Tim Neill Guiding

Eiger and Monch from Kliene Schiedegg

Last Tuesday morning I flew to Switzerland with good pal Lee Roberts to try and climb the classic ’38 route on the Eiger. We had a reasonably efficient day leaving us to Bivi near the foot of the face by dusk. At about dawn next morning (7am in November) we were on our way up the face. It’s pretty rambling to start but then the Difficult Crack is reached and it soon starts to flow from one iconic section to the next.

By late afternoon we were at the Brittle Ledges feeling a bit tired from the altitude and by 5 it was pitch dark again. 14 hrs of boredom later we were on our way up our breakfast pitch of the Brittle Crack, along the Traverse of the Gods and into the White Spider.

By midday we hit a lovely sunny summit….for November the warmth was pretty unusual, but in the shade it had been perfect. The notoriously awkward descent was a simple 90 minutes back to the train station for a beer. We were lucky it all went so smooth.

For me this was my last of the 6 classic North Faces of the Alps and a climb that I’d only thought about seriously quite recently.

It’s everything it’s hyped up to be. It’s a long way too with short November days……

Thanks to Lee for being such a great fun alpine partner….

We were home in Wales for work the next day!

Here are some pics of most of the iconic pitches in order…..

Difficult Crack…the first hurdle

Arriving at the start of the Hinterstoiser Traverse

Leaving 2nd ice field….Death Bivi on the skyline

Waterfall chimney pitch in the Ramp

Ice Bulge

Arriving at our Bivi spot on the Brittle Ledges

First thing next morning at top of the Brittle Crack

Traverse of the Gods

Quartz Crack above the White Spider

Exit Chimney

Summit view of all of the Alps

Down the winter line south of the West Flank to the Eigergletcher station