The Climb up to Hell, by Jack Olsen. New York: Harper and Row 1962. 212 pages, ills., Price $4.95.

This is a well written account of the 1957 tragedy on the Eiger. In early August two parties set out independently to climb the north wall. Overtaken by the Germans Nothdurft and Mayer, the Italians Corti and Longhi later joined forces with them. In the harrowing days that followed Longhi was killed in a storm after nine days on the wall, Corti was taken off by a rescue directed and composed of the finest climbers in Europe, and the Germans completely disappeared. The author gives a good description of the Eiger north wall, a brief history of the ascents and attempts upon it that have cost at least 18 lives, and an analysis of the motivating factors involved. The detailed description of the actual climb in 1957 is preceded by a recounting of the mountaineering experience of each of the four men involved, together with the story of the circumstances that brought them together on the Eiger. Having been introduced to the persons in the drama, the reader is almost roped to them in the suspense of the climb and the agony and heartbreak that follow. The account of Corti’s rescue and the risks so willingly undertaken by those who came to the aid of their fellow mountaineers is equally well done. Following the tragedy and its heroic alleviation in part by the rescue group, one is given a look at the impact of this upon valley minds. The climax is reached when Corti, like Edward Whymper on the Matterhorn, is accused of foul play in the death of his comrades. The final chapters deal with the recovery of Stefano Longhi’s body, which had hung on the wall for two years in full view of the Kleine Scheidegg telescopes, and the finding of the bodies of the Germans in 1961.

Such a well written book will be read by many. It is hoped that the author’s well balanced account will be kept in mind and that mountaineering in general will not be judged by a tragedy as this. “In mountaineering there is only one principle,” wrote Geoffrey Winthrop Young, “that we should secure on any given day the highest form of mountain adventure consistent with our sense of proportion.” The disproportion on the Eigerwand in 1957 is only too obvious, not only in the loss of three human lives but in the risk to which a courageous rescue group was put. Those who climb beyond the margin of safety imposed upon them by their own skill, the mountain, the weather and attendant circumstances endanger not only their own lives but those of others. “A rescuer in the mountains worthy of the name knows the risks he runs and does not demur,” René Dittert pointed out some years ago. Finally it is well to remember that while observers and commentators from afar were passing judgment upon the four men who struggled on the wall and impugning motives to them, Günther Nothdurft and Franz Mayer lay dead in an avalanche near the Eiger summit, killed in an attempt to obtain help for the Italians they had met by chance. They had climbed the wall on the night of August 9 and despite their weakened condition attempted to descend during a storm. “Greater love than this no man hath, than he lay down his life for his friends.”

Anderson Bakewell, S.J.