The White Spider

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The White Spider (1959 with chapters added in 1964) by Heinrich Harrer describes mountain climbing attempts of the "Eiger Nordwand" (Eiger North Face), including the first successful ascent.

The White Spider tells the story of the first ascents (and attempts) of the Nordwand, from Max Sedlmeyer's and Karl Mehringer's disastrous try in 1935 to the 13th successful one in July 1958.

Heinrich Harrer received many personal letters and reports from befriended climbers, which he sifted through with climber and author Kurt Maix in order to distill the contents of The White Spider. In particular detail, Harrer describes the tragedy of 1936 (Edi Rainer, Willy Angerer, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz all die), Harrer's own climb, the strenuous climb of Hermann Buhl, Gaston Rébuffat and their seven partners (1952), and the catastrophe of 1957, when the two ill-prepared, but single-minded Stefano Longhi and Claudio Corti join the athletic Germans Günther Nothdurft and Franz Mayer – which results in eight bivouac nights for the Italians and the death of all but Corti.

In the accounts, Heinrich Harrer describes the media frenzy which ensued after all tragedies – the whole of the Nordwand can be inspected from the Kleine Scheidegg using telescopes, provided there is no fog – and the motivation behind climbing and alpinism in itself.

The title of the book is derived from a spider-shaped ice field high on the north face of the mountain, towering above the town of Grindelwald, Switzerland. As Harrer explains, the Spider is a key point in climbing the Nordwand: Reaching that ice field, one is very tired, but cannot rest and must proceed. The White Spider acts much like a funnel – any rock- and ice slides are channelled over the ice field which the climbers must pass.