Mittellegi Ridge on the Eiger
Rob & Al on the summit of the Eiger, July 1995
An ascent of the Mittellegi Ridge on the Eiger in our first alpine season...
Eigerwandering….
July 1995, a car park in Grindlewald, Swiss Alps….
An awesome firework display boomed overhead. Al and I settled down for the night in our concrete gutter behind the multi-storey car park. It was Swiss Independence Day and Grindlewald had gone all out to impress the hordes of millionaire Japanese tourists. They seemed less concerned for the plight of two scruffy British Student mountaineers which, as it happened, didn’t matter. Our thoughts were elsewhere; involved in apprehensive excitement about tomorrow’s route, the famous Mittellegi Ridge on the Eiger.
It was our first Alpine season. Al’s first alpine climb infact and the first time I’d climbed with him. Of course it hadn’t meant to be like that. I’d arrived with a host of good intentions; building up to the Eiger with easier routes on the Jungfrau and Monch but my planning had neglected one major factor. Whilst the weather was perfect our economic climate was terrible and the £80 return train journey up the Jungfraujoch hardly suited our student grant approach to Alpinism.
Big sacks, plastic boots, hot sun and a long steep hill to walk up are not (we found out) conducive to a leisurely hut approach. We were only kept going on the slogg up to Kleine Scheidegg by keen anticipation and increasingly good views of both our route and the notorious Eiger Nordwand. Regular encounters with troughs of icy water (meant for cows) and reminders from the occassional passing trains, stuffed with waving tourists, how much money we were saving also helped to keep spirits high.
Having ‘bit the bullet’ and forked out nearly £20 to enjoy the cosy trundle up through the inky tunnel probing into the heart of the Eiger, we were rudely confronted with the abrupt starkness of the Eismeer station. A bleak room to gear up in provided the opportunity to explain to Al the principles of Glacier movement. This did not take long due to me not knowing much about it either. This done we found ourselves alone with other parties visible only as coloured dots negotiating the rather large looking crevasses.
The immediate problem facing us was quite a fundamental one, how to get down on to the glacier 40m below. The somewhat dubious answer manifested itself as a bit of faded, old abseil tat tied to the station window frame. I duly abbed down, landing next to a small plank crossing the bergschrund and leading to a small door with stairs which I followed back to an unoticed door in our gearing up room ! Al, in good spirit, insisted on abbing down also, attempted to retrieve the ropes and when they duly jammed I simply untied and dropped them and walked back to the Glacier via the stairs and plank. If only releasing stuck abseil ropes was always this easy!
The location of the Mittelegi Hut is stunning. Straddling the narrow ridge it commands impressive views down to Grindlewald, across to the Monch and Jungfrau and above to the snow plastered slopes of the Eigerwand. Our route also looked enticingly challenging as we settled down to cook a huge meal. This was much to the amusement of our fellow Swiss and French climbers who suggested only Brits would climb this route carrying stoves, pans, cutlery etc. We did feel rather cumbersome with our 60-80 rucksacks compared to their dinky daysacks.
When asked, by the lovely young Swiss Gaurdian of the Hut, to pay a tax for using the fixed ropes on the route we replied we would not be using the fixed ropes therefore did not need to pay the tax. She replied in charmingly softly spoken perfect English that we would be using the fixed ropes and therefore did need to pay the tax. She was right !
Leaving the hut at a leisurely 5.30am in the chill of a perfect ‘Alpen’ morning Al and I moved together, quite swiftly at first. We paused below what would be the first awkward step. I huffed and puffed my way up and smothered a dodgy sling around a bulge and called down to Al to follow cautiously as there was little gear around. On joining me Al immediately pointed just below my bulge to an aptly positioned shiny bolt ! Admitting I hadn’t seen it would have hardly inspired confidence (I was the relative alpine veteran having completed the 3 day BMC Johnathan Conville training course and flogged up Mont Blanc the week before) so the ethical high ground was taken instead. ‘’Brits on the Eiger don’t use bolts !’’ (Fixed ropes, as pointed out by the Gaurdian, seemed to be ok though….)
As the Mittellegi Ridge steepens it remains loose, generally hard to protect and often tremendously exposed. Many sections have fixed ropes and to avoid using these would be positively saintly and provide some hard free climbing. Anyhow we found the strenuous nature of hauling oneself up steep slabs, often in magnificent positions rather satisfying and had just about perfected the technique when we reached the flattish top section. This marks the final passage to the summit and provides a real climax to the route.
Traversing the knife edged snow arete was pure joy. The tension heightened considerably by a running debate regarding the procedure for jumping off the opposing side if the other slipped. Al became particularly obsessed with this notion to the extent that even if we had taken the rope off and I’d fallen I think he would still have hurled himself down the opposing face !
The summit of the Eiger has everything a mountain top should have and provided just rewards for our efforts. A stunning panorama, (particularly looking South to the Mont Blanc massif) two steep faces ; north plastered in snow ; south warm bare rock and bisected by delicate crests coming together to express a summit and an achievement. Our summit fever was heightened by a trio of Swiss climbers celebrating their tenth ascent. They insisted on stuffing us full of smoked salmon and caviar thereby reinforcing a notion I’d been considering in the Alps already....We lived like kings in the mountains and tramps in the valleys.
Descending the South West flank of the mountain is memorable only in it’s awfulness. Events merge in to a six hour blur of dodging flying rocks, freeing jammed abseil ropes and generally wanting to be ‘off this mountain right now thankyou very much’. The Alpine Club guidebooks description of it being like ‘descending a church roof with loose slates’ seemed particularly appropriate !
The final insult was being foiled in a surreptitious attempt to hop on the back of a Grindlwald bound train. It didn’t matter, the walk down, with the mountain right behind us, rolled by and soon we were back ‘home’ and preparing for a welcome bivi back in our car-park. Our fleeting moment of glory was comically cut short by some inquisitive American tourists. When asked if we had climbed the Eiger we proudly replied in unison that we had. Their response ‘by the North Face’ deflated our sails slightly and even more when we replied in the negative and received the response,
‘Oh, I guess you just did the tourist route then !’
What a cheek we thought. Alpine tramps maybe but certainly not bloody tourists !
Rob Jarvis, University of Stirling, November 1995
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