Once again, the North Face of the Eiger has thwarted Thomas Huber, Stefan Siegrist, and Jonas Schild. The trio was attempting a new route that they had been working on for the last few years.
“We wanted to dedicate a memorial route to our deceased mountaineering friends. Maybe that’s why it’s such a headache?” Siegrist wrote.
Remembering lost friends
The German trio wishes to complete a project Huber and Siegrist began in 2019 (originally with Huber’s brother, Alex). The project aims to pay tribute to a group of like-minded climbing friends, such as Julian Zanker, David Lama, Dean Potter, Hansjorg Auer, Ueli Steck, and Jeff Lowe.
The climbers have tried the route several times, either with Alex Huber or, on recent attempts, with Jonas Schild. Yet they have always turned around because of poor conditions on the face.
Thomas Huber (left) and Stefan Siegrist bivouac on the North Face. Photo: Stefan Siegrist
Disaster on day two
Ever optimistic, the team climbed up the infamous Eigernordwand last week, determined to finish on top this time.
At first, everything looked great; the team enjoyed good weather, as shown in Schild’s video below:
But on the second day of the climb, Siegrist took a pretty bad fall while leading a pitch up an overhanging section.
“I pulled two birdpeaks [a type of piton usually used in thin cracks] from the wall. I was standing on the ladder with a low center of gravity when I fell, apparently followed by a quick backflip,” Siegrist explained. “Luckily, I only injured my ankle ligaments and joint, but with three more days of climbing the face ahead of us, we were forced to turn back…again.”
You can see Siegrist’s fall, which left him hanging upside down on the wall, in this video.
Until next year
For those thinking the climbers might have time to give the face another try, Huber has bad news. “The Eiger is probably over for the season,” he explained. “Because of global warming, the days when you could climb the central part of the Eiger in summertime, even late spring, are long gone. But the Eiger isn’t going anywhere, and the motivation for the Vision Memoriam remains.”
Thomas Huber watches the sunset on the North Face of the Eiger. Photo: Thomas Huber
