Eigernordwand 1

Thursday the clouds hung low over the mountains and valley, and, apart from a few reconnoitering walks, we did not do much. Friday I was up early to hop the 8:17 train out of Grindelwald up to Kleine Scheidegg. From there I walked up to Eigergletscher and began my crossing of the Eigernordwand, the Eiger North Face, albeit on a trail, generally on the 7,000 foot contour, above tree-line and just below the the first bands of cliffs.

Early morning prospects for a good day

The Hotel Bellvue, at Kleine Scheidegg, from which, in

the 1930s, tourists could watch attempts on the

Eigernordwand; I stopped for coffee and a look around

The Jungfraujoch--the saddle between the Monch and the

Jungfrau; on the left is the "Sphinx", the observatory/train

station...the Jungfraubahn takes you from Kleine

Scheidegg up into the Eiger, with a stop on the North Face

itself, then back through the Monch and to this station (we

did this years ago with the girls); the Jungfrau summit is on

the right

By 9:45, the Junfraujoch was clouding up; pity all the

hundreds of people who paid $100 a piece for the view

from "The Top of Europe" this morning

Swiss ingenuity: no tarn where you need one? Just build
your own!

Profile of Eigernordwand, way below the

Eigergletscher

From the Eigergletscher moraine, looking

across the Lauterbrunnen Valley--which is

so far down in the hole you can't see it;

among the cliffs are the Staubbach, the

famous waterfall, the village of Murren on

top, and, above right, in another cloud, the

Schilthorn, which I climbed Monday

A marmot on a rock just below the Eigergletscher

Off the Jungfrau, a flock of Crebain out of Dunland; no,

wait, that's New Zealand; or the Misty Mountains; or ...

Looking across the Eiger glacier to the

summit of the Monch