Drama in the north face of the Eiger

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Movie
German title Drama in the north face of the Eiger
Original title The Beckoning Silence
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 75 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Louise Osmond
production Louise Osmond
music Jack C. Arnold
camera Jeremy Hewson
Keith Partridge
cut Ben Lester
occupation

Drama in der Eiger-Nordwand (original title: The Beckoning Silence ) is a British documentary film by Joe Simpson from 2008, which traces the dramatic events of the first attempt to climb the Eiger-Nordwand in 1936 , in which the climbers Toni Kurz , Andreas Hinterstoißer , Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer perished. The film was based on Simpson's book Im Banne des Giant. The long way to the Eiger and won an International Emmy Award in 2008 .

action

In this documentary, British mountaineer Joe Simpson tells the story that has accompanied him since he was a child. A climbing accident in which he almost lost his life in Peru over twenty years ago made him feel connected to the men from back then. At fourteen he had read the story of Toni Kurz , which tells a lot about friendship, courage and the power of the human spirit. That animated him to climb and, in retrospect, is also a bit of his story for him.

Joe Simpson had spent his life climbing mountains all over the world. He is also fascinated by the Eiger , whose north face has always been one of the greatest challenges for a mountaineer. It is a 2000 meter high rock face that gets little sun and is always icy in places. More than 60 people have already died here. Among them was Toni Kurz from Berchtesgaden , who set out in 1936 with his mountain guide Andreas Hinterstoißer to conquer the north face of the Eiger . After a first ascent of the north face by Max Sedlmayr and Karl Mehringer in 1935 was fatal, they were the second to attempt this. The Austrians Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer joined them on their way. All were considered to be very experienced and skilled mountaineers, but the difficult conditions on the Eiger north face also became their undoing and all four were killed. Joe Simpson set out to conquer the mountain in 2007 in his seventh attempt. Adverse weather conditions had always stopped him. He would like to relive the stations of the climbers from 1936 and starts right on the north face, where you can get there by train through a tunnel with an exit hatch. An exit makes it possible to climb the mountain from a height of 500 meters. Simpson starts his tour here with a mountain guide. In contrast to the first climbers in 1936, today there is a permanently tensioned safety rope that spans a 30 meter wide smooth rock slab, the Rote Fluh , and gives the climbers security. Arrived at a height of 1000 meters, the first large ice field begins, which is threatened by falling ice and rubble due to the beginning of solar radiation at the upper edge. In 1936 Willy Angerer was hit in the head by a stone, which subsequently contributed to the failure of the company.

Joe Simpson planned his ascent of the Eiger north face in stages. After conquering the Rote Fluh and the first ice field, he can be flown to the second ice field in a helicopter the next day. From here, he reconstructs the route that Kurz and his comrades had mastered on the second day of their company. In contrast to the attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger in 1936 , Simpson knows where the most dangerous places are and can prepare for them.

In the documentation Simpson comments parallel to his stations in 2007, the entire path of the climbers, who, handicapped by Angerer's injuries, could not take the same path when descending as they were when ascending. The Rote Fluh was not passable again without special aids. On the newly chosen route, the group was caught by an avalanche and three of the men were killed. Toni Kurz is struggling to survive hanging on a rope and although a rescue team was on the way to him, they could not reach him. Simpson has to think of his own accident here and feels so close to Kurz because he can understand his feelings very well: the powerlessness and helplessness that one is exposed to in such a situation. The struggle for survival allowed Kurz to hold out all night and even to climb a little back up. Despite frozen fingers, he managed to lengthen his rope enough for the rescue team to reach him, but a knot in the rope destroys all hope. Toni Kurz dies exhausted on the fifth day of the mountain tour.

It was not until 1938, two years later, that a team of German and Austrian mountaineers managed to successfully climb the Eiger over its north face for the first time.

Joe Simpson concludes that climbers do what they love, but often pay too high a price for it.

background

Drama in the north face of the Eiger as a mixture of drama, documentary and adventure was produced in 2007 by Darlow Smithson Productions on behalf of Channel 4 and Discovery Channel and shot on the Eiger in the Bernese Alps ( Switzerland ).

It was first broadcast in Great Britain on October 22, 2007 on Channel 4 and in Germany on February 3, 2008 on Arte . On August 29, 2008, Polyband released the DVD on DVD, which contains the making-of and an interview with Sir Chris Bonington as specials .

Reviews

The lexicon of international films judged: “Documentary mountain drama, which its protagonist also serves to overcome his own demons. This also raises the question of what motivates people to repeatedly expose themselves to deadly danger. "

See also

Web links

literature

  • Oswald Oelz, Nadja Klier, Rupert Henning: North face: the drama of Toni Kurz on the Eiger . 1967.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patricia Wynn Davies: Last night on television: The Beckoning Silence (Channel 4). telegraph.co.uk , October 23, 2007, accessed September 11, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b Drama in the north face of the Eiger. Lexicon of International Films , accessed September 11, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Drama in the north face of the Eiger. DVD DD2 English / German, Region2. Polyband, 2008. EAN 4006448755546