The is a term ''akros'', meaning "sharp" or "pointed", but more commonly to the German ''eigen'', meaning "characteristic".
The First Ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington who climbed the west flank on August 11 , 1858 .
The Jungfraubahn railway runs in a tunnel inside the Eiger, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows in the mountainside. The railway terminates at Jungfraujoch , the highest railway station in Europe, located in the Col between the Mönch and the Jungfrau .
In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger, amounting to approximately 700,000 cubic metres of rock, fell from the east face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks and it fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit. {Link without Title}
The ''Nordwand'', German for "north wall", is the spectacular north (or, more precisely, north-west) face of the Eiger (also known as the ''Eigerwand'', "Eiger wall"). It is one of the six Great North Faces Of The Alps , towering over 1,800 m (5,900 ft) above the valley in the Bernese Oberland below.
It was first climbed on ''). During the first successful ascent, the four men were caught in an avalanche as they climbed the Spider, but all had enough strength to resist being swept off the face.
Subsequently the face has been climbed many times, and today is regarded as a formidable challenge more because of the increased rockfall and diminishing ice-fields than because of its technical difficulties, which are not at the highest level of difficulty in modern alpinism. In summer the face is often unclimbable because of rockfall, and climbers are increasingly electing to climb it in winter, when the extreme cold solidifies the crumbling face.
Since 1935, over fifty climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname, ''Mordwand'', or "murder face", a play on the face's real German name ''Nordwand''.
- 1858 : First ascent by the west flank, 11 August (Charles Barrington, Christian Almer and Peter Bohren).
- 1871 : First ascent by the southwest ridge, 14 July (W. A. B. Coolidge, Meta Brevoort, Christian Bohren, Christian Almer and Ulrich Almer).
- 1890 : First ascent in winter time (Mead and Woodroffe, with guides Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi).
- 1921 : First ascent by the Mittellegi ridge, 10 September. {Fritz Amatter, Samuel Brawand, Yuko Maki and Fritz Steuri).
- 1924 : First ski ascent via the Eiger glacier.
- 1932 : First ascent via the Lauper route on the NE face.
- 1934 : First attempt on the north face by Willy Beck, Kurt Löwinger and Georg Löwinger reaching 2,900 m.
- and Max Sedlmeyer . They froze to death at 3,300 m, a place now known as "Death Bivouac".
- , Toni Kurz , Angerer and Rainer, died on the north face in severe weather conditions during a retreat from Death Bivouac.
- , Heinrich Harrer , Fritz Kasparek and Ludwig Vorg (three days).
- and Louis Lachenal .
- 1950 : First one-day ascent of north face by Leo Forstenlechner and Erich Wascak, in 18 hours. {Link without Title}
- and Stefano Longhi run into extreme difficulties above the second ice field. Corti becomes the first man rescued from the face from above, when German guide Alfred Hellepart is lowered from the summit on a steel cable. The injured Longhi is not so lucky, and dies of exposure before he can be rescued. Franz Mayer and Gunther Nothdurft, two highly skilled German climbers, are also killed after leaving the stranded Italians in an attempt to get help for the them, ironically, they died in an Avalanche on the west face of the mountain after completing the Thirteenth ascent of the north face.
- 1961 : First winter ascent of the north face by Toni Kinshofer, Anderl Mannhardt, Walter Almberger and Toni Hiebeler.
- , Pierlorenzo Acquistapace, Gildo Airoldi, Andrea Mellano, Romano Perego, and Franco Solina.
- and Ian Clough .
- 1963 : August 2-3: First solo ascent of the north face by Michel Darbellay, in around 18 hours of climbing.
- 1963 : August 15: Two Spanish climbers die in a storm, Ernesto Navarro and Alberto Rabadá.
- 1963 : December 27-31: Three Swiss guides complete the first descent of the North Face, retrieving the bodies of Ernesto Navarro and Alberto Rabadá from the White Spider.
- 1964 : German Daisy Voog becomes the first woman to summit via the north face.
- falls to his death while making an ascent of the north face by the ''direttissima'', or "most direct" route. His colleagues (Haston, Lehne, Votteler and Hupfauer) push on to achieve the first ''direttissima'' ascent, which is named the "John Harlin route" in his honor.
- , Zyzak.
- 1970 : First ski descent, on the west flank, by Sylvain Saudan.
- 1971 : Peter Siegert and Martin Biock are winched from above the Death Bivouac to a helicopter, the first such successful rescue.
- and Peter Habeler climb the north face in 10 hours.
- 1981 : First British Solo ascent by Eric Jones - Filmed by Leo Dickinson and released as "Eiger Solo"
- 1981 : 25 August: Swiss guide Ueli Bühler solos the face in 8 hours and 30 minutes.
- 1983 : 27 July: Austrian Thomas Bubendorfer solos the face without a rope in 4 hours and 50 minutes, almost halving Bühler's time.
- 2003 : 24 March: Italian Christoph Hainz breaks Bubendorfer's record by ten minutes, climbing the face in 4 hours and 40 minutes.
- 2006 : 15 July: Approximately 20 million cubic feet (700,000 cubic metres) of rock from the east side collapses. No injuries or damage are reported. {Link without Title}
- 2006 : 14 June: François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut1kGmOhzWQ
- 2007 : 21 February: Swiss alpinist Ueli Steck breaks Hainz's record, soloing the north face in 3 hours and 54 minutes. {Link without Title}
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