1936 Eiger climbing disaster

In July 1936, a team of four climbers died while attempting to ascend the north face of the Eiger mountain in Switzerland.

They climbed quickly, but on the second day the weather changed; clouds came down and allowed observers on the ground only intermittent visibility of the climbers on the face.

On the way up, Hinterstoisser had used a technique called a "tension traverse", where a rope is fixed and kept taut, allowing the lead climber to "lean" on it for balance.

The group decided to abseil from the lower lip of the First Ice Field down the vertical face (the great rock barrier).

Angerer also fell and was killed when his body hit the rock face, while Rainer quickly asphyxiated from the weight of the rope around his diaphragm.

Kurz explained the fate of his companions: one had fallen down the face, another was frozen above him, and the third had fractured his skull in falling and was hanging on the rope below him.

One of the guides, climbing on another's shoulders, was able to touch the tip of Kurz's crampons with the head of his ice-axe but could not reach higher.

[4] Faced with the futility of his situation, he famously said only "Ich kann nicht mehr" ("I can't [go on] anymore") and then died.