Climbing the north face of the Eiger has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. I kept putting it off, but enough excuses, it was time to give it a try.

I went on the expedition with my partner Michal Hlaváč, whom I met about two days before departure. We climbed three whole routes together on Matoušovec and we became firmly convinced that we would “make it” together.

On Sunday morning we set off from Děčín, in the evening we parked on a stellplatz near Interlaken. In the morning we packed our stuff and after two hours of thinking “where to park the van” we finally got on the cog railway and got off at the Eigergletscher station.

 

Eiger view from Kleine Scheiddeg

 

From there we hike under the wall, set up our tent and spend the rest of the day observing the action in the wall.

 

There are plenty of climbers, the conditions look great. The forecast promises five days of azure weather. What more could you ask for? We crawl into the sleeping bag in full light, but even so, the alarm for 23:30 seems like a good joke.

I'm actually waking up quite well. Or did I not sleep at all? We boil water, have a midnight breakfast and leave the tent at 0:30. No one's around. Great, we're first! Or so I thought. But before we throw our packs on our backs, a trio of mountain gazelles rush past us. “I hope they won't slow us down,” I say.

 

morning wall approach

 

We're still trying to catch up with them in the climb, but their headlights are disappearing far above us. These ones won't hold us back. By 3:00 a.m., we're below the Difficult crack. We climb the initial passages without belay. The conditions? Luxurious.

 

The Difficult crack, as someone already wrote, is not too hard, and even in the dark it is easy to climb.

 

We climb mostly at the same time - first one sets new or clicks the old clamps, then we take turns.

 

We speed through well-known sections like the Hinterstoisser Traverse, the first ice field, the Eisschlauch...

 

In the second ice field, dawn is breaking. Two doubles have caught up with us, so there's a bit of a traffic now. But everybody's fine, no stress, just cosmopolitan small talk.

 

below the Death bivvy

 

we make it to the Death bivvy just before 8 am

 

“We're starting to toy with the idea of making the entire ascent in one day”

Again we climb simultaneously up to the halfway point of the Ramp, where there is one harder, but really awesome pitch.

 

the Ramp

 

the Ramp

 

difficult pitch in the Ramp

 

At the end of the Ramp I get a little lost and climb about 50 meters up the wrong corner. I climb all the way back down, but luckily I find the right direction right away and start at the beginning of the Brittle Ledges.

 

That's some nice climbing on a firm rock.

 

We are in the bivouac, where we wanted to sleep, half an hour after noon, so instead of dinner we have a quick lunch and push on. The Traverse of the Gods is not so divine, a broken rock with almost no belay in a huge exposure. Amazing!

Since the end of the Spider (ice field), the quality of the rock is rapidly deteriorating. In addition, falling rocks are starting to hit us as the sun has started to hit the summit. We're pretty much wasted, but the vision of a near summit drives us on. Fatigue does its work and our brisk progress is halted by an overhanging crack that I am unable to climb over. After several attempts to climb away from the clamp I give up and descend a bit to rest. I replenish my energy with gel and chocolate. I leave my pack on the stand and somehow manage to get through the pitch without it.

 

final pitches before the ridge

 

An unpleasant wet traverse follows, then a piece of climbing behind rotten ropes. The cannonade from above is gaining in intensity, every now and then we get hit by a rock. In the climbing crevasses there is unpleasantly slippery and smoothed rock with rather poor belay. But then the snow builds up and the whole day's toil is finished with a section about 100 meters long in water ice.

 

icefield before the ridge

 

The ridge itself is a sweet reward and we reach summit by 9 pm.

 

As the night falls, we take the summit picture!

 

The guide says there are a few places to bivouac near the summit, but we didn't find any. So we continue down the ridge and still nothing. But I don't really care. The euphoria is stronger than the fatigue and I could sit on my backpack all night. But after two rappels we find a nice place to make a burrow, finally refill our liquids and rest.

 

We are woken up by a beautiful sunrise.

 

We quickly pack up and have breakfast all the way down in the restaurant on the Eigergletscher. A couple of hours later we are whizzing down the motorway towards Bodensee. And I wonder if it was all just a dream.