Subdued Ogre

To those with no head for heights, all mountain climbers are crazy; but climbers divide themselves into two schools : sportsmen who try to reach their objective with a minimum of risk, and danger-loving fatalists who want to do it the hard way.

Among the latter group, Germans are outstanding. In the past decade they have succeeded in scaling seemingly impregnable peaks all over the world. That the Alpine Eigerwand (wall of the ogre) resisted their perennial attacks piqued German mountaineers. One morning last fortnight a pair of Austrians named Harrer & Kastarek, equipped with provisions for five days, left the base of Mt. Eiger, began to assail the ogre that had swallowed nine daredevils since the summer of 1935. Next morning two Bavarians, Voerg & Heckmaier, followed the first pair.

Mt. Eiger, a 13,042-ft. peak in the Jungfrau range, was first scaled in 1858, has been climbed many times since. But until three years ago, the Eiger had never been tackled via its north wall--a terrifying, ice-coated precipice over a mile high. Then two glory-greedy Germans decided to attempt it. They never returned. Nor did seven others who tried.

Swiss guides agreed that the 1938 invaders had no better chance than their predecessors. From the hotel terrace at Kleine Scheidegg, a mile below, curious tourists and anxious natives watched the climbers through telescopes. For three days they watched them, inching their way like tiny black spiders up a white web. The third evening, the quartet that had started out as two competing teams joined ropes, stood lashed to the rock, 500 ft. from the top, waiting for dawn and the crawl to victory.

Next day the natives shuddered. Mt. Eiger was enveloped in a swirling froth of snow. In spite of the fact that Swiss authorities had warned that local guides could no longer be asked to risk their lives trying to rescue Eigerwand climbers, two natives clambered to the summit over the usual route, peered down the overhanging wall when the storm let up for a moment, saw no one, returned to the valley. The following morning, as spectators ran to the telescopes for a morbid view of frozen corpses, the quartet calmly walked into Kleine Scheidegg. They had conquered the Eigerwand during the blinding snowstorm, reached their goal at twilight the evening before.

Less fortunate were a trio of Italian alpinists who were killed last week when a shower of rocks released by a lightning bolt swept them, off a &650-ft. cliff on the south wall of Mt. Marmolata in the Dolomites.

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