“I’m finished.” With those final words, 23-year-old Toni Kurz hung only metres from the rescuers straining to reach him, his strength gone as the brutal north face of the Eiger claimed another life.
Kurz had joined fellow climbers Anderl Hinterstoisser, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer in an audacious bid to conquer the Eiger’s north face, a near-4,000m wall of rock and ice rising over Switzerland’s Bernese Alps, where the weather can shift from manageable to lethal in moments.
The mountain was already feared across Europe. Known grimly as the “Murder Wall,” it was notorious for avalanches, falling rock and violent storms, and had killed two climbers only the previous year.
Yet the danger did not deter them. The four men believed they had the skill, nerve and timing to become the first climbers to reach the summit by that deadly route.
What unfolded instead would be remembered as one of the darkest and most haunting disasters in the history of mountaineering.
In 1936, Kurz and Hinterstoisser, both accomplished German climbers, paired with Austrian mountaineers Angerer and Rainer for the landmark attempt.
They made rapid progress at first. Hinterstoisser executed a bold diagonal move across a smooth slab of rock, then secured a rope so the rest of the team could follow him across.
That treacherous passage would later bear his name: the Hinterstoisser Traverse.
The body of Toni Kurz hangs suspended in mid-air after his superhuman but ultimately doomed attempt to save himself by abseiling off the north face of the Eiger
Kurz and three other climbers set out to conquer the north face of the Eiger, a near-4,000m wall of rock and ice in the Swiss Bernese Alps
Nicknamed the ‘Murder Wall’ for its avalanches, rockfalls and ferocious storms, the mountain had claimed the lives of two climbers just a year earlier
Then came the mistake that sealed their fate.
Believing they would descend by another route, the team removed the rope behind them.
Pressing higher, they entered an ice field notorious for rockfall. As the afternoon sun loosened stones frozen into the mountainside, debris began crashing down around them.
Then disaster struck as a falling rock smashed into Angerer, leaving him badly injured.
The climbers decided to retreat but, to their horror, discovered the Hinterstoisser Traverse was now covered in verglas – a thin but deadly layer of ice formed from frozen rain.
A violent storm closed in. Trapped high on the mountain with no safe route up or down, they attempted a desperate descent.
It ended in catastrophe.
Hinterstoisser unclipped himself from the others to prepare the final abseil, around 200ft from safety. As another piton – a metal spike with a ring that holds the climbers’ ropes – was hammered into the rock, a huge avalanche tore through the face.
The avalanche hurled Angerer and Kurz from the ledge.
Kurz was left hanging over the abyss while Angerer was either killed by the impact against the mountain or strangled by the tangled ropes.
The force of the avalanche also ensnared Rainer, pinning him against a snap-link – a kind of carabiner – and slowly crushing his diaphragm beneath the weight of the climbers below.
Eduard Rainer and Willy Angerer in front of the Eiger north face ahead of their climb in 1936
One by one, each of the four climbers perished, becoming among the first victims of a mountain that has since claimed more than 70 lives
View of the Bernese Alps from the meadows of Grindelwald, Switzerland
Hinterstoisser, who was no longer attached to a rope, plunged around 2,000ft to his death.
Angerer later succumbed to his injuries and exposure, while Rainer also died suspended on the mountain.
Only Kurz remained.
From the railway station at Kleine Scheidegg below, villagers watched in horror as he clung to the near-vertical rock face.
They alerted veteran Swiss mountain guides Christian Almer Jr and Hans Schlunegger, who ignored instructions from the chief mountain guide and launched a rescue attempt despite the worsening conditions.
Shivering in the freezing wind, Kurz called down to the rescuers, explaining his desperate situation.
After traversing a series of ledges, the guides managed to position themselves beneath him, but were still around 150ft away.
Kurz knew he could not be rescued from below.
The guides would have to climb through a crack where they had left pitons on their ascent before descending on a doubled rope. But with so much ice coating the mountain, they judged the route impossible.
Nightfall forced the rescuers to abandon the attempt, leaving the exhausted climber suspended alone on the mountainside, crying out for help.
Against all odds, Kurz survived until dawn, swaying helplessly in his rope sling as small rocks struck him and the freezing temperatures took their toll.
When the rescuers returned, they realised they still could not reach him because the route was covered in ice.
The only chance of survival was for Kurz to descend towards them himself.
To do that, he first had to cut himself free from the ropes binding him to his dead companions.
He climbed down as far as he dared, cut away Angerer’s body, then climbed back up to sever the rope above him.
Holding on with one frozen hand, he used his knife like a saw to cut through the tangled ropes.
Working with his remaining hand, his teeth and sheer determination, he spent five agonising hours painstakingly untwisting the frozen strands before tying them together into a single line.
Finally, he lowered the rope to the rescuers below, who attached another length.
As Kurz began descending, salvation finally seemed within reach.
The rescuers could see his legs hanging beneath the overhang.
Then disaster struck once more.
The knot joining the ropes jammed against the metal snap-link on his harness, leaving him suspended just metres above the waiting guides.
Kurz fought with the knot using his frozen hands and even his teeth before summoning the strength for one final attempt.
It wasn’t enough.
‘I’m finished,’ he called.
Moments later, his body slumped forward, swinging just beyond the rescuers’ reach.
