Eiger - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• The 1972 novel The Eiger Sanction is an action/thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker (writing under the pseudonym Trevanian), based around the climbing of the Eiger. This was then made into a 1975 film starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy. The Eiger Sanction film crew included very experienced mountaineers (e.g. John Cleare, Dougal Haston, and Hamish MacInnes, see Summit, 52, Spring 2010) as consultants, to ensure accuracy in the climbing footage, equipment and techniques.
• The 1982 book Eiger, Wall of Death by Arthur Roth is a historical account of first ascents of the north face.
• Eiger Dreams, a collection of essays by Jon Krakauer, begins with an account of Krakauer's own attempt to climb the north face.
• The track Eiger Nordwand in the games Gran Turismo HD Concept, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Gran Turismo 5 is set in Kleine Scheidegg, which is actually a car-free zone. Although motor racing was illegal in Switzerland for over 50 years, the ban was lifted in 2007.
• The IMAX film The Alps features John Harlin III's climb up the north face in September 2005. Harlin's father, John Harlin II, set out 40 years earlier to attempt a direct route (the direttissima) up the 6,000-foot (1,800 m) face, the so-called "John Harlin route". At 1300 m, his rope broke, and he fell to his death. James Swearingen created a piece named Eiger: Journey to the Summit in memory of him.
• The 2007 docu/drama film The Beckoning Silence features mountaineer Joe Simpson, of Touching the Void fame, recounting—with filmed reconstructions—the ill-fated 1936 expedition up the north face of the Eiger and how Heinrich Harrer's book The White Spider inspired him to take up climbing. The film followed Simpson's 2003 book of the same name. Those playing the parts of the original climbing team were Swiss mountain guides Roger Schäli (Toni Kurz), Simon Anthamatten (Andreas Hinterstoisser), Dres Abegglen (Willy Angerer) and Cyrille Berthod (Edi Rainer).
• The 2008 German historical fiction film Nordwand is based on the 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face. The film is about the two German climbers, Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, involved in a competition with an Austrian duo to be the first to scale the north face of Eiger.