You are not signed in. Sign in.

List Books: Buy books on ListBooks.org

The White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger » (Reprint)

Book cover image of The White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger by Heinrich Harrer

Authors: Heinrich Harrer, Hugh Merrick
ISBN-13: 9780874779400, ISBN-10: 0874779405
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Date Published: September 1998
Edition: Reprint

Find Best Prices for This Book »

Author Biography: Heinrich Harrer

Book Synopsis

The White Spider dramatically recreates not only the harrowing, successful ascent made by Harrer and his comrades in 1938, but also the previous, tragic attempts at a wall of rock that was recently enshrined in mountaineer Jon Krakauer's first work, Eiger Dreams. For a generation of American climbers, The White Spider has been a formative book--yet it has long been out-of-print in America. This edition awaits discovery by Harrer's new legion of readers.

Table of Contents

"Come Back Safe, My Friends"1
The "White Spider"9
The First Attempt on the North Face19
The Tragedy of Toni Kurz31
1937: On the Eiger52
The First Ascent of the Face80
Further Successful Ascents137
1952: The Great Year on the Eiger163
The Wall of Life and Death192
The Tragedy of 1957208
The International Rescue Team234
Epilogue256
Fate Made the Amendments263
Four Shirts and an Overcoat271
Ascendancy of the Armchair275
The Silver Trench278
Climbers have a Language of their Own285
"I am Sorry, Brian ..."294
July 31: Start and Finish304
The Mass Assault313
The Year of Chivalry320
Man, the Deciding Factor328
Route Guide to the North Face334
Attempts and Successes on the North Face337
Index359

Subjects