches long were now dangling from his crampons, and he’d lost a glove. And yet, Kurz still had fight left in him. But the Eiger had other ideas, with the north face now coated in even more ice. The crack that Kurz so desperately needed them to climb was impossible. If he had another rope on which to descend to them, he could be saved. Attempts to fire one up with a rocket failed. The only option left was for Kurz to climb down as far as he dare, cut away Angerer’s body and then climb up again to sever the rope above him. He would then have to untwist the frozen strands of additional rope and join them to his existing line.
Holding on with one frozen hand and using his knife as a saw with the other, he cut the rope loose and began the tortuous task of untwisting it. Working with one hand and his teeth it took him five tormenting hours. Yet, his unbelievable feat was to be undone by the cruellest twist of fate.
The body of Toni Kurz hangs suspended off the North Face of the Eiger after his superhuman but ultimately doomed attempt to save himself.
As he swung the fabricated line to his rescuers and they attached more rope it was clear another length was required, and so they tied on another. Now Kurz began making his way down, beyond exhaustion. Finally, they could see his legs dangling below the overhang – he would make it! And then...the junction knot jammed in the snap-link of Kurz’s sling. The knot was too thick. He couldn’t force it through. The guides below could hear his moans and groans as he fought with the knot – encouraging him through every excruciating minute.
Toni Kurz’s energy was now running on empty. He had given all he had, and more. The guides were pleading with him, “Try lad, try! It’ll go!” He tried one last time with his teeth before shouting clearly, “I’m finished.” His body tilted forward and his sling – now almost within touching distance – swung out. Toni Kurz was gone.
Music time. One of the greatest songs ever.
My goodness, just got word that the Blue Lagoon volcano in Iceland has erupted again and tourists are being evacuated. Look at these images of the lava making it's way across the land, consuming everything in its path. Keep in mind, this lava is about 2,000°F.
If you were standing on the ground, this is what it would look like to see the lava coming right at you.
Lava has a very hypnotic effect to it, especially at night, this is not from the Iceland volcano, but you can see the hypnotic effect it has to it, the lava just draws you in and makes you stare at it.
Beautiful aerial shot of Nanga Parbat. My goodness, what an intimidating mountain to climb.
Mountain climbing has all kinds of crazy stories of people attempting to climb mountains, this is the story of Maurice Wilson, a legendary figure in mountaineering history. He famously hatched a plan to try and cheat his way up Mt. Everest, he learned to fly and he was going to crash land a small plane high on Everest, bypassing half the climb in the process, and then try to climb the rest of the way to the summit. When it didn't work out, he snuck into Tibet disguised as a monk and took a crack at Everest anyway, solo. This was in 1934, before Everest had been climbed, and people were really trying hard to be the first person to conquer it.
A Pilot Wanted to Crash-Land on Everest and Climb It
Maurice Wilson flew illegally and then, with no experience or training, tried to solo the world's highest peak five decades before anyone succeeded
There were some bold attempts to climb Mount Everest before the first ascent in 1953, but none might be so crazy as the one by Maurice Wilson in 1934. The British soldier and aviator had never climbed before, but made a plan to learn how to fly, crash-land a plane near the top of Everest and then climb to the summit.
During WWI, Wilson was injured from gun fire but refused a pension from the military. His wounds never fully healed. After learning about George Mallory and Andrew Irvine’s failed Everest attempt in 1924, Wilson was inspired to try himself. He believed that faith and prayer would enable him to succeed. He described climbing Everest as “the job I’ve been given to do.”
No climber had ever tried to solo Everest and it wouldn’t be accomplished until 1980 by Reinhold Messner, and making a solo flight halfway around the world was only done by the best pilots at the time. Despite not knowing anything about mountaineering or flying, he bought a de Havilland DH.60 Moth, which he named Ever Wrest. His instructor told him that he’d never reach India, but Wilson said he’d make it or die trying.
He had no technical climbing training or equipment and had never climbed a mountain, but set off anyway. At the time, little was known about the dangers of climbing in the Himalayas, as reports often left out details about avalanche slopes and crevasses.
Maurice Wilson
The Flight
After surviving an accidental crash in his plane, his departure date was delayed. By this time, the Air Ministry and press had caught word about his plan. The Ministry banned him from flying, but he illegally left on May 21 and landed in Cairo. He was not allowed to fly over Persia, so landed in Bahrain, where officials there ordered him back to England. After taking off, he flew to Gwadar in western India, which was beyond the flight range of his plane, but he somehow made it anyway. He continued to Lalbalu where authorities impounded his plane.
The Walk
Wilson was denied entry into Tibet, so spent the winter in Darjeeling. While fasting, he randomly met three Sherpas: Tewang, Rinzing and Tsering. They had all worked for Hugh Ruttledge on a 1933 Everest attempt, and agreed to accompany Wilson. On the first day of spring in 1934, Wilson, Tewang, Rinzing and Tsering left disguised as Buddhist monks. They reached the Rongbuk Monastery on in mid-Aprl, after 21 days of travel. They were welcomed and given equipment left behind by Ruttledge’s expedition. Wilson stayed for two days before leaving for Everest alone.
The Climb
The Rongbuk Glacier was his the first time he’d been on ice. He found it difficult, and despite finding crampons didn’t use them. After nearly a week in bad weather, he turned around. In his diary, he wrote, “It’s the weather that’s beaten me – what damned bad luck.” He returned to the monastery snow blind, in pain and with an injured ankle. After 18 days, he left again on May 12 joined by Tewand and Rinzing. They reached camp three below the north col. In his diary, he said, “Not taking short cut to Camp V as at first intended as should have to cut my own road up the ice and that’s no good when there is already a hand rope and steps (if still there) to Camp IV.” For four days, he climbed slowly up to 6,900 metres. On May 29, he wrote, “This will be a last effort, and I feel successful.” Then on May 31, he wrote, “Off again, gorgeous day.” Days went by without a sign of him, so Tewand and Rinzing left the mountain and shared the news of his death.
Body Found
In 1935, Eric Shipton found Wilson’s body at the foot of the north col, lying on its side in the snow. Wilson’s tent had been torn apart by the wind and storms. Shipton found a pack with Wilson’s diary. Shipton and his team buried Wilson in a crevasse. It’s assumed that Wilson died of exhaustion or starvation, but it’s unknown when.
Did Wilson Summit?
In 2003, Thomas Noy proposed that Wilson could have reached the summit and died on his descent. In 1960, a Tibetan climber named Gombu said he found the remains of a tent at 8,500 metres, which shouldn’t have been there. Noy said it could have been left by Wilson. Expert Himalayan climber Chris Bonington has said, “I think you can say with absolute certainty that Wilson would have had no chance whatsoever.” And climbing historian Jochen Hemmleb and Wilson’s biographer, Peter Meier-Hüsing, suggested Gombu was mistaken about the altitude of the tent. However, it may never be known for sure just how high Wilson got.
Soviet Expedition
It has also been suggested that if there was a tent at 8,500 metres, then it might have been a relic of the rumoured Soviet expedition of 1952. The alleged expedition, apparently led by Pavel Datschnolian, was rumoured to have failed and led to the death of Datschnolian and five other climbers. Russian and Chinese authorities have denied that such an attempt took place, and no physical evidence has ever been found, nor is there any record of a person named Pavel Datschnolian.
Books
Wilson’s expedition has been covered in several books, including one in 1957 by Dennis Roberts called I’ll Climb Everest Alone, which was reprinted in paperback by Faber in 2011. It was also mentioned in Tony Astill’s Mount Everest The Reconnaissance 1935, and in Walt Unsworth’s book Everest. In 2020, Ed Caesar wrote about Wilson in The Moth and The Mountain: A True Story of Love, War and Everest.
Great shots of the Savage Mountain, K2, from an airplane.
Great up close shots of K2 from both sides.
Love these shots of K2 at dark, you can see the tents of climbers with lights on inside.