The White Spider

So any way, we headed on down through Germany to Interlaken.  A city which seemed full of Chinese tourists buying watches, sold by Chinese sales people.  Strange.  It is also the gateway to the Jungfrau a 4,158 m peak that is viewed from the highest railway station in Europe. Which you reach by getting on a 7.5 km railway that goes inside mountains and everything. Its also £165 ish each.  We watched the web cam in the window of the ticket seller, saved £330 and didn't freeze our bits off. Result. But we did go to Grindlewald and thus the Eiger.

The attempts on the North Face of the Eiger are renowned and I have read most of the published accounts of them. All of them have captured my imagination.

Now I know most climbing books are generally detailing horrendous weather, lost comrades and heroic endeavour, probably because "It was sunny, we did the climb in two days and went to the pub" isn't riveting but the names of some of the spots and moves on the Eiger such as Traverse of the Gods, Death Bivouac and the Hinterstoisser Traverse are legendary.   The 65 deaths since 1935, although a lot less in recent decades, add a darker cloud to its history.

We got on the train at Interlaken and wove up the snowy valley towards Grindleward.  I was a cross between an expectant father walking towards the maternity unit and a kid on Christmas eve! I had seen so many pictures and had traced the routes of the climbers up so many photographs, I was a little embarrassed not to recognise it when we reached Grindlewald, because it was SO big and shrouded in cloud. On closer inspection, with the binoculars, my overriding emotion was "@#*$ that!!!  It  is cold and overpoweringly huge.  With giant ice fields, that I could see being whipped by the wind.  A multitude of weathered rock faces, and an eerie silence.  We bought a postcard detailing the routes and tried to match them to the rock face in front of us, but with most of the mountain in cloud, it was difficult.  So I stood on the platform and stared at it. Truly awesome.  

Switzerland led to Italy and Lake Garda where we now sit.