The White Spider
A classic of mountaineering literature, The White Spider tells the story of the harrowing first ascent of the Eiger’s North Face, one of the most legendary and terrifying climbs in recorded history.Heinrich Harrer, author of Seven Years in Tibet and one of the twentieth century’s greatest mountaineers, was part of the team that finally conquered the fearsome North Face of the Eiger in 1938. It was a landmark expedition that pitted the explorers against treacherous conditions and the limits of human endurance, and which many have since tried – and failed – to emulate.Armed with an intimate knowledge that comes only from first-hand experience of climbing the Eiger, Harrer gives a gripping account of physical daring and mental resilience, a subtle and affecting portrait of both the mind of the mountaineer and the soul of a mountain. An introduction by Joe Simpson, author of Touching the Void, reminds us of the enduring relevance of this true adventure classic.
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Heinrich Harrer
The White Spider
THE STORY OF
THE NORTH FACE OF THE EIGER
Translated from the German by
HUGH MERRICK
With additional chapters by
HEINRICH HARRER AND KURT MAIX
With an Introduction by
JOE SIMPSON
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This edition published by Harper Perennial 2005
Previously published in paperback by Flamingo 1995
Previously published in paperback by Paladin 1989
First published in Great Britain by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd 1959
Revised edition 1965 Second revised edition published by Granada Publishing 1976
Copyright © Heinrich Harrer 1958, 1964
This translation copyright © Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd 1959 Introduction copyright © Joe Simpson 2005 PS section copyright © Miranda Haines 2005
PS™ is a trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
Heinrich Harrer asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007197842
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN: 9780007347575
Version: 2017-04-27
Contents
The First Attempt on the North Face
1952: The Great Year on the Eiger
Climbers have a Language of their own
Attempts and Successes on the North Face
P. S. Ideas, interviews & features …
Heinrich Harrer: An Extraordinary Life
Harrer’s Top Tips to Modern Explorers
The North Face of the Eiger has always held a lingering fascination for me from the moment I finished reading Heinrich Harrer’s The White Spider at the age of fourteen. This gripping account of the first ascent in 1938 and the subsequent and often disastrous attempts that followed should really have put me off mountaineering for life. Only a week earlier I had been taken rock climbing on a small limestone crag on the edge of the North York Moors. I was unaware that the arcane world of extreme mountaineering even existed, let alone considered devoting the rest of my life to it. When I closed the book, my head was filled with grim black-and-white images of men fighting for survival in a ferociously steep and unrelentingly dangerous landscape. I could not imagine any more frightening way to die. Avalanches, rock falls crashing past like gun shots, lightning blasting through storm-lashed days, men pinned down unable to escape, dying slowly before the horrified gaze of tourist onlookers in the valley below - why would anyone want to place themselves in such a nightmarish situation? I had no idea, so I read the book again.
I was no better informed at the end of the second reading, but I knew one thing: I wanted to find out. Despite the terrible hardship and awful deaths, I was forcibly struck by the fact that these men had chosen to be there. They couldn’t all be idiots. There must be something very special about mountaineering for these people to think that such risks are worth it. I became a mountaineer inspired by the most gripping and frightening mountaineering book I have ever read.
Eleven years later, much to my chagrin, I found myself hanging helplessly from a rope, battered by avalanches and storm winds, badly injured, and about to plunge into a nightmare every bit as bad as those described in The White Spider. Today, thirty years after reading Harrer’s book, I am astounded by the number of young people who tell me that my account of this survival epic in Peru, Touching the Void, inspired them to take up climbing. It is some consolation to know that my rather odd decision-making processes as a fourteen-year-old are being replicated today.
