Description: With two friends I took the last train from Kleine Scheidegg to spend the night in the bunkhouse at the Eiger Gletscher station. In the morning however it was only after convincing the station staff that we had no intention of ascending the avalanche chute, offering apparently easy but frequently fatal access to the summit, that we were allowed to continue.
Initial snow slopes led up to a short gully giving access to the broad, rocky ridge extending above the dark, forbidding confines of the North Face. Higher up we traversed out onto the steep, open slopes of the South West Flank. The good cover of firm snow enabled rapid upwards progress. A rock outcrop with an embedded ring piton indicated the more difficult conditions that prevail under poorer snow conditions prevalent later in the season.
Below we were concerned to see two figures ascending the avalanche chute.
On a perfectly cloudless, wind-free day we gained the nicely pointed summit to enjoy a splendid panorama. A narrow arete extended along to the neighbouring Monch and on past the Jungfraujoch to the distant Jungfrau. Across the Aletsch Glacier loomed the prominent shark's fin of the Finsteraarhorn - climbed only a few days previously. On the other side soared the isolated Schilthorn - featured spectacularly in the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with fine background views of the Eiger.
The other climbers now joined us on the summit. After only a brief delay, despite our warnings, professing to having an aversion to rock-climbing, they started to retrace their route back down the avalanche chute.
Back at the Eiger Gletscher we were greeted more warmly by the station staff who had followed our progress through their telescopes. They were angry with the other two climbers however who were extremely fortunate to survive the gauntlet of the avalanche chute - unlike many others.
Reference: "High Adventure around the World
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