~ Saturday 22nd August 2020
The Eiger. The name means "Ogre" in German and it has a a fearsome reputation - the brilliant book "the White Spider" probably put more people off alpinism than any other!
Climbing the Mittellegi ridge is more technical than the Matterhorn Hornli or Italian routes. The hardest parts have fixed rope, but there's still lots of climbing on flat or slopey limestone holds needing good balance and confident footwork, and some very narrow, exposed snow ridges. It starts literally as you step off the hut terrace - the lights of Grindelwald shining over 2000m below you - and is sustained all the way to the Sudliches Eigerjoch around 8 hours later. .jpg "Looking back to the Mittellegi hut from the first part of the ridge.")
.jpg "It's not all fixed rope!")
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.jpg "The start of the long fixed rope. Hut visible way down the ridge.")
.jpg "Previous pic was middle right of this one - the fixed ropes. Grindelwald in the shade way below")
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.jpg "The upper fixed rope, with Alpiglen catching the sun 2200m below")
.jpg "Narrow snow ridge and some excellent short pitches lead to the summit arete.")
.jpg "The excellent red rrock of the South ridge - not to be underestimated - it takes as long to get down the South ridge as it does to climb the Mittelegi.")
.jpg "GREEN=Mittellegi hut approach, RED=Mittellegi ridge, YELLOW=South ridge, BLUE=Nordliches Eigerjoch to Monchsjoch")
