The First People To Conquer The Alps’ Deadliest Mountain

One mountain face in particular came to be seen as the Last Great Problem: the vast, brooding Eiger Nordwand in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland.
The world’s finest climbers were lured to its foot – and perished in the merciless world of ice and storm that awaited them above.
Then in 1938 an Austro-German team conquered the face amid bitter accusations that they were climbing for Hitler.
The Eiger has been highly publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions. Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally “murder(ous) wall”—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall).