eiger nordwand/ north face of the eiger. bernese alps. switzerland.

via wikipedia

eiger. they say its name comes from the word ogre.
the north face wasn’t climbed until 1938. it was first climbed by Heinrich Harrer. the deadly history of the nordwand chronicled in the great book, The White Spider (1959).
one of its stories dramatized in Nordwand (2008):

-beautiful images, colors, textures.
-see when they drop a dead climber inside a sleeping bag and it disappears in the mist.

the north face used to be a deadly climb in the summer because of the avalanches formed at the white spider snow field. now ueli steck climbs it in the winter. in less than 3 hrs. thanks partly to advances in ice climbing equipment and the stability of the ice and the snow in the cold. plus there are very little changes in the weather during a 3 hour period. the unreliable weather, cold temperatures and changes in condition were main concerns for early climbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueli_Steck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Harrer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Spider
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Kurz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Hinterstoisser