This book is an excellent read for "armchair climbers" and true believers alike.
|
|
Allowing for he odd translation nuance, Harrer writes extremely well and has clearly carefully researched the story of the face and the attempts to climb it - not just his team's first successful attempt and then tells the story as it was. Self-efacing, when he could have been superior given the achievement, Harrer weaves a spellbinding tale capturing the beauty and majesty, the trials and woes of what is the best face in the world. I really couldn't put this down. This book is an excellent read for "armchair climbers" and true believers alike.
|
|
Drama and Death on the Eiger
|
|
Superb description of the first successful climb of the North Face of the Eiger in 1936. Possibly the most dramatic description of a climb I have ever read. This book really inspired me to get into climbing and to visit the Eiger (though not to climb it). Harrer does not touch on the political background to the first successful climb though, which many people feels detracts from the story.
|
|
Great subject - clumsy book
|
This is a classic climbing book and fascinating for anyone with a bit of basic climbing knowledge and a love of the mountains.
Like others, I read the part of the story about Toni Kurz dying on the face when I was a teenager and it had a profound impression on me.
All the basic stories and the mountain face are gripping but the writing style is appalling. When it gets to the tale of Longhi and Corti it becomes almost unreadably disjointed and as smooth as a bag of spanners.
A classic to read if you must - but if you want a great read on the same subject then spend your money on Joe Simpson's "The Beckoning Silence" - an infinitely better written book.
(By the way, Harrer's "seven years in Tibet" is a lot better).
|
|
|
Absolutely Amazing Book!
|
|
This is a great book by one of the first ascentists of the North Face of the Eiger, one of the last major challenges in the Alps to be climbed. It reviews the history of the attempts on the North Face in an exciting and very readable way. It gets the reader hooked! Heinrich Harrer was a unique person who led an amazing life. He also later spent Seven Years in Tibet and was tutor to the Dalai Lama. I would also recomend his autobiography Beyond Seven Years in Tibet, My life before, during and after, which has just come out and is an amazing read!
|
|
|
Gripping Stuff!
|
As an armchair (couch potato!) reader of real-life high adventure, I've recently read various books of thrilling climbs, daring treks etc. This was certainly one of the best - it combined mountain climbing information with the human angle and never left me too far behind with technical jargon.
As I read of the desperate conditions endured by the bold (mad!) climbers, I was truly gripped by the account of the eventual conquest of the Eiger.
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada