Eiger — mountain
Image by Atarythm from Pixabay

Eiger

  • Elevation3,967 m
  • 2 min read
  • 46.578° N 8.005° E

Interesting facts

  • The name first appears as mons Egere in a property deed of 1252, and its origin is still disputed, from a farmer's name to a word for sharp.
  • In 1936 Toni Kurz survived an avalanche that killed his three companions, then froze to death on the rope just metres from his would-be rescuers.
  • The Mittellegi ridge was first climbed in September 1921 by the Japanese alpinist Yuko Maki with Swiss guides, after a 13-hour push.
  • Lucy Walker became the first woman to climb the Eiger in July 1864, accompanied by six guides including Christian Almer.
  • In 1966 the American John Harlin fell to his death when his rope snapped during an attempt on a direct line up the north face.
  • In 2006 about 700,000 cubic metres of rock broke away from the east side of the mountain without injuring anyone.
  • A gallery from the railway's Eigerwand station opens onto the north face itself and has been used to pull stranded climbers to safety.
  • Clint Eastwood's 1975 thriller The Eiger Sanction was filmed on the mountain, with experienced alpinists advising on the climbing scenes.
  • The first winter ascent of the Eiger came in 1890, when guides Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi led two British climbers to the summit.

Why it is worth it

The Eiger is only 3,967 m high, lower than its neighbours the Mönch and the Jungfrau, but its north face is the most storied wall in the Alps. Rising almost 1,800 m of dark limestone and ice straight above the meadows of Grindelwald and Kleine Scheidegg, it is the largest north face in the Alps and one of the classic "trilogy" of Alpine north faces with the Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses. The mountain itself was first climbed on 11 August 1858 by the Irishman Charles Barrington with the Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren, by the west flank.

The north face, the Nordwand, was a different story. Attempts in the 1930s ended in deaths watched through the telescopes of the hotels at Kleine Scheidegg, and the Bernese authorities at one point banned attempts altogether. On 24 July 1938 Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek finally reached the summit, surviving an avalanche on the ice field known as the White Spider; Harrer's book of that name made the face famous worldwide. At least 64 climbers have died on it since 1935, which gave it the grim nickname Mordwand, "murder wall".

Non-climbers can get astonishingly close. The Eiger Trail runs along the foot of the face between the Eigergletscher and Alpiglen stations, and the Jungfrau Railway tunnels through the mountain itself: at the Eismeer station windows cut in the rock look out over the glaciers on the south side, while the Eigerwand station behind the north face has not been served regularly since 2016. The whole Eiger–Mönch–Jungfrau wall, with the glaciers behind it, belongs to the Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site.

Getting there

The Eiger rises above Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland; Thun is the nearest larger town, about 35 km away, and Bern Airport (BRN) is about 54 km away. From Interlaken, trains run to Grindelwald and, via Lauterbrunnen and Wengen, to Kleine Scheidegg; since 2020 an aerial tramway also links Grindelwald with Eigergletscher, the starting point of the Eiger Trail.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Bern 13The Most Beautiful Places in Switzerland 44The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders in Switzerland 7The Most Beautiful Mountains 91The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders 580

From the encyclopaedia

The Eiger is a 3,967-metre (13,015 ft) mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m (13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its nearly 1,800-metre-high (5,900 ft) north face of rock and ice, the biggest north face in the Alps. This substantial face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the eponymous pass connecting the two valleys.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

46.57761, 8.00529per Wikidata