The Climb Up To Hell

Description

Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1962, 1st UK Edition, D/w (edges worn, a few small tears), V.G.   Jack Olsen, a senior editor of Sports Illustrated at the time, has meticulously researched and here documents the story of the Eiger tragedy of 1957, where two Italians, Claudio Corti and Stefano Longhi, and two Germans, Franz Mayr and Gunther Nothdurft, started to climb the North Face of the Eiger in two ropes but then joined forces. Following a series of mishaps, including a dropped rucksack, Nothdurft becoming ill, Longhi falling and Corti being hit by stonefall, a large and daring rescue was mounted. The two Germans headed on up the route and were not seen again – their bodies were found in 1961 near the descent route where they had been avalanched.  Corti was rescued, but Longhi died of exposure and his body, clearly visible from Grindelwald, was left hanging on the wall for two years before guides managed to retrieve it. An extraordinary story, well written.