Eduard Rainer

Eduard Rainer (* 1914 - July 21, 1936 ) was an Austrian mountaineer .

Eduard Rainer tried together with his friend Willi Angerer on July 18, 1936 to be the first to climb the north face of the Eiger . Almost at the same time, the German mountaineers Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoißer started on the same route and a Wettsteig began.

The German rope team first reached a difficult passage, which Hinterstoißer mastered by swinging and swinging on the rope and walking along the steep face. This passage is still called the Hinterstoißer Quergang today. When Toni Kurz had overcome the passage using the rope, the Austrians also reached the entrance.

The Germans gave them their rope to cross, and the climbers subsequently formed a team of four. Before dark they reached the so-called death bivouac, in which another German mountaineering duo was last seen from the Kleine Scheidegg last year. The two were still missing.

The next morning bad weather hit the wall and the wall iced over. Nevertheless, the rope team dared the further ascent. A rock fall injured Angerer's head, so they stopped the attempt and tried to turn back using the ascent route. The crossing was so icy that none of the climbers managed to cross it. So they rappelled down the steep face, additionally burdened by the injured Angerer.

An ice-stone avalanche hit the rope team while abseiling, Rainer was thrown up to the safety hook and a rock spike fatally shattered his chest. Angerer and Hinterstoesser did not survive either, only Toni Kurz survived, hanging helplessly in the wall.

Toni Kurz died tragically the next morning of exhaustion, hanging just a few meters above the rescue teams who had brought him to abseil the ropes, risking their own life. A knot got tangled in the snap hook and prevented the casualty from rappelling further.

Web links

Echo Online Wayback Machine archived link Retrieved February 5, 2017

personal data
SURNAME	Rainer, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian mountaineer
DATE OF BIRTH	1914
DATE OF DEATH	July 21, 1936