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The White Spider

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 773 ratings · 73 reviews

The White Spider dramatically recreates not only the harrowing, successful ascent made by Harrer and his comrades in 1938, but also the previous, tragic attempts at a wall of rock that was recently enshrined in mountaineer Jon Krakauer's first work, Eiger Dreams. For a generation of American climbers, The White Spider has been a formative book--yet it has long been out-of-...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published September 28th 1998 by Tarcher (first published 1959)

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Apr 11, 2013 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars

I started reading this book before making a skiing trip to Wengen/Grindelwald, in the shadow of the Eiger's north face. I enjoyed the early chapters immensely and the stories of the Kurtz tragedy and Harrer's own ascent gave me a real sense of the history of the famous peak. The writing style is antiquated and the translation needs tightening a little, but this actually helps give you a good picture of the time. I had read no other material on the Eiger, which is an important factor; as a starti...more I started reading this book before making a skiing trip to Wengen/Grindelwald, in the shadow of the Eiger's north face. I enjoyed the early chapters immensely and the stories of the Kurtz tragedy and Harrer's own ascent gave me a real sense of the history of the famous peak. The writing style is antiquated and the translation needs tightening a little, but this actually helps give you a good picture of the time. I had read no other material on the Eiger, which is an important factor; as a starting point, I would recommend some of these chapters. However, the reason I am here is because of what comes after. I read the later chapters on returning from seeing the Eiger and I can't ignore what they contain, nor can I remain silent (I finished the book last night and have been consumed with thoughts of it since).

His treatment of the Corti incident is malicious and prejudiced. He slanders the Italian climber with no evidence of any impropriety on Corti's part other than speculation from a journalist (who's motives we of course are told are pure, and nothing to do with creating a story in which he is at the heart) and the fact that Corti's account was confused and in parts contradictory (Harrer is obsessed with Corti's inability to recall all the names of all the sections of the wall - a bizarre test for a man who has just spent a fatal week there). Harrer then proposes some wild theories as to what happened which all seemed to indicate he believed Corti was negligent, unqualified, selfish, disloyal and and even murderous! I read this with growing unease and incredulity, which prompted me to research outside of the work; I found out that Harrer's maligning of Corti's character did the Italian great harm, and he spent the rest of his life under an unwarranted cloud of suspicion. This is all despite the fact that evidence to corroborate Corti's account was uncovered, namely the bodies of Nothdurft and Meyer, and the general climbing fraternity had come to believe his account. I read the extra chapters (added after 5 years) hoping for an apology from Harrer, but none was forthcoming. What there was however were wildly contradictory passages from Harrer, which seemed to excuse the actions of other climbers where he was scathing of Corti. He excused Brian Nally's confusion and contradictory statements after the tragic death of Brewster on exertion and shock; no such leniency on Corti, who he implied was simply lying. He implied Corti's rope must have been deliberately blocking the Germans, as no overtaking is possible, while later praising another German rope for proving that overtaking is possible anywhere on the wall. These two contradictions were glaring; there were many more passages where ill prepared Germanic climbers were praised for being poor but tough, and willing to have a go. While others who may not have been as well prepared as the very best were 'not fit to be on the wall.'

In the end, the impression one gets is of a man besotted with the long-faded supremacy of the Teutonic Alpine tradition, and with an unhealthy dose of prejudice against an Italian who mourned the events of his climb as long as he lived.

There may be darker forces at work here, but to go down that road would leave me open to charges of hypocrisy. I will not slander a man I have never met; I wish Harrer hadn't done so either.(less)

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Mar 27, 2011 Raghu rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have admired Heinrich Harrer ever since I came across his book 'Seven Years in Tibet' many years ago. In 2010, I even visited his home village of Huettenberg in Austria and visited the Harrer Museum there. In the Museum, I found old newspaper clippings from 1938 showing that he was also one of the party of four which made the first successful ascent of the Eiger North face. Having seen the immense vertical wall of the Eiger North Face when I had hiked the Bernese Alps some years before, I want...more I have admired Heinrich Harrer ever since I came across his book 'Seven Years in Tibet' many years ago. In 2010, I even visited his home village of Huettenberg in Austria and visited the Harrer Museum there. In the Museum, I found old newspaper clippings from 1938 showing that he was also one of the party of four which made the first successful ascent of the Eiger North face. Having seen the immense vertical wall of the Eiger North Face when I had hiked the Bernese Alps some years before, I wanted to read Harrer's account of his climb.
The book is actually an account of the drama, excitement and tragedies of the ascent of Eiger North Face in history - particularly from 1935 up to 1962. The North Face, being a vertical rock wall rising 6000 ft from the ground at Alpiglen, it had been a challenge to the mountaineers. Harrer captures the spirit of the times in the 1930s when every summer, the imagination of the European public and journalists was riveted on the North Face. The wall is completely exposed as it stood and so spectators and journalists could watch every attempt on the Face through telescopes in the train station or even in the comfort of their hotels. Only bad weather obstructed their visual entertainment. And the Eiger North Face was famous for extremely unpredictable and bad weather. Still, because of this ability to watch every climb from beginning to end, every layman and journalist who has never even stepped on a rock face, became an expert critic and commentator about the 'follies' and 'mistakes' of the climbers. Harrer writes about all this without grudges and with reticent Austrian humour. He writes about his own team's successful assault with clinical details and graphic descriptions of the various portions of the ascent on ice and rock and over waterfalls. The writng style is that of 60 years ago and also I read the translation in English from the original in German. Today's readers may find the style pedestrian and even a bit tedious, especially if one is used to the electrifying pace of Jon Krakauer in his book 'Into Thin Air', describing the 1996 Everest disaster. But anyone who is fascinated by Eiger would find it quite gripping and informative. For me, the maps showing the route on the North face in great detail along with Harrer's narrative made it all come alive.
Harrer also describes the tragedies of 1957 and 1962 when the behavior of a couple of climbers - Italian and British - came under intense scrutiny for the deaths of their companions on the mountain. In fact, over the 25 years of climbing reported in the book, one could see acts of great courage, honesty, humility, selflessness as well as some doubtful acts of false pride and even dishonesty and untruthfulness. All in all, it is a microcosm of human life as it is lived.
I found the book warm in its humanity and captivating in the narration of the events on the mountain. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the adventures on the high mountains, particularly the stunning Eiger North Face.(less)

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Aug 25, 2010 Corrina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Just re-read this. The last time I read it was probably 10 years ago, and I loved it then, but now that I've read much more on mountaineering and the Nordwand of the Eiger in particular, I loved it even more!! Harrer not only tells his own story of his group's first successful ascent of the Nordwand (or Mordwand, depending on your point of view), he traces the history of the mountain, recreating in careful detail the other successful attempts as well as the myriad disasters. Harrer of cours...more

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Apr 20, 2009 Genevieve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Hmmmm, how would one describe Heinrich's style? Perhaps chivalric, or cavalier (in the sincerest sense, not meant cruelly), not exactly florid, perhaps a bit archaic? At times it is a bit tiresome to read, if only because he often seems to be justifying the facts and information he has included so as not to offend anyone. A very interesting read, nonetheless, and amazing when you truly consider the acts he is describing (I'll admit it, the pictures in the book and google searches helped my naive...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Evan marked it as to-read

Shelves: __in-my-collection, adventure-truelife, mountaineering

Yeah, that's right. Another mountaineering book. This one about the earliest attempts to scale the Eiger in Switzerland. Considered a classic, this promises to be bitchin' shit...

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Sep 29, 2012 Evan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a great novel! Harrer's description of his climb was relatively brief, but exciting and captivating! I couldn't put the book down until I finished his account of the ascent of the Eiger. Even the summit and descent contained interesting nuggets of information. His accounts of all the other climbers were fascinating as well. By the time I reached his story, his description of previous attempts had instilled me with an appropriate amount of apprhension. Much of the narrative contains topi...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

A mountaineering book. Wow, climbing the north face of the Eiger (in the Alps) sounds completely insane. Really. I really liked some chapters of this book. It is by Heinrich Harrer, one of the four who made the first successful ascent. (He also wrote Seven Years in Tibet, which I haven't read.) I wasn't too impressed by his writing style, although surely part of that is the translation. He is very fond of ending paragraphs with ellipses...

On the other hand, I was totally impressed with the climb...more

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Jun 13, 2009 Pippa Fox rated it 5 of 5 stars

the blurb on the jacket best describes it: The White Spider provides almost the classic statement of the weird and frequently misunderstood psychology of the modern rock climber. Despite the grimness of much of what he is describing, Herr Harrer communicates the irresistible joy of climbing as an antidote to the idea that climbers are masochistically trying to prove something to themselves' Sunday Times
As a longtime bushwalker and nature lover, these books are hard to resist because they take me...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Michael Mckinney rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There seems to be a lot of cronyism among Harrer and his fellow German climbers: Every climber who dies was the brightest young German mind to have ever graced the valley from which he came, only to fall at the face of the great Eiger, while every success is a testament to certain indefatigable greatness in the eyes of mankind immemorial. He waits until the end of the novel to finally accuse an Italian of being the first to mistake his ambitions and strength are adequate for the climbing, though...more

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Nov 14, 2008 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-historiography

While I have never understood the motivation of people who willingly place themselves in harm's way by doing all sorts of bizarre things like hanging from ropes above precipices
with rocks falling on their heads and winter blizzards forcing snow down their necks, I must admit they make fascinating reading.

The Eiger, a particularly nasty rock face, was not successfully climbed from the north until the author and his team succeeded (where many others had failed) in 1938. This astonishing book is th...more While I have never understood the motivation of people who willingly place themselves in harm's way by doing all sorts of bizarre things like hanging from ropes above precipices
with rocks falling on their heads and winter blizzards forcing snow down their necks, I must admit they make fascinating reading.

The Eiger, a particularly nasty rock face, was not successfully climbed from the north until the author and his team succeeded (where many others had failed) in 1938. This astonishing book is the saga of the many who failed and the
few who succeeded. Even today, with modern equipment, the north face of the Eiger represents an extraordinary challenge to even the best climbers. I must say, however, that Harrer is oftentimes defensive, rarely attributing anything but the best of motives to the climbers.
Surely, some of them must have been climbing for the glory. Perhaps the most tragic of all the climbs was that, in 1936, of four climbers, two of whom were Mountain Rangers (the call from their commanding officer forbidding the attempt came after they had already left) who had made quite good progress until one of them was hit by a falling rock — a constant source of danger — and his colleagues decided to attempt a return down the face. They all perished on the return trip. What happened is not entirely clear. Harrer speculates that the most experienced of the four fell while trying to traverse back across a sheer face to install some pitons to make the way for the rest. They had hauled up their lines behind them, a necessity evidently to get across this particularly bad section. His fall dragged the injured
man down with him and killed one of the others. The fourth man was left hanging 300 feet in the air, almost above the Jungfrau railway station that carries tourists up through the mountain to a ski resort on the other side. Even though
alpine guide policy was to never attempt a rescue because of the danger — something helicopters managed to do only many years later — several guides tried to help. Despite a
truly heroic attempt to splice together two ropes,
a difficult task with two warm hands, the remaining
climber, Toni Kurz, had only one free hand, was dangling in the air, and was almost frozen stiff. He might have made it, except that a knot became jammed in one of the snap rings that it traveled through and he lacked the energy to
free it. His would-be rescuers heard him plead for help through most of the night before he died.

After a while, the litany of cold, rock falls, and Harrer's unrelentingly hagiographic description of mountaineers wears a little thin. Only the Italian Claudio Corti comes in for some oblique criticism. He was attempting to climb the face
with an older climber, another Italian. They clearly had not prepared and, after a false start that consumed several days, met up with two German climbers (who completed the climb of the face and died on the way down the west
side) who went with them for some distance despite a language barrier. The Germans gave Corti their tent following a fall by Corti's partner whom he was not able to save and who died several days later hanging from a rope, despite tremendous efforts to save him. Corti himself was
rescued only by winching a guide down from the summit on a steel cable. The guide then carried Corti on his back the remaining thousand feet up the face. Corti's confused and contradictory account of what had happened and where the Germans were — they had disappeared and their bodies
were not located until several years later — made skeptics of many in the mountaineering community.

The Germans' loan of their equipment to Corti probably sealed their doom. Harrer includes a route map of the face for those idiots willing to contemplate such an adventure.
All sorts of security measures and new equipment have come on the market since Harrer's successful climb, but in spite of these new advantages, "the North Wall of the Eiger remains one of the most perilous in the Alps." Other climbs may be more difficult technically, "but nowhere else is
there such appalling danger from the purely fortuitous hazards of avalanches, stone falls, and sudden deterioration of the weather as on the Eiger."(less)

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Mar 15, 2008 Travis rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was very well written for the topic. If you can imagine, the story is about the piles of people that have tried to climb the 6,000 foot vertical face of rock and ice. Unfortunately some of them ended up at the bottom in a pile. It was riveting at times, and bit redundant at others. It was over 300 pages of reading the same routes up the face, and while it was incredible to imagine some of the attempts done without crampons or gore-tex, it also has a lot of "after these messages" effort...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Leigh rated it 4 of 5 stars

A different syle of writing (purhaps because its a translation from German) but notwithstanding contains gripping accounts of the often tragic attempts to climb one the most frightening and harrowing mountain faces of the age.

Unbelievable as it may seem to those climbers during the ages covered in Harrer's White Spider, the Swiss Machine, Ueli Steck, can solo the Eiger in a stunning 2 hours and 47 minutes, which was recently ecclipsed by Dani Arnold by another 20 minutes!!

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Mar 13, 2012 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

A very good mountaineering book by one of the men who made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in 1938. Most of the book was written in 1958-1959, at a time when only a few additional successful ascents had been made (less than 10, I think), and it includes a detailed recounting of all attempts between 1934 and 1957, many of which were infamously unsuccessful.

Many of these young men were German and Austrian, but Hitler and World War II do not intrude much on Harrer's narrative -- he...more

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Dec 03, 2011 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mountaineering

One of the classics in mountain literature, this book recounts in great detail the first ascent of the Eiger, and places it in context with the infamous failures prior to that successful climb on 1938, as well as the successes and failures that were to follow in the years up to 1964. Harrer was one of the members of the successful party in '38 and tasked with compiling this history goes to great pains to research each of the stories. The book mainly suffers from a stylistic point of view - the w...more

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Mar 17, 2011 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

After seeing the movie "North Face" last year (based on the failed and tragic attempt of Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser to be the first to summit the North Face of the Eiger in 1936), I wanted to read more about the mountain and its punishing history. This book was recommended and it did not let me down. Heinrich Harrer was in the first party to successfully summit Eiger (you may also recognize his name as man who spent Seven Years in Tibet after an interment in India-that book is next on...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Roaldeuller rated it 5 of 5 stars

I spent the summer of 1977 as an American college student hosteling my way across Europe. I bought this book in a small bookstore in Grindelwald, Switzerland and then proceeded to enjoy a blissful couple of days sitting on the front balcony of the youth hostel, reading The White Spider, with the north face of the Eiger towering overhead. I would read from the book, and then gaze up to identify the exact routes and landmarks described in the text, which were clearly visible on the massive wall of...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Forest rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an amazing account of the first 13 ascents of the Eiger Nordwand. Further amazement at Harrer's experiences offers the most inspiration a climber's life could offer in text. The first successful completion of the Nordwand by Harrer, Fritz Kasperek, Ludwig Vörg, and Andreas Heckmair is documented excitingly in the book accompanied by many other exciting tales. I read the first translation and have several favorite quotes: "Yes, we had made and excursion into another world and we had come...more

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May 25, 2012 Drlinda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Harrer is a good writer who describes the history of successes and tragedies climbing the Eiger NorthFace.. His narrative is very descriptive and engaging, I feel as though I am climbing with these elite mountaineers. Fascinating read which I couldn't put down!

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Sep 03, 2009 Hywel Owen rated it 5 of 5 stars

The best book on the realities of climbing that I have read. You will finish it maybe convinced of the insanity of mountaineering, but certainly with a better understanding of what it is to climb. Harrer is indisputably one of the all-time greats of mountaineering.

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Feb 09, 2012 Carst van der Molen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mountaineering, non-fiction

A classic in mountain literature. The first part, inlcuding the tale of the first ascension of the Eiger North Face in 1938 by the author, is the best and well worth reading. Some chapters towards the end are a bit dull.

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Jan 28, 2013 Stuart Carrington rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book suffers from the main purpose of the story occuring half way through. Until that point it is an exciting adventure - afterwards it becomes more of a description of progrerssively more dry events.

No doubt I will read it again - but will stop after the 1938 ascent

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Mar 12, 2010 Stephen Hampshire rated it 3 of 5 stars

A classic, and up to the end of Harrer's own ascent, excellent and gripping. The rest of the book, detailing the further history of the face from an observer's perspective gets a bit dull (hence 3 stars overall).

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Jan 25, 2010 Allyson Shaw rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

A quick read, though unsatisfying either due to Harrer's wooden and often hackneyed prose or the translation, maybe both. (What's with all the ellipses?) The book is weighted down with a bizarre defensiveness. What would be most interesting-- the texture of life on the mountain face-- is left out completely, replaced with logistic discussions which become repetitive. Though, I suppose in wanting the vicariousness of a sensory narrative I'm one of the "rubberneckers" he seems to have such disdain...more

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May 02, 2009 Jeff Anderson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very interesting and well written, all about mountain climbing without quite as large an ego as is usually encountered in such books. I felt like I had seen a little bit of Switzerland myself.

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Apr 19, 2013 NJ Layouni rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mountain-fever

One of the scariest books I've ever read. Really.

I had a horrible, recurring dream after reading this book; I'd wake up half way up the Eiger without even so much as a rope to aid me.

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Mar 21, 2012 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, misc-non-fiction, borrowed

A hymn of praise to the character of climbers, in the guise of dealing with the climbs of the North Face of the Eiger from 1958 with the first climb to 1963, when the book was re-published. Lovely writing, even if in places it seems old-fashioned.

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Jan 04, 2012 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Few authors and climbers have been able to capture the savage charm of the mountains with as much clarity, poetry and nostalgia. A timeless classic. One of my favourite books of all time.

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Apr 28, 2011 Nate Hendrix rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you are a climber this will be a good book for you. Lots of people die climbing the west face of the Eiger, so there are lots of stroies that end badly. I skimmed through some parts, I probably read 80% of it.

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Apr 30, 2013 Brian P Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars

The "Eiger Sanction", is closely related to the well documented description Harrer gives on, Tony Kurts. It's one of the most tragic stories in all mountaineering.

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Apr 30, 2013 Nate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Overall a decent read. Not a particularly compelling story, although he does provide some great background about one of the all-time classics of mountaineering.

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About Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Harrer (6 de Julho de 1912 – 7 de Janeiro de 2006) foi um montanhista, investigador, geógrafo e escritor austríaco.
Heinrich Harrer nasceu em Hüttenberg na região de Caríntia. Entre 1933 e 1938 Harrer estudou geografia e desporto na Universidade Karl-Franzens em Graz.
Harrer fez parte da primeira equipe que escalou a face norte do Eiger na Suíça, junto com Anderl Heckmair, Fritz Kasparek e...more

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