Norbert Joos (1960 – 2016)

Again one of the really great high altitude climbers was torn out of his life: The 55-year-old Swiss Norbert Joos fell to death on Piz Bernina in the canton Grisons. According to Swiss media reports, Joos had guided a group to the 4049-meter-high summit. On the descent the roped party of three, to which Joos belonged, fell 160 meters deep. Joos was found dead, the other two climbers, a woman and a man from Italy, survived seriously injured.

Stroke on Kangchenjunga

Joos had climbed 13 of the 14 eight-thousanders, all without bottled oxygen. Only Mount Everest was missing in his list. In 2006, after his fifth failed attempt on Everest, the Swiss said finally goodbye to the eight-thousanders. Two years earlier he had suffered a stroke during the descent from Kangchenjunga. Nevertheless, he tried Everest once more. “I just had to go there again and feel what was possible. Otherwise I would have kept Everest always in mind. Now it’s okay for me,” Joos later said in an interview. He criticized commercial climbing on the highest mountain on earth: “As a real climber you should stay well clear of Everest.”

“Only for young and crazy guys”

As the “most important thing I have achieved as a climber” Joos described the first ascent of Annapurna East Ridge with the first traverse of this eight-thousander from south to north in fall 1984, along with his Swiss compatriot Erhard Loretan (who fell to death in 2011). “Of course, we were very good climbers then, but we were also lucky,” Joos later recalled. “On the basis of my experience to date, I wouldn’t do it anymore. Only young and crazy guys can do things like this.”

Steck on top of Eiger

While I got footsore during my “Power pilgrimage for Nepal”, Ueli Steck “ran” fleet-footed through the Eiger North Face (look at the video below). “Speedy Ueli” climbed the Heckmair route – the way of the first ascender in 1938 – solo in just two hours and 22 minutes. Thus, the 39-year-old top climber from Switzerland regained the speed record in this legendary, 1800-meter-high wall that he had lost in 2011 to his compatriot Dani Arnold (2:28 hours). In 2008, Steck had climbed the wall in 2:47 hours. “I had a good track and good conditions”, Ueli said after his tour de force through the North Face adding that it was “a beautiful experience and a great day”.

Soon in less than two hours?

The new record holder remained modest. “Climbing is not a competition. There are so many other factors that count like conditions, temperature, weather”, Ueli said. “Being six minutes faster than Dani, I think, that’s nothing. That’s not a big step.” He expects that the Eiger North Face will be climbed in less than two hours very soon: “I think that’s possible under good conditions, but the athlete has to take quite a lot of risk.” That might sound as if he himself is not willing to risk so much. But you never know – until Ueli’s next coup.

Dôme de Neige (r.)

Seven climbers have lost their lives in an avalanche in the French Alps today. The incident happened on the 4015-meter-high Dôme de Neige in the Écrins massif southeast of Grenoble. The French authorities said that four Germans and three Czechs died in the avalanche. Another injured female climber from Germany was rescued. It is said that three rope teams were hit by the snow masses. According to the rescuers, the 250-meter-long avalanche was likely triggered when a snow slab separated and hurtled down the slope. Last weekend it had heavily snowed in the region. “The conditions are winter-like at the moment“, a policeman said. At least 39 people have died in snowslides this year in France, according to the National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches.

Finished! Ueli Steck

Actually, Ueli Steck doesn’t like the nickname “Swiss Machine”. But once again he confirmed his reputation. As a precisely running Swiss watch, the 38-year-old completed his project “82 Summits”– on the double: “Speedy Ueli” scaled all 82 four-thousanders of the Alps in only 61 days, 19 days faster than previously intended. He covered the distance between the mountains using muscle power only: by bike or on foot.

With changing partners

Ueli shortened the descent from the peaks by paragliding where possible. Doing this he early had to say good-bye to his original partner for the project.

On the double

The German professional climber Michi Wohlleben had to give up after one and a half weeks due to a rough landing on his backside after paragliding from the Schreckhorn in Switzerland. Ueli climbed on, sometimes alone, sometimes with climbing partners: e.g. with his wife Nicole or fellow climbers as Andreas Steindl, David Goettler or Jonathan Griffith.

Tragically incident

The project was overshadowed by a fatality. The 32-year-old Dutchman Martijn Seuren fell from the Rochefort Ridge to death, when he accompanied Ueli in the Mont Blanc massif.

And now Nuptse East?

Ueli decided to continue his project. Yesterday he completed it by standing on top of the 4,102-meter-high summit of the Barre des Écrins in France. “I am still super psyched, I could move on”, the Swiss wrote on Facebook. “Let’s see what comes next!” Originally, Ueli intended to repeat the route of Valeri Babanov and Yuri Kosholenko on the 7804-meter-high Nuptse East (in the neighborhood of Mount Everest): in a team with the American Colin Haley, in Alpine style. However, Steck had announced this before the devastating earthquake in Nepal on 25 April. Let’s hope he sticks to his plan!

Dani Arnold

The Matterhorn was his first four-thousander. Dani Arnold was 18 years old when he first scaled the prestige mountain of his home country from the Höernli Hut on the normal route in 2002. Today the 31-year-old is one of the best climbers in Switzerland. Since then, he has been „maybe eight times on top“ of the Matterhorn, Dani writes to me from Pakistan, where he is currently trying to climb first through the North Face of the seven-thousander Latok I, along with the German Huber brothers and the Austrian Mario Walder. In recent years, Arnold made headlines in particular with his speed records. Since 2011, he is holding the record on the Eiger North Face. He climbed the wall on the route of the first ascent in two hours and 28 minutes. Thus Dani was 20 minutes faster than the previous record holder Ueli Steck. This April, he also broke Steck’s speed record on the Matterhorn North Face. It took Arnold an hour and 46 minutes, spending ten minutes less on the wall than Ueli did in 2009. The Matterhorn, 150 years after the first ascent, from the perspective of a professional climber:

Dani, all over the world the Matterhorn is a symbol for Switzerland. How do you see this mountain? Or in other words, what does it mean to you?

In terms of shape, it is one of the most beautiful mountains. Climbing it, is okay, but not very special. The rock often is not solid.

150 years ago, the Matterhorn was first climbed by the roped party of the Briton Edward Whymper. How do you value their performance, taking into account the equipment from then and considering that the group climbed into the unknown?

Of course it was an impressive performance. Respect!

The first ascent ended tragically: Four climbers fell to death. Did this disaster establish the myth of the Matterhorn?

Dani on the summit of the Matterhorn after his speed record

I think so. Mostly tragedies and accidents are the reason that mountains get mythical. Actually, it’s in some way weird, that something has to happen before the public takes notice.

The Matterhorn is a commercial mountain. About 3,000 summit aspirants per year try to climb it. Does the Matterhorn share the fate of other prestige mountains like Mont Blanc or Mount Everest, attracting people who actually do not belong there due to their lack of climbing skills?

It already belongs to this category of famous mountains that attract many people simply because of its name. And thus there are many climbers who actually have no business to be there.

Not a year passes without fatalities on the Matterhorn. Does it make sense to limit the number of ascents?

No, the important thing is that mountaineering has to remain free. That means, anyone can climb where he wants. This is a huge privilege. But everyone has to bear the consequences himself.

Is climbing the Matterhorn, especially via the North Face, still a classic that should not miss in the career of a professional climber?

Everyone should have climbed the wall. However, that must be qualified. The North Face is a classic tour that many people are able to climb. But for us, (professional climbers) it is rather simple compared to current projects. Otherwise alpinism would not have developed since the first ascent of the Matterhorn North Face.

Last April, you set up a new speed record on the North Face. You climbed the wall on the route of the first ascent by Franz and Toni Schmid (1931) in a time of one hour and 46 minutes, thus being ten minutes faster than Ueli Steck. Have you reached your limit or is it possible to climb the wall even faster?

The Schmid route via the Matterhorn North Face

It is always possible to climb faster. Many things have to match. I have to be fit enough. The conditions must be okay. The psyche has to be right, and I have to be highly motivated. My climbing time was short, but actually it was strenuous too.

In 2010 and 2011, the Italian climber Hervé Barmasse opened two new routes on the Matterhorn South Face. But such first climbs are seldom. Is the Matterhorn largely exhausted? Is there next to nothing to do for climbers?

I do not believe that. The obvious lines have been climbed. But there is still a lot of room. Many think that you can experience extraordinary things only in the Himalayas. But that’s not true.

If you could make the Matterhorn a present for the 150th anniversary of its first ascent, what would it be?

I’ve never really thought about what you can give to a mountain.

P.S.: That was the last part of my little Matterhorn series.

Helmi Lerjen, mountain guide and rescuer

Even the first ascent of the Matterhorn 150 years ago ended in tragedy. Four team members died during the descent from the summit, when a rope ruptured. Since then, more than 500 climbers died on the “Horu”, as the locals call the Matterhorn – more than on any other mountain in Switzerland. Year after year there are between 2,500 and 3,000 summit attempts, also resulting in a lot of work for mountain rescuers. Helmut called “Helmi” Lerjen comes from a true mountain guide family. In the fourth generation, the Lerjens are guiding clients on mountains like the Matterhorn. Helmi, who is living with his wife and daughter in the small village of Täsch, close to Zermatt, has also been working for the Mountain Rescue Zermatt for almost 15 years. The Matterhorn, 150 years after the first ascent, from the perspective of a mountain rescuer:

Dani, all over the world the Matterhorn is a symbol for Switzerland. How do you see this mountain? Or in other words, what does it mean to you?

I have so far climbed the Matterhorn with clients 187 times. As technical director of the mountain guides of Zermatt, I am also responsible for the maintenance of the fixed ropes on the Matterhorn. Even in the 19th century, my great-great-grandfather Josef and my great-grandfather Alois guided guests on the Horu. In 1930, my grandfather Joseph Lerjen tried to first climb the North Face, but the attempt of his team failed. (One year later, the German brothers Franz and Toni Schmid were successful.) Along with his colleague Kaspar Mooser and their client Emile Blanchet, my grandfather climbed with strong determination on the North Face. They were only using wooden ice axes and crampons without front points (!). Unfortunately, they had to retreat because of rock fall and bad conditions on the wall. The rocks were covered with a thin layer of ice. They climbed for several hours. It is not known what height they reached exactly. If one of the three had slipped, it had meant the death of all. With luck, they escaped the North Face unharmed. With these stories of my forefathers I have a very personal relationship with the Matterhorn.

Even the first ascent of the Matterhorn ended with a disaster. Four climbers lost their lives. Do mountain rescuers still discuss this tragedy as an example of what can happen on the Matterhorn?

Every accident on the Matterhorn or other mountains is tragic. For us as very experienced mountain rescuers, it is best if we are able to save the lives of climbers. By contrast, it is always sad to recover dead. In this case you can actually no longer speak of rescue. It’s rather a work that we have to do.

As the technical director of the mountain guides in Zermatt, you are responsible for the fixed ropes on the Matterhorn. How secure is the normal route?

It is very difficult to find the right path on the Hörnli Ridge. The lower part is like a labyrinth. As soon as you stray from the correct route, you immediately find yourself in loose rock, which can then be really dangerous.

Every year about 80 rescue flights are made on the Matterhorn. More than 500 climbers have already died on the mountain. This makes the Matterhorn in absolute terms the most dangerous Swiss mountain. What are the most frequent causes of accidents?

Rescue flight of Air Zermatt

The Matterhorn itself is not dangerous. It is the climber who makes it dangerous, for example by losing his way in the dark, then getting into loose rock and endangering other climbers by kicking off stones. As he gets lost, he is far too long on the mountain and becomes tired quickly. Then his concentration is rapidly decreasing.

Could many accidents be avoided and if yes how?

The Hörnli Ridge is one of the most difficult normal routes on four-thousanders in the Alps. Therefore, it is advisable to hire a mountain guide.

The Matterhorn is not a hiking mountain. Are many summit aspirants simply too careless?

I don’t believe that. It’s known that the Hörnli Ridge is one of the most challenging normal routes.

Too many climbers on a route almost inevitably lead to higher risk. Stones can be kicked off, there can be traffic jams on the route. Does a limitation of Matterhorn ascents make sense?

The construction of the new Hörnli Hut (the starting point on the summit day) has reduced the number of beds from 170 to 130. The ban of camping has led to 30 people less daily. So a total of about 70 people less will be on the way on Matterhorn per day. This ensures more safety.

If you could make the Matterhorn a present for the 150th anniversary of its first ascent, what would it be?

On 14 July 2015, exactly 150 years after the first ascent of the Matterhorn, no one will climb the mountain in honor of the first ascenders. I hope with all my heart that all mountaineers stick to it and that Horu has peace and quiet on this jubilee day.

Ascent on the Matterhorn (Photo: © Christoph Frutiger)

Probably Richard Lehner would find the summit even blindfolded. The veteran mountain guide from Zermatt has reached the highest point of the Matterhorn at 4,478 meters 650 times. This is not the record but nevertheless he would deserve the title “Mr. Matterhorn”. The 76-year-old has passed on his passion for the mountains to his children. Two of his sons are mountain guides too, one is a ski instructor. Richard Lehner is one of 87 listed active mountain guides of the Alpin Center Zermatt, the local Mountain Guides Association. The Matterhorn, 150 years after the first ascent, from the perspective of a mountain guide:

Richard, all over the world the Matterhorn is a symbol for Switzerland. How do you see this mountain? Or in other words, what does it mean to you?

As a mountain guide, I have been working mainly on the Matterhorn. I have scaled the mountain 650 times. I was on top for the last time five years ago. For me, it has always been a beautiful mountain.

650 climbs – how often did you find yourself in critical situations?

Not often, and it was nothing serious.

What are the main challenges for a mountaineer who wants to climb the Matterhorn?

He must be reasonably trained and a good runner. Technical climbing skills are not that important. The main thing is to be in good shape.

Do many climbers underestimate the mountain?

Yes, many. Some of those who climb the mountain need three to four days. They pitch their tent and set off. And when the weather is changing, they cry for help. Then the rescue helicopter has to start and bring them down.

What are the problems of these climbers?

Above all, they have difficulties in finding the right track.

Every year 2500 to 3000 climbers try to scale Matterhorn. Can the mountain take so many people?

No problem.

Are there no traffic jams on the mountain?

At the most in the morning when all climbers set off. After that, it’s not that bad.

Who does control the traffic on the mountain? The mountain guides?

No need. The mountain guides are the first who start in the morning. If one is faster, he climbs in front or passes. The climbers without mountain guides have hardly a chance to keep up, because they have to do too much work on the rope.

Nevertheless, hardly a year goes by without fatal accident on the Matterhorn. Have we to swallow this bitter pill?

Summit of the Matterhorn

Previously, the equipment was much worse than today. In the past we had ten accidents per year, today we have maybe one. Now there are fixed ropes at the places where the most accidents have happened. You can hold tight to the ropes while you’re descending.

But accidents still happen. Why first and foremost?

Mainly because climbers stray from the track.

A Matterhorn ascent with a mountain guide currently costs about 1,600 Swiss francs, or about 1,500 euros. That’s a lot of money. Does the client expect in return a summit guaranty?

You cannot give any guaranty. There are people who have problems to reach the Hörnli Hut, and then say: This mountain is much too high, I won’t climb on. And sometimes you have to turn around because of changing weather.

You have worked as a mountain guide on the Matterhorn for several decades. Has the type of summit aspirant changed?

Yes, a bit. People simply do not want to train. They mean when they walk three times back and forth through Zermatt, they are ready for the Matterhorn and can hire a mountain guide. But it doesn’t work without training. The summit success cannot be forced. In the old days, climbers used to make ten other mountain trips before heading to the Matterhorn. Today, people want to make only this mountain. Hardly one of them will return again later. They climb the Matterhorn – and ready.

If you could make the Matterhorn a present for the 150th anniversary of its first ascent, what would it be?

For us as mountain guides, it would be better if the Matterhorn aspirants would be a little better prepared. Someday I had a client; the ascent with him took me four and a half hours, but the descent eight hours. His trousers were torn, and he was bleeding. There must have been something wrong. But the Matterhorn is just the distinctive mountain, and we live on it. Every guest who is visiting Zermatt wants to have a room with a view of the Matterhorn.

The normal route via the Hörnli Ridge (© Photopress/Mammut/Robert Boesch)

The clock is running. In a week from now, the countdown clock on the station square in Zermatt will jump to zero. On 14 July, exactly 150 years ago, the Matterhorn was first climbed. No other mountain in Switzerland embodies the country more than this shapely four-thousander. And that’s not just because of a famous chocolate brand that is sold around the world, the bars of which modeled like the Matterhorn. Every year, 2,500 to 3,000 climbers try to reach the 4,478-meter-high summit – most of them via the Hörnli Ridge, the normal route that was also taken by the first ascenders headed by the Englishman Edward Whymper. The Hörnli Hut at 3,260 meters, starting point of most aspirants, has been rebuilt and modernized at great expense. In time for the Matterhorn anniversary it was finished. On the day itself, the mountain should be left in peace. Therefore the Matterhorn will be closed for ascents on 14 July – in order to remember all the people who died on the mountain.

In the ninth attempt

Edward Whymper (in 1910)

More than 500 climbers have so far lost their lives on the Matterhorn – among them four of the seven first ascenders. It was the most famous mountain tragedy of the 19th century. The first ascent of the Matterhorn was the number one in the ranking of the mountain projects in the 1860s, comparable with the first ascent of Mount Everest in the 20th century. Each climber knew: The one, who was able to climb the prestige mountain first, would not only write Alpine history, but would become famous worldwide. The project evolved into a race between the Briton Edward Whymper and the Italian Jean-Antoine Carrel. First both failed eight times on the Matterhorn, in some of the attempts together.

Faster approach

Triumph …

In that week of July 1865, Carrel ascended from Italy via the Lion Ridge. By then Whymper had also taken this route. But when he heard that Carrel had already set off for his potentially decisive summit attempt, he engaged with the proposal of mountain guide Peter Taugwalder senior from Zermatt who thought that it was possible to climb via the Hörnli Ridge. Whymper, Taugwalder and his son Peter junior, the French mountain guide Michel Croz and the Britons Lord Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson and Robert Hadow were the members of the rope team. Taugwalders route via the Hörnli Ridge proved faster. At 1.40 p.m., Whymper reached the summit. When Carrel saw the roped party at the highest point, himself being about 400 meters lower, he was very disappointed and turned back.

One victim still missing

… and tragedy

On the descent of the successful rope team, the tragedy happened: Hadow slipped and pulled Douglas, Hudson and Croz with him. Quick reacting, Taugwalder senior wrapped the rope around a rock – in vain. “The rope snapped, as if it was only a piece of string, and the four young men were no longer visible. It happened so quickly as a lightning”, Taugwalder junior wrote later. The four unfortunate climbers fell down the North Face to death. Three bodies were recovered in the following days. Lord Francis has remained missing until today – and with him one end of the snapped rope. The other can be seen today in the Matterhorn Museum in Zermatt. This autumn, there will be another search for Douglas at the foot of the Matterhorn North Face.

Low blow

The three survivors – Whymper and the two Taugwalders – faced fierce criticism. Whymper later accused Taugwalder senior to have used deliberately the thinner rope between him and the others. The mountain guide career of Taugwalder ebbed away because he could not find foreign clients any more. “Whymper had no respect for the mountain guides”, the living climbing legend Reinhold Messner told the Swiss newspaper NZZ. “He didn’t even thank Taugwalder for saving his life by wrapping the rope around the rock at the moment of the fall.”

Carrel’s death on the Matterhorn

On 17 July, just three days after Whymper’s summit success, Jean-Antoine Carrel succeeded in making the second ascent of the Matterhorn via the Lion Ridge. The race for the first ascent of the mountain did not divide Whymper and Carrel. Later they went together on expedition to South America. In 1880, they made, inter alia, the first ascent of the 6267-meter-high Chimborazo in Ecuador. In 1890, Carrel’s life ended – at the Matterhorn. After a sudden fall in temperature, he succeeded in bringing his companions through the deep snow to safety, but then he died of exhaustion.

P.S. On the occasion of the Matterhorn anniversary, you can read here on my blog in the next few days three interviews. In each of them only the first and last question are identical. The Matterhorn from three perspectives: that of a mountain guide, a mountain rescuer and a professional climber. I hope I’ve made you curious.

Aiguille Verte and Petit Dru (r.)

If there really is such a thing as a “Golden Year” of climbing in the Alps, it was 1865: More than sixty important first ascents were made on the highest mountains of France, Switzerland and Austria. The most spectacular was certainly that of the Matterhorn on 14 July. But Jungfrau, Wetterhorn, Breithorn, Ortler and Piz Buin were also first climbed in 1865 – and the Aiguille Verte, today exactly 150 years ago. On 29 June 1865, just after 10 a.m., the Briton Edward Whymper, the Swiss mountain guide Christian Almer from Grindelwald and his colleague Franz Biner from Zermatt reached  the 4122-meter-high summit in the Mont Blanc range. The first ascent of the “Green Needle” was one of the most coveted alpine goals of those days.

Insider tip: From Southeast

Contemporary illustration of the first ascent

“We arrived three quarters of an hour before the time we had told them, when below, to look up”, Whymper wrote later. “Probably, at the moment no one was looking, as they had not the slightest belief that we should succeed better than our predecessors. This did not trouble us much.” The trio’s secret to success was to ascend on the southeastern slopes of the mountain, facing away Chamonix. “It is somewhat surprising that scarcely any one made a serious attempt to ascend from that direction”, Whymper was astonished.

First ascents in a row

Michel Croz, drawn by Edward Whymper

On 16 June, just about two weeks earlier, the three mountaineers, along with the French mountain guide Michel Croz from Chamonix, had already first climbed the 3962-meter-high Grand Cornier in Valais. On 24 June, this roped party reached, for the first time too, a 4184-meter-high minor summit (Pointe Whymper) of the Grandes Jorasses. The main summit (Pointe Walker), which is 24 meters higher, was first climbed three years later.

Course insults

The local guide Croz, with whom Whymper was regularly climbing, was unable to join the first ascent of the Aiguille Verte, because he had to wait for a client in Chamonix. An outcry went through the local guides, when they heard that a British mountaineer, guided by two Swiss, had managed to scale the coveted mountain. Whymper and Co. were subjected to course insults. The guides of Chamonix were questioning the summit success. One of the ringleaders was even arrested.
The dust settled, when Michel Croz made the second ascent of the Aiguille Verte on 5 July 1865, on a new challenging route, the Moine Ridge. Croz guided among others the Englishman Charles Hudson. Nine days later, both were also among the first ascenders of the Matterhorn, but did not survive the coup. More about this later.

Michi Wohlleben (l.) and Ueli Steck

They are on the way. The two top climbers Ueli Steck from Switzerland and Michi Wohlleben from Germany have now scaled the first of the 82 four-thousanders of the Alps, the 4,048-meter-high Piz Bernina in Switzerland. At 10 a.m. they reached the summit, after they had spent the night at the Tschierva Hut at 2,573 meters above sea level. Within just 80 days, the 38-year-old Ueli and the 24-year-old Michi want to climb all four-thousanders of the Alps, which are located in Switzerland, Italy and France – if possible, not on the normal but on more demanding routes.

Stop chasing records

The planned route through the Alps

The two mountaineers will have to climb on their 80-day-trip a total of 100,000 meters in altitude. They want to shorten the descent by paragliding where possible. Steck and Wohlleben will bike from mountain to mountain. It would be just a journey through the summer, Ueli said. “I want to send a message that I address also to myself”, Steck told the Swiss newspaper NZZ. “The message that chasing records is dangerous. If I continue to stay in this movie ‘Always faster, higher and further’, it will end deadly sometime. I know that.”

To Nuptse in fall

In fall 2014, Steck had narrowly escaped the avalanche on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet that had killed the German Sebastian Haag and the Italian Andrea Zambaldi. In 2013, on his solo climb through the Annapurna South Face, he almost stripped the screw, Ueli admitted. “I even accepted that I probably would not come back alive. And that’s too much “, Ueli told me a few months ago. But the Swiss top climber will not completely say good-bye to the extremes. Next fall, Steck wants to repeat the route of Valeri Babanov and Yuri Kosholenko on 7804-meter-high Nuptse East (in the neighborhood of Mount Everest): in a team with the American Colin Haley, in Alpine style. In 2003, the two Russians for the first time succeeded in reaching the summit of Nuptse East via the South Pillar. They fixed ropes up to 6,400 meters – what resulted in a heated debate about their style of climbing. The route “had been desecrated by bolts and fixed ropes”, criticized US-climber Steve House, who had reached an altitude of 7,200 meters on the same route in Alpine Style in 2002. Babanov countered: “The mountain is waiting, you just need to go there and climb it!”

Long line on the glacier

The clouds were hanging low, it was cool. Not exactly the perfect weather to tempt curious or spontaneous people to climb up to over 3,000 metre to the Koednitzkees, a glacier below the summit of Grossglockner, the highest mountain of Austria. On Saturday – as reported here – the “longest rope team of the world” should be formed there. A notary certified the number of participants of the action which in case of success should find its place in the Guinness Book of Records. Despite the bad weather 193 mountain friends roped up to a length of 600 metres. “The exercise has been successful,” said Peter Ladstätter, district head of the mountain rescue in Osttirol (Eastern Tyrol) who had organized the event.

Longer rope team on Tegelberg

It remains to be seen whether that’s enough for an entry in the Guinness Book. Afterwards the organizers were still speaking of the “longest rope team in the world”, but added “on a glacier higher than 3,000 metres”. In October 2012, about 400 employees of a Swiss outdoor company had formed an one kilometre long rope team on the ridge of (the non-glaciated, 1,881 metres high) Tegelberg in Bavaria in occasion of the company’s 150-year-anniversary. A notary was probably not present then.

Always roped up!

Meeting point Stüdlhütte

Record or not, that was not primarily the goal of the action in Osttirol. First and foremost mountain rescuers, mountain guides, the alpine police and the Centre of Alpine Excellence in Osttirol wanted to point out that climbers should always rope up before entering a glacier. In this way many falls into crevasses could end without serious consequences.

Rope up before you start!

The longest rope team of the world. That is the goal of an action on Grossglockner, which, if it works, will find its place in the Guinness Book of Records. On Saturday at 2 p.m. mountain rescuers of Osttirol (Eastern Tyrol) will rope up as many climbers as possible on the Koednitzkees, a glacier below the highest peak of Austria. A notary is commissioned by the Guinness Book of Records to count the participants. Afterwards the Austrian artist Dieter Remler will make a performance, according to the motto: “As free as an eagle, with a person’s mind”. This is just one of several actions in Osttirol during this weekend which is dedicated to safety in the mountains . I contacted Peter Ladstaetter, district head of mountain rescue in Osttirol. He has organized the action on the Koednitzkees .

Peter, what is the message of forming the longest rope team of the world?

Our key message is: It must be a standard to take a rope before you enter or cross a glacier. Unfortunately many do not know that glacial ice is always moving and therefore also crevasses are “walking”. There are many falls which only end without serious consequences – in most cases even unhurt – because the mountaineers are roped up.  A last year’s fall into a crevasse that ended with death gave us the idea to start a preventive campaign in order to raise awareness for alpine dangers. By the way, in my opinion not the mountain is dangerous, but the climber who doesn’t care about security standards.

Do you as rescuers notice that less climbers use ropes on glaciers with the consequence of avoidable accidents?

Not only mountain rescuers but all organizations with alpine competence have to take advantage of their opportunities (networks and know-how) to reach all climbers and hikers. 83 deaths year-to-date in the mountains of Tyrol (including Südtirol/South Tyrol) speak for themselves. The progress in technology and equipment in recent years allow us to go beyond our personal limits. Only if equipment, technology and knowledge harmonise, climbers can enjoy a wonderful and above all safe mountain adventure.

There are fatal accidents (as recently on the Sasso Lungo in Val Gardena), that might have ended less tragically if the climbers were not roped up. When should climbers rope up, when not?

Grossglockner, highest peak of Austria

Fatal accidents of whole rope teams are the absolute exception and usually have other reasons such as crossing a cornice or releasing a snow slab in case of fresh snow. We should not make the mistake of thinking that every accident is preventable. There will still be fatal mountain accidents, but we must do everything possible to inform climbers and hikers as well as possible and to raise awareness for alpine dangers. I am very pleased to see that an increasing number of people are attracted by nature to recharge their batteries. “People who love the mountains reflect the sunlight, those who remain in the valley, do not know their language.”

Stephan Sigrist (l.) with old equipment

Hinterstoisser Traverse, Swallows Nest, Death Bivouac. When I was a boy of ten I sat on holidays in Grindelwald using my binoculars to study the Eiger North Face. I had devoured “The White Spider”, Heinrich Harrer’s well-known book. I was so fascinated that I got up at night and looked on the route for bivouac lights. On this Wednesday 75 years ago the Eiger North Face was climbed successfully for the first time. The four pioneers of 1938 are dead. The last of the German-Austrian team who died was Harrer in 2006.

I ring Stephan Siegrist up. The 40-year-old mountaineer from Switzerland has a special relationship to the Eiger North Face. He has already climbed the wall 29 times, opened two new extremely hard routes together with his compatriot Ueli Steck – and climbed on the trails of the quartet of 1938.

Stephan, 75 years ago the Germans Anderl Heckmair and Ludwig Vörg and the two Austrians Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek climbed the Eiger North Wall for the first time. What do think about their performance?

For me it’s still one of the greatest things that have ever been made in the Alps. You have to imagine that the strain was very great. They knew that many climbers before had died in the wall. And climbing it with the material of these former days was truly heroic.

The Heckmair route (1938)

Eleven years ago you climbed the North Face together with Michal Pitelka using the equipment from 1938. Did your experiences open your eyes for the quality of the pioneer’s performance?

Of course I had already great respect for these pioneers before we started our project. But after this experience with the old equipment my respect has increased still further.

What are the main differences between old and today’s material?

For the pioneers their equipment was then certainly top material. But the 30 metres long hemp ropes could only carry 400 kilos, which for us today is dangerous to life. The shoes had rubber soles with small nails. The climbers had bad crampons, classic ice axes without prongs.  In addition the old karabiners, no helmets, just hats and caps. From A to Z it is hardly conceivable for us today to climb with this equipment.

Even today, the Eiger North Face is still often referred to by many as “murder wall”. Isn’t that a bit excessive?

Yes. Fortunately, nowadays tragic accidents hardly occur in the Eiger North Face. Today you can compare it with other major walls in the western Alps.

What are the specific risks of the wall?

If we, as right now, have high temperatures of 30 degrees, we must be alert to rock fall. The wall is long, you have to be physically fit and experienced in rock and ice climbing. Most climbers need a bivouac, where they don’t sleep well. It’s physical stress, which shouldn’t be underestimated.

Have the risks shifted in recent years due to climate change?

Even earlier, there was rock fall in the Eiger North Face. What has changed is the season to climb the wall. Today more and more climbers arrive in winter or in spring, when there is a lot of snow in the wall – as it was in July 1938. In this respect, the mountaineers have adapted to the changed circumstances.

Stephan Siegrist

On mountains like Everest or Mont Blanc you find many people who actually don’t have the necessary climbing skills. Does that also apply to the Eiger North Wall?

Fortunately not, because everybody knows the technical challenges of the wall. Normally only climbers try the North Face, who know that they have these skills.

You yourself climbed the Eiger North Face 29 times, you opened new routes and climbed them free. What does attract you again and again?

For me, the wall is still spectacular, it offers difficulties. The Eiger is a beautiful mountain and easily accessible for me. That’s why I’m happy to go to this area, especially to the North Face.

The wall is almost like a big stage. Tourists have their binoculars and camera lenses directed to it. If you climb the North Face, do you feel like living in a goldfish bowl?

Once you’re in the wall, you’re really in a different world. You hardly register the tourists, much more the surroundings. You hear the cowbells, you see the cable car (to Kleine Scheidegg) driving up and down. You don’t feel that you are being watched – although in fact it’s like that.

Heckmair and Co. took about three days for their first climbing of the Eiger North Face. Since 2011 Swiss climber Daniel Arnold is holding the record with two hours and 28 minutes. Is it the end of the road?

No, a competition like that doesn’t simply stop. But it’s not like someone starts climbing the wall in the morning and tries to break the speed record. There must be a plan, you have to be very well prepared.

Apart from these speed records, what new challenges the wall still holds?

For me personally, the north face now has so many routes that there is hardly any new, unique,  logical line that you can open. Sure there will be the one or other new variant, because the Eiger North Face is just media-effective. But real great new trips are hardly conceivable.