Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet

Epic on the Eiger

The Eiger, one of the most feared mountains on Earth; its reputation goes before it. Many have died on it’s unforgiving North face but the difficulties of climbing the Eiger is not just in the technicalities of the climbing, but in it’s momentous scale, the rock fall and unpredictability of weather.

Sorting out gear in Grindelwald before making the EPIC walk up the hill! (Finalcrux Fims)

The Eiger lies just on the tip of the Swiss Alps making it the sentry point for all bad weather and serious mountain storms to gather. It’s difficult to get the Eiger in good condition, most of the time there is a permanent cloud surrounding it; when it’s a sunny 30 degrees in the neighboring town of Grindelwald, it can be a life threatening thunderstorm on the north face!

There are many climbers in history who have made their names on the Eiger with epic ascents of it’s faces, ridges and slopes. In our generation, it’s guys like Ueli Steck, Robert Jasper and Roger Schali who are pushing the boundaries of what is being done up there.

Roger Schali (Left), Robert Jasper (Right)

The Eiger and Me

We woke up in the stollenloch (an opening to the train tunnel within the mountain). Our legs ached from the endless hours of persistent walking we did the previous day. It was our second night in pitch-black darkness; inside the mountain nothing gets through! The pressure from outside battered the window of the Stollenloch – I’m amazed it’s survived so long!

The Stollenloch - Climbers have died inside and out of this door (Finalcrux Films)

It’s bloody cold in the morning, my muscles were rigid but I was eager to climb. I crawled through the window and the pressure pushed me back – it’s an ice cold burst of air, but once through the wind stops. I looked up and saw the immense walls of the Rote Fluh (the right hand overhanging walls of the North Face). There was dampness all over it; I could see the walls disintegrating like a giant wet sandcastle. How does anybody climb this? The conditions weren’t in our favour; we would have to wait…

It was a constant waking dream, I didn’t sleep that night… excitement had me! I wanted to be on the face but was dreading that it would still be soaked!

We began climbing at 06:30am…

Leading the first two pitches in the wet was harrowing; long slabs of grey limestone, a few bolts and not much for your hands or feet. 

7b/7c+ Pitch - Grades don't mean anything on this wall (Finalcrux Films)

Around 80m of climbing on wet slippery limestone, a small waterfall and a choss-filled crack and I was standing at the start of the main overhang. The wall above me was huge! Hundreds of feet of steep blank face lay before me; but at least it was dry…

I continued on the lead… I was slowly gaining height as each pitch was freed and I was confident that this was going to be a successful ascent within the next day. Before long we reached the first ledge and were staring up at the hardest pitch… I was so excited as I knew that when I was through this pitch, we would only have a few more before stopping and setting up camp on the large halfway ledge.

Exposure is what you get on this wall! (Finalcrux Films)

The crux pitch was on a steep orange bulge of beautiful limestone and looked absolutely brilliant to climb on. Moving on this pitch was challenging, the holds were small and sharp and there was some serious exposure, but I managed to get to the belay and rejoiced that it was possible! Above me I heard abseiling and Frank Ketschmann (Photographer) peered his head over…

“Your on the wrong route Robbie… this is Robert (Jasper) and Roger’s (Schaeli) crux pitch of their new route!”

I was devastated… I’d have to abseil down and climb another hard pitch as I was now on the wrong route. My forearms were cramping with every tense of my muscles, the blood in my head was thumping across my temple, this was getting close to my physical maximum for the day.

I began climbing again, this time on the true line of “Paciencia”, but I was too far gone. My fingers were uncurling on every hold, my forearms were involuntarily causing my wrist to curl over and I was blacking out in concentration! I had to get off the wall…

It’s Over…

Another long night in the Stollenloch, I had drifted in and out of a decision to head back up there the next morning, but this was going to be my third night on the North Face and my body was not enjoying it. The weather was due to make a serious change but we didn’t know when… Word amongst the climbers on the face was that we had until tomorrow evening to get to the bivy before a thunderstorm might hit the wall.

I love figuring out the sequences on these blank faces... (Finalcrux Films)

9am the next morning, I feel like a smashed up china vase that someone has glued back together… I’m still in one piece, but definitely broken!

We decide to go for the ascent…

Willis and I make the grueling journey back up the face passing each of the long hard sections of wall we made on the previous day. It feels like ages but it's really only hours ago the previous night that we'd been up here before! Back at the crux belay I feel better than I did the day before but I’m still tired. I sucked it up and began to climb…

Each section rolls by like a dream, my forearms are cramping, my hands are sweating and I can feel the pressure of the unknown weighing in… I have never been this high on the pitch! I see a blank section of rock, reaching for invisible holds I feel something like an edge but it crumbles to dust in my fingertips! Nothing but air and miles of rocky face below me, I dig deeper and reach higher, the forearm cramps up but for some reason it feels stronger… my fingers roll over a solid edge and I pull up – thank god! I mantled over a crumbly shelf, the rock disintegrating as I whaled my body over the top. When I stood up my head hit a roof (ouch) and I notice a bit of old rope hanging between two very comforting bolts!!! I had done it!

Life long friendships are forged in the pursuit of Adventure

I shouted to Willis that I’m safe and he screamed with excitement; we were on a roll now, we’re going to the top! He followed me up by climbing the rope using ascenders and we took a quick look at the next pitch. There was a drip from above, it hit me on the head but I knew it was just from up high on the wall. As I began to climb the drip got kind of worse… Was it just me or did it feel like it was coming from different directions now? I placed a couple of good cams and found an old rusty peg about 5metres in; the drips got even heavier… Willis still at the belay was getting wet now; this was not just seepage anymore, it was rain!

I returned to the belay but by then it wasn’t just rain, the water was cascading down the wall on top of us! We were in the middle of a waterfall and had to escape before it brought down more than just water on our heads!

Then we heard a terrible sound… a crashing thunderous sound that nobody likes to hear when they’re trying to escape a collapsing mountain! The wall to our left was crumbling apart under the tremendous weight of the cascading waterfalls; a piece of rock the size of a car flew down the wall and shattered across the shelf below… Willis and I looked at each other in what I can only describe as a “lets get the hell out of here” kind of way.

I was worried I wasn't skinny enough to squeeze through this... (Finalcrux Films)

Willis trying to squirm through the crack on second with a rucksack on!!! (Finalcrux Films)

Willis abbed down into nothing - Using momentum, he bounced back and forward from the wall to somehow reach a ledge 40m below us. I was soaked to the bone but thankfully my tight mid-layer and base layers were acting like a neoprene scuba suit and holding the water tight against my body allowing it to stay fairly warm. Needless to say, we had to keep moving and we had to escape!

I donned my soggy gloves and zipped down each abseil point as fast as I could. The water from above was easing off slightly but there was still rock fall all around us. The rope was speeding through the belay device, I could hear the hissing from the water evaporating of the soaked rope as it created friction on the metal.

It’s interesting how fear can grasp a hold of you in some odd situations; and yet moments like these when you expect fear to be at its pinnacle… I felt nothing… I was completely at ease, actually enjoying the environment around me, the chaos of the crumbling mountain! I was cold and wet and my life balanced on the edge of Fate’s dagger; but I couldn’t have been happier than if I was sitting on the bivy heading for the top of the wall!

View from the North Face... (Finalcrux Films)

When you love what you do and you try your hardest, it doesn’t really matter that you might fail. Of course it’s always a bit of a disappointment when you do, but at least you are out there doing what you love! Willis and I gave our all to this route; we never gave up until the consequences really were at their most dire and I am proud of what we achieved up there. Maybe there was not an ascent to write about yet, but we pushed harder and further than we ever had before.

The climb is called “Paciencia” which literally translates as “Patience” – this makes a lot of sense to me now… The climbing is not the hard bit, it’s the situation of getting caught out up there in a storm, the possibility of not being able to get off the mountain… that is the real fear!

You need patience to wait for the right conditions and the right moment to make your move.