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'Beckoning Silence' Joe Simpson (Channel 4) — Transcript

by Ron Walker (Talisman Mountaineering) · 7,743 words · 1,430 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:06I knew people died in mountains long
0:09before I had my accident.
0:13I sort of understood you were playing a
0:16game
0:17for very high stakes
0:19and you might not actually have a choice
0:21over your fate.
0:25You like to think you control the odds
0:28by your judgement and by your skill.
0:32And it's not exactly true.
0:36The climber, Joe Simpson, was 25 when he
0:39had an accident that nearly killed him.
0:43He wrote a book, Touching the Void,
0:45about his extraordinary battle to
0:47survive.
0:51Now he's going back to the mountain
0:53that first inspired him to climb.
0:56To tell a story that has haunted him
0:58since he was a boy.
1:01It is the tale of a great adventure that
1:03just like his turned into a terrifying
1:06test of endurance.
1:09When I was 14,
1:10I read the story that stayed with me for
1:12the rest of my life.
1:14It was the story of Tony Kurz.
1:18It says so many things about friendship,
1:21courage, and strength of the human
1:23spirit.
1:25It inspired me to climb.
1:27In many ways, it's my story.
1:34We thought it was worth risking
1:36everything.
1:39And we did.
1:56I've spent my life climbing mountains.
1:59Climbed difficult mountains, climbed
2:01easy mountains.
2:03I've climbed all over the world.
2:08But my dream was always to climb the
2:10Eiger.
2:12Of all the summits in the Alps, the
2:14Eiger is the mountain that is a legend
2:16among climbers.
2:19It has fascinated Joe Simpson for as
2:22long as he can remember.
2:24It is not the greatest mountain in the
2:26world. It is not the most beautiful
2:28mountain in the world. The climbing on
2:29it is not the hardest.
2:31But to me anyway, and I think to many
2:33others of our generation, it's a seminal
2:36mountain.
2:41And it has a sort of hypnotic power
2:43about it.
2:45It has an atmosphere. Something truly
2:48intimidating.
2:51This brooding presence.
2:54The first time you see it, you just look
2:57up and up.
2:58And you just think, good god.
3:03From the east, west, and south,
3:06the Eiger looks like any other mountain.
3:09It is its north face that makes it a
3:11legend.
3:14A 6,000-ft vertical wall of rock and
3:16ice.
3:17It is a place that never gets the sun.
3:21And standing exposed to every storm
3:23sweeping into the Alps,
3:25it is a mountain where the weather can
3:26change with breathtaking speed.
3:29I've seen it happen.
3:31I've seen the face turn into a maelstrom
3:33of rockfall and avalanches, the like of
3:37which I've never witnessed on any
3:38mountain in my life.
3:43There's something else extraordinary
3:44about it
3:46that almost heightens the sense of
3:48danger.
3:49You are so close to luxurious hotels, to
3:52people having fun.
3:54You can hear the excited chatter of
3:56tourists getting on and off the trains
3:58and drinking their beers.
4:00You can see them
4:01and they can see you.
4:09More than 60 men have died on the north
4:11face of the Eiger.
4:14It has killed some of the best young
4:15climbers of their generation and forced
4:17some of the most dramatic mountain
4:19rescues in the Alps.
4:22And it was this bleak history that
4:24caught Joe's imagination as a boy.
4:30My father gave me a book called The
4:31White Spider.
4:34It was fascinating and it was
4:36frightening.
4:40And it was those stories
4:43and one story in particular,
4:45the story of Tony Kurz,
4:47that made me want to climb.
4:56There's a picture of Kurz sitting in a
4:57meadow in the summer of 1936.
5:00This smiling young man looking at you
5:03from the past and he was just a vibrant,
5:06energetic, ambitious young climber.
5:10It was just absolute excitement. It's
5:12what he lived for.
5:15But this is not just a story that
5:17inspired Joe to climb.
5:2011 years after reading of what happened
5:22to Kurz on the Eiger,
5:24Joe had a climbing accident in Peru that
5:26nearly killed him.
5:30And what has haunted him ever since
5:32is that in strange and disturbing ways
5:35his accident echoed the story of his
5:38childhood hero.
5:41Kurz was always there.
5:43Kurz was always this figure.
5:47But what happened to me in Peru led me
5:49back to him.
5:58Tony Kurz set out to climb the north
6:00face of the Eiger on the 20th of July
6:021936.
6:05He and his fellow climbers were only the
6:06second team in its history to attempt
6:08it.
6:12Kurz was 23,
6:14a newly qualified mountain guide from
6:16Bavaria.
6:18He was climbing with his friend and
6:20fellow guide, a brilliant young rock
6:22climber called Andreas Hinterstoisser.
6:26They had joined up on the climb with two
6:28Austrians.
6:2927-year-old Willy Angerer was the
6:31eldest.
6:33His partner, Edi Rainer, was the most
6:35experienced, a highly talented route
6:38finder and mountaineer.
6:43Their progress up the north face that
6:45day had turned into a public event.
6:49They were being watched from the valley
6:50below by a cluster of reporters and
6:53tourists.
6:55One by one, in the early 1930s,
6:58the great north faces of the Alps had
7:00been claimed.
7:01But the Eiger was still unconquered.
7:05It was so difficult, so dangerous, that
7:08one climber called it an obsession for
7:10the mentally deranged.
7:13As you approach the bottom part of the
7:15face, you climb a series of shattered
7:16rock walls and rubble-strewn ledges.
7:19Then you get under the Rote Fluh. It's a
7:21tiny feature on this face and yet it's
7:231,000 ft high, an overhanging wall of
7:25rock.
7:26Then round the corner to the edge of the
7:28first ice field.
7:30The second ice field is this great
7:32swathe of ice, 1,800 ft wide.
7:35It's steep. It's getting steeper and
7:37every time from now on that you get onto
7:38rock, it's getting steeper and steeper
7:41until you get right to the base of the
7:42great ice chute called The White Spider.
7:45If you fell at this point, you would zip
7:47out into space. You probably wouldn't
7:49touch anything for 5,000 ft.
7:52It was the scale of this vertical rock
7:54face that defeated the first climbers to
7:56attempt it.
8:00Karl Merringer and Max Sedlmayr set off
8:03in the summer of the previous year.
8:053 days into their climb, a storm hit the
8:08face.
8:09The men were seen trying to climb up and
8:11out to safety.
8:13But on the fifth day,
8:14they disappeared.
8:16Sedlmayr's body was found frozen into
8:18the ice at a place now called Death
8:21Bivouac.
8:24It was a very controversial tragedy.
8:27Climbers had died on many mountains in
8:29the Alps,
8:30but not in full view of the public.
8:33The north face was called a suicidal
8:35challenge.
8:36There was talk of banning it to
8:38climbers.
8:39But the following summer, Kurz and his
8:41friends arrived, ambitious young
8:43climbers chasing a great first ascent.
8:49They wanted to do it for the same reason
8:50that we did, to see if it was possible.
8:53You don't feel like you ever have to
8:54justify yourself to anybody else. You go
8:57and do these things and if other people
8:58think you're stupid or irresponsible,
9:00you don't give a damn.
9:04And I suppose as a young boy, I just
9:06thought, god, what an
9:08extraordinary thing to do. What, you
9:10know, not just a brave thing to do, an
9:12extraordinary thing to do. To look at a
9:14face like that and just think, I'm good
9:16enough.
9:17You know, I will climb this. I will
9:19succeed.
9:30But there was a reason people said the
9:32north face was impossible.
9:34Confidence and optimism do not protect
9:36you on this mountain.
9:39And what happened to these four young
9:40climbers over the next 5 days proved
9:43beyond doubt that the Eiger was every
9:45bit as frightening as its reputation
9:48suggested.
10:12The risk of an unexpected avalanche is
10:14always present in the Alps.
10:18Unstable ice and snow and the threat of
10:21sudden storms are what make these
10:23mountains dangerous.
10:28Joe has been waiting for days for a
10:30weather window to climb on the Eiger.
10:32Local mountain guides advised that heavy
10:34snowfall and the unpredictable weather
10:37made it too great a risk for him and his
10:39climbing partner Cubby.
10:42The Eiger is a mountain Joe has dreamt
10:44of climbing all his life.
10:47But bad luck and bad injuries have
10:48intervened each time.
10:51This mountain, it's quite addictive.
10:56I've made six attempts on the face and
10:59got bad weather every single time.
11:03But it calls you.
11:05It you know,
11:06I sort of had this phrase of the
11:08beckoning silence of great height. And
11:10what I was meaning by that was this
11:12when you stand on the edge of a great
11:14drop,
11:16it's very difficult not be absolutely
11:19staggered by it.
11:21When you look at a face like that and
11:23you imagine there, you just want to go
11:25up there
11:27and play games on it.
11:30Joe is here to retrace key sections of
11:32the route that Tony Kurtz and his
11:34friends took up the north face in the
11:36summer of 1936.
11:41He will do the climb in stages.
11:44And for the first, he has an easy
11:46shortcut to a point a third of the way
11:48up the face.
11:51Because the Eiger has one other unusual
11:53feature.
11:55In the late 19th century, the Swiss
11:57government built a railway tunnel
12:00right up the middle of the mountain.
12:04Halfway up the track,
12:06a small access window was drilled
12:08through the mountain wall.
12:10It opens directly onto the north face of
12:12the Eiger.
12:14There's such psychological baggage that
12:16it brings with it this face. All the
12:19stories that you've heard, all the
12:20possible ways you could get hurt or
12:22trapped or killed.
12:24And you can't get those out of your
12:26head.
12:43It's a
12:45quite a surreal sensation starting a
12:47climb like this. I mean,
12:48it's not often that you
12:51caught a nice warm train
12:54and then you suddenly step out of the
12:55tunnel
12:57and you're just 1,500 ft up the north
12:59face of the Eiger.
13:03When you're suddenly exposed
13:05to an abyss like that,
13:08it's impossible not to be aware of the
13:11drop,
13:13the sense of the fall line
13:15below you.
13:17And it's quite a strange game it plays
13:19on you because,
13:20you know,
13:21this drop isn't actually doing you any
13:22harm at all.
13:24It's just there.
13:27But it
13:28gets in your head.
13:37About the same time I started reading
13:39the story of Tony Kurtz,
13:42I started rock climbing.
13:45It was just like, that's what I've been
13:46looking for.
13:48And I found that although it was a bit
13:49frightening, if you knew what you were
13:51doing,
13:52you could get rid of the fear.
13:55That was almost an addiction, really.
13:59It always had to have that mixture of
14:01apprehension and exhilaration,
14:04fear and excitement.
14:06And then you want to test yourself more
14:08and more.
14:11You want to go and do a first ascent, go
14:13and climb something at the extreme
14:16ability that you have.
14:20That's how you lived.
14:22And I didn't really realize how
14:24obsessive I became
14:25until many years later when my mother
14:27had died.
14:29I was given a bundle of postcards that
14:31I'd sent to her 20 years or so before.
14:34And I didn't recognize my former self.
14:38So it was this utterly driven person who
14:40was completely obsessed.
14:42There was nothing on the cards about
14:43anything other than mountains and
14:46grades and routes which would have meant
14:47absolutely nothing to my parents.
14:50And it was all written in tiny letters
14:52all around the postcard. There was only
14:53a little square in the middle for the
14:54address.
14:56Perhaps you have to become a little
14:58obsessive
14:59to do something to that degree.
15:11At a point a third of the way up the
15:12north face,
15:13the route of Tony Kurtz's ambitious
15:15attempt on the mountain
15:17brings Joe within sight of a place that
15:20is notorious amongst climbers.
15:25At first, Kurtz and his three friends
15:27made rapid progress up the face,
15:30climbing 1,500 ft on the morning of
15:32their first day.
15:36But then they were stopped in their
15:37tracks
15:38by a smooth slab of polished rock.
15:48The climbers had mapped out a new route,
15:50gambling that the fastest way up the
15:51face was to follow the path of the great
15:53ice field at its center.
15:55Their plan was to aim for the left-hand
15:57corner of the vast rock wall, the Rote
15:59Fluh,
16:00and sneak across to the bottom of the
16:02first ice field.
16:04But it was at this critical point that
16:06the rock barrier blocked their path.
16:11This section here, it's only about 15 ft
16:15maximum.
16:17It's incredibly smooth.
16:20You can just see by all the crampon
16:21scratches all over it, people have had
16:24trouble here.
16:28It's quite a wake-up drop below us,
16:29mind.
16:31Probably about 2,000 ft straight down.
16:36And up here
16:38is a very old peg.
16:41I reckon what Hinterstoisser did is he
16:43climbed up these ledges,
16:45put that peg in and clipped his rope in
16:47it.
16:49Okay.
16:50With advantage
16:52of the rope above him,
16:54he could sort of do a downward traverse
16:56across these very smooth slabs, being
16:59given tension by his companions. Okay.
17:12Hinterstoisser knew he was the best rock
17:14climber there. He was the only one who
17:16could do this.
17:18But if he falls off, he's going to take
17:20a huge swing and be hanging underneath.
17:32Edging sideways in a step-by-step
17:34traverse across this near-vertical rock
17:36is still so difficult and dangerous. The
17:39climbers today always leave a fixed rope
17:41in place.
17:44But Hinterstoisser was climbing rock no
17:46one had touched before.
17:48And he was climbing into the unknown.
17:51He had no way of telling what lay out of
17:53sight around the corner.
18:19Under!
18:31Tony!
18:45It was a virtuoso piece of climbing.
18:49Crossing this 100-ft stretch of rock had
18:52unlocked the heart of the face.
18:56With the security of the rope in place,
18:58his friends could cross one by one.
19:02And all of them knew it was possible
19:04that nothing as difficult as this lay
19:06between them and the summit.
19:16They set off on a great adventure.
19:20They believed in themselves.
19:22And they proved through their own
19:24brilliance that they were capable of
19:25doing this.
19:30That's what I love about climbing.
19:33It's about having fun. It's about living
19:35to the full.
19:40I look at Kurtz
19:41and it's almost like seeing back
19:44to when you were 20 years old.
19:55We saw it was worth risking everything.
19:58All of the rest of your life, every
20:00happiness you ever could have had.
20:03All the experiences you have in all the
20:05countries and in all the mountains.
20:08They change who you are. They mold who
20:10you are and they become it becomes
20:12something that's life enhancing and and
20:14life defining.
20:29The dream of a first ascent on the north
20:30face was now in sight.
20:34But in their relation that morning,
20:36there was one thing the four climbers
20:37didn't know.
20:39Without a rope fixed in place,
20:41it is impossible to climb back across
20:44the traverse.
20:46What they were thinking about was the
20:47way ahead.
20:49They intended to climb to the summit.
20:52Plus they pulled the rope back.
20:54It didn't for one moment
20:57enter their minds
20:59that they might have to try and come
21:00back this way.
21:093,000 ft up the north face of the Eiger,
21:12the terrain changes.
21:17A massive ice field extends across the
21:19width of the rock face at the halfway
21:21point of the climb.
21:23And with it comes a new danger.
21:26Because beyond the sheer scale of the
21:28face and the potential to get trapped by
21:30bad weather,
21:32there's another menace always present on
21:34this mountain.
21:42In late afternoon, when the sun hits the
21:45edge of the face, the ice begins to
21:47melt.
21:49Thousands of loose rocks frozen into the
21:51ice field over the years start to work
21:54loose.
21:55And when they fall,
21:56they come down with incredible speed.
22:02You look up. From from from
22:08Something the size of half a brick has
22:09fallen 500 ft through the air, shooting
22:12past you.
22:14It hits with extraordinary velocity.
22:17It won't just break your arm.
22:19It will shatter the bone.
22:25The climbers had no helmets,
22:28just simple felt hats.
22:34But one by one that afternoon, Toni Kurz
22:36and his friends took their turn to make
22:38the 300-ft dash up the first ICE FIELD.
23:07WILLY ANGERER WAS THE THIRD TO GO.
23:32There was just a volley of stones
23:34that just
23:36came all around him.
23:38And none of them were hit and then
23:40Angerer was hit.
23:45In that one instance, in that sickening
23:47sound of somebody being smashed on the
23:49head by a stone, everything would have
23:51been suspended for a second.
24:00Only takes
24:01one slip,
24:03one false move,
24:05one single stone to come out of nowhere
24:08and it becomes a completely different
24:10game that you're playing.
24:14The climbers were more than halfway to
24:15the summit of the Eiger.
24:18That morning, a great first descent had
24:20seemed within their grasp.
24:24But now, Willy Angerer had some kind of
24:26head injury.
24:27The four friends faced the hardest of
24:29choices,
24:30whether to push on to the top
24:35or turn back to safety.
24:49After the shock of Angerer's accident,
24:51the four climbers wrote themselves to a
24:53ledge on the Eiger and rested for the
24:55night.
24:59The next morning, witnesses saw them
25:01leave their camp at 7:00 a.m.
25:04Everyone expected them to start down,
25:08but instead, they began to climb again.
25:16They were halfway up a mountain no one
25:17had climbed before
25:19and that was a pride they would not give
25:20up lightly.
25:28The men had reached the point where the
25:301,800-ft wide expanse of the second ice
25:32field stretches out across the north
25:35face.
25:44The ice field is 3,000 vertical ft above
25:47the valley.
25:49The skills of the local air rescue team
25:51mean Joe can be dropped onto the ice
25:53field by helicopter.
25:55The pilot will fly close enough to the
25:57mountain to winch him down to a ledge
25:59that is barely 2 ft wide.
26:05From this point, Joe will be able to
26:07retrace Kurz's progress on the second
26:09day of his climb.
26:22They must have felt pretty good when
26:24they got here.
26:27All the main features of the face are
26:28now apparent.
26:30You can see the
26:31the ramp
26:33up above the second ice field.
26:37They know from here
26:39they should have no problem
26:42getting to uh
26:44Saddlemyer
26:46and Meringer's
26:48high spot of the year before to get us
26:50back to work.
26:55The second ice field is an exposed and
26:57dangerous place.
27:07Hinterstoisser and Kurz knew it was
27:09ground they needed to cover as fast as
27:11possible.
27:13But as the morning wore on,
27:15it became clear they had a problem.
27:18The injured Willy Angerer was getting
27:20slower by the hour.
27:23Inside, they would have been thinking,
27:24"Get a move on. Get a move on."
27:28And by the same degree, Angerer would
27:30have known that he's not moving fast
27:32enough.
27:34It's like you're trying to get to the
27:35most important meeting in your life and
27:37you're stuck in a traffic jam
27:39in the worst possible place.
27:45I mean, they still had half the height
27:46of the face to go,
27:483,000 ft above them.
27:50That's vertical height. They probably
27:52had about 8,000 ft total distance to
27:55climb.
27:57The four men would have expected to
27:59cross the second ice field in five or
28:01six hours.
28:02But by the end of the day, they were
28:04still making their slow traverse across
28:06it.
28:08That evening, they made another camp on
28:10the ice.
28:14Each of them knew the dangers of moving
28:16too slowly on this mountain,
28:18the risk of getting trapped by bad
28:20weather.
28:22It was what had killed the first two
28:23climbers to attempt it.
28:28I can imagine what it must have felt
28:29like
28:30to be Kurz or Hinterstoisser, the
28:33uninjured pair.
28:36I would have been thinking, "This isn't
28:37going to work. You know, we cannot climb
28:40this at this speed. We probably have the
28:43hardest climbing ahead of us."
28:49And maybe in some whispered conversation
28:51with my partner, I'd say, "Look,
28:53do you think those two can get down on
28:54their own? Because we can go on as a
28:56pair."
28:58And
28:59I think
29:00Angerer and Rebitsch couldn't fail to
29:03have been aware that things had changed.
29:08You have to add something else into
29:10this.
29:12This is where Saddlemyer and Meringer
29:14had died the year before.
29:20Saddlemyer was frozen into the snow,
29:23probably less than a rope length from
29:24where they were sitting that night.
29:32You know, you like to think as a young
29:34man, you control the odds
29:37by your judgment and by your skill.
29:39And that sort of gives you your sense of
29:41invulnerability.
29:43And it's not exactly true.
29:49Joe was just 2 years older than Kurz
29:51when something happened that changed his
29:53life.
29:59He was 25, climbing in Peru,
30:02when he broke his leg in a split-second
30:04fall.
30:08His climbing partner, Simon, tried to
30:10lower him down the mountain.
30:12But in the darkness, Joe slid over the
30:14edge of an ice cliff.
30:16And he was trapped,
30:18hanging in space above a precipice.
30:23To save himself, Simon was forced to cut
30:25the rope.
30:29Joe fell 150 ft into a crevasse.
30:33Then for 4 days, he crawled to safety
30:36with a badly shattered leg.
30:40When I got back to England,
30:42I had six operations on my knee.
30:46I was in plaster for 9 months. I was on
30:48crutches for 12 months.
30:52And as I was discharged, consultant told
30:55me that you'll never walk without a
30:56limp.
30:58And you'll never climb again.
31:02I don't think he really understood what
31:04he was saying to me.
31:07Climbing was my whole life.
31:10It was a passion.
31:12I remember sitting on the bed, looking
31:15at my legs, and just crying.
31:18Because this guy was telling me it was
31:20over.
31:30So, I'd go down to the local swimming
31:32pool and just swim and swim.
31:36Eventually, I got to the point where I
31:37was going 5 days a week, and I started
31:39getting fitter and fitter and fitter.
31:43It was a long, hard rehabilitation.
31:47But it was enough, in the end,
31:50to start climbing again.
31:58I should have been pretty much set up
31:59and happy, and
32:02and I wasn't really.
32:05Something changed.
32:08Something inside had been damaged.
32:24On the morning of July the 20th, 1936,
32:27witnesses in the valley saw something
32:29odd happen among the four climbers.
32:32As they left their camp on the ice,
32:34two of them pushed ahead, climbing fast
32:37towards the summit.
32:39It was Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni
32:42Kurz.
32:45These two wanted to do the climb.
32:48They could actually see the path ahead
32:51to the summit.
32:53They know that Angerer's injured, but
32:55they would have been hoping that if they
32:57just are bullish, aggressive, go for it,
32:59come on, lads, do it, they'll come with
33:02them.
33:13And then they were stopped dead in their
33:14tracks.
33:17It would have become apparent, as soon
33:18as they started climbing,
33:20that Angerer wasn't
33:22as well as they thought.
33:32God, the disappointment. [ __ ]
33:36Damn. Damn. We could have climbed it. We
33:39could have climbed it.
33:41The dream had gone.
33:46And then everything changed.
33:49The task they had now
33:51was to save another man.
33:54To retreat now meant reversing their
33:56tracks 1,800 ft across the second ice
33:59field, then 3,000 ft down to the safety
34:02of the valley below.
34:05But this time,
34:07they had an injured man
34:08who was clearly deteriorating.
34:15They began the descent at midday.
34:17It took them most of the afternoon to
34:19make their way back across the second
34:21ice field.
34:24To make matters worse,
34:27in the valley below were the first
34:29telltale signs of bad weather
34:30approaching.
34:49It was as if they were on a balance
34:51of excitement and adventure and
34:54anticipation on one side,
34:57tipping in to losing control
35:00and failure. And it's at that point that
35:02everything tipped.
35:17At 8:30 that night, the climbers stopped
35:20to rest.
35:21It was their third night on the north
35:22face,
35:23and they were back at the halfway point
35:25of the climb.
35:29The following day, their retreat would
35:31bring them to the 100-ft rock barrier,
35:33the traverse.
35:40Hinterstoisser, of all people,
35:43knew how difficult it'd been to climb
35:46across the traverse.
35:48He'd done it in dry conditions.
35:51And I'm sure it must have been going
35:53through his mind.
35:54We've got 3,000 ft to descend, but we've
35:57got one crux thing.
36:00First,
36:01we have to get back across the traverse.
36:19By the morning of the fourth day,
36:21the mountain was enveloped in cloud.
36:25The temperature was dropping,
36:26and water was beginning to pour down the
36:28face,
36:29freezing in places to the rock around
36:31them.
36:32The men left the bivouac around 7:00
36:34a.m.,
36:35but Angerer's condition appeared to be
36:37worsening.
36:40Their descent of the first ice field
36:41that morning was painfully slow.
36:47The seriousness of their position would
36:49now have struck all of them.
36:51They couldn't climb up to safety, and
36:53they couldn't climb down.
36:55Below them was a 700-ft abyss.
36:59They knew if they couldn't get back
37:00across the traverse,
37:02they were trapped.
37:06What they didn't know
37:07was what Hinterstoisser had done the
37:09first time
37:11wasn't possible in reverse.
37:20This is about plum center of the
37:21Hinterstoisser.
37:24To come across, Hinterstoisser put the
37:26high peg in and clipped his rope in it.
37:28And so, he had his rope running down to
37:30him under tension.
37:32And he could have lent
37:33with his friends
37:35tensioning him across across this blank
37:37bit.
37:38And then they pulled their ropes back.
37:40To come back, he couldn't get any
37:42tension. He didn't have
37:43any high pitons above us.
37:46And you can just see this section here.
37:5015-20 ft, it's absolutely ice-worn
37:53smooth. There aren't downward-facing
37:55ledges,
37:56but they're tricky enough in these
37:57conditions.
37:59But if this was ice-glazed,
38:01it would have been absolutely desperate.
38:08And it was.
38:10The glass-smooth rock of the traverse
38:12was now wet,
38:14and streaked with black ice.
38:36Everything would have compressed
38:38into this small minute of time.
38:45Every fiber in his body would have been
38:47concentrating on every tiny move.
38:53This is their best climber,
38:56trying for all he was worth to get back
38:58across the very thing that he had so
39:00brilliantly unlocked.
39:13Almost 5 hours
39:15trying to CROSS THIS TRAVERSE.
39:22I RECKON VIRTUALLY WHERE I'M STANDING
39:24now
39:25is where
39:27Hinterstoisser would have repeatedly
39:29fallen off, desperately just trying to
39:31climb this section.
39:40There is that moment
39:42when activity stops.
39:48You just know you can't do this.
39:52And you have to accept
39:55that it's over.
40:06And it would have gradually been dawning
40:08on all of them
40:10that this could be a fatal error that
40:12they hadn't left a rope behind.
40:19They couldn't cross the traverse. It was
40:20unclimbable.
40:23But if they stayed where they were, they
40:25were going to die.
40:30The very piece of brilliance that had
40:33unlocked the heart of the face
40:36had trapped
40:49As a storm comes into the face,
40:51you can sense it as much as see it.
40:55There's this horrible sense of
40:57expectancy.
40:58The hair on the back of your head starts
41:00to rise and you become incredibly aware
41:03that it's about to happen. It's about to
41:05happen.
41:07And then all hell is let loose.
41:19The storm hit the Eiger on the climbers'
41:21fourth day on the north face.
41:24For the watchers in the valley, it was
41:25an unsettling reminder of the previous
41:27year.
41:29Just like the first two climbers to
41:30attempt it, Kurtz and the others had
41:32simply disappeared behind the cloud.
41:37Trapped halfway up the mountain,
41:39the climbers now knew they couldn't
41:41climb up to safety
41:43or back across the traverse.
41:45It would gradually have dawned on all of
41:46them that there was only one option left
41:49to descend the vertical ground below
41:51them.
41:55I imagine they don't even want to
41:57contemplate it.
41:59They were still 3,000 ft above the
42:00valley.
42:02They stay where they are, Angerer will
42:03certainly die.
42:05But they're not going to survive in
42:06these conditions much longer. Another
42:08night on the face, exhausted, they're
42:10not going to last.
42:12Below them, they had ground dropping
42:14away steeply.
42:16Ice-covered rocks getting steeper and
42:18steeper until eventually they knew there
42:20was a rock barrier some 200 ft high,
42:23vertical and overhanging.
42:25If they get down, and it's a bigger,
42:27there is a ledge system that runs across
42:30the face.
42:32This ledge system led to a small door
42:34drilled through the mountain wall into
42:36the railway tunnel.
42:38It was the same door that Joe used as a
42:40shortcut onto the face.
42:47Everything that's been happening to them
42:48that day is limiting their options.
42:53They had a barely conscious man to try
42:55and bring down.
42:58And to make matters worse,
43:01their line of descent led them directly
43:04to the stones and the avalanches that
43:06were hurtling down from above.
43:09To step out into the face of those
43:11avalanches would have seemed suicide.
43:16But there's no other choice.
43:37This is pretty much there.
43:40Abseil line of descent.
43:44This really would have been an awful
43:46place
43:47to start trying to get down.
43:51I've got good visibility today
43:53and I wouldn't like to be going down
43:54here.
43:57The teeth of a storm, they wouldn't have
43:59been able to see very far at all.
44:02And they would have been to contend with
44:03lowering somebody
44:05who was probably barely capable of
44:06looking after himself, going in and out
44:08of consciousness.
44:13And you have to think of their gear.
44:15Hemp ropes frozen into wires, clothing
44:17that's been wet for the last three, four
44:19days.
44:20They'd be cold,
44:22tired.
44:25It would have been a very serious
44:26situation indeed.
44:50They heard this voice.
44:54And they just look at each other and
44:56they know what it is.
45:04A railway guard had gone down to the
45:05tunnel door they were trying to reach
45:08and he was calling out to them in the
45:09storm.
45:13And they just shouted back, "All's
45:15well."
45:17Which is classic when you think about
45:18it.
45:21Absolutely no mention the fact they've
45:22got a badly injured companion.
45:25No mention of how exhausted and how
45:26tired they are and the danger they're
45:28in.
45:29That's a sort of pride, really.
45:31They will come down together.
45:35They do not need help.
45:38But more than anything, their spirits
45:40would have just raised at that point.
45:42There was someone else there.
45:45Just have to do four abseils possibly
45:48five.
45:49We're having a cup of tea with the guard
45:51in 2 hours.
45:53It was over.
46:11As Joe is filming on the Eiger, the
46:13weather window starts to close.
46:16A forecast comes through for heavy snow.
46:24The helicopter must take Joe off before
46:26the cloud cover descends.
46:29From the narrow ledge on the face, he
46:31will have to clip back onto the winch
46:33line that is just 5 mm thick.
46:36It is so thin because if the climber
46:38becomes entangled, the pilot will be
46:40forced to cut the line.
46:57You walk right on the edge of things in
47:00the mountains.
47:04And there's a very fine line
47:06between success and disaster,
47:11between life and death.
47:19And walking on the edge of that
47:21gives you a completely different
47:22perspective on life
47:24and
47:25your sense of being alive.
47:28And even when you're climbing and
47:29conditions are great and everything's
47:31going swimmingly,
47:32you always have
47:34that little part in the back of your
47:36mind that's just saying, "Just watch
47:37out. Watch out. Watch out." It can go
47:40wrong in an instant.
47:43At 2:00 p.m. that afternoon,
47:45Andreas Hinterstoisser unclipped from
47:46the rope that linked the four climbers
47:49and began to prepare their final abseil.
47:52They were barely 200 ft from safety.
48:29The violence of it,
48:31the shock of it,
48:32must have been immense.
48:35A massive avalanche
48:36just caught them like a tsunami.
48:46It just blasted Angerer and Kurtz
48:49straight off the ledge
48:50out into the abyss below.
48:54The impact of these two
48:57yanked Rebitsch up against the piton.
49:20Below Kurtz, Willy Angerer was almost
49:23certainly dead,
49:26killed on impact with the rock face.
49:29And out of sight above him,
49:32Edi Rebitsch was dying, too.
49:35Help me!
49:36The weight of the two climbers on the
49:38rope around his waist would have crushed
49:40his diaphragm and slowly asphyxiated
49:42him.
49:43It would have taken him 10 minutes to
49:44die.
49:48There was no sign of Andreas
49:49Hinterstoisser.
49:50His body was later discovered at the
49:52foot of the North Face,
49:542,000 ft below.
49:58Kurz was just hanging in space.
50:02His companion dead below him.
50:04His companion dead above him.
50:09And Hinterstoisser is gone, swept out
50:12into the void.
50:16I've been in a situation where
50:19people have fallen to their deaths
50:22close by me.
50:26And it renders you
50:28almost incapable of doing anything.
50:31You're so threatened by the immediacy of
50:34the death.
50:36You're sort of unmanned. You're
50:39physically incapable of getting over the
50:42shock
50:43of what you've just witnessed.
50:59At 3:00 that afternoon, the railway
51:01guard from the tunnel called down to the
51:03mountain guides in the valley.
51:06He said he'd gone out to call for the
51:08four young climbers again,
51:10but this time had heard only one voice
51:12calling back, crying desperately for
51:14help.
51:19Within an hour, a rescue party had
51:20traveled up the tunnel to the window
51:22that led directly onto the North Face.
51:32They knew if they climbed the ledge
51:33system that ran across the face, it
51:35would place them somewhere below where
51:37Kurz was trapped.
51:40700 ft from the window, they reached a
51:43point where they could hear his cries.
51:45But Kurz was out of sight, 150 ft above
51:48them.
51:51To reach him, they would have to climb a
51:53series of vertical and overhanging
51:54cliffs in what were now gale force
51:57winds.
52:07Toni Kurz keeps imploring them, "You
52:09cannot get to me from below.
52:13You must climb up and you will be able
52:15to abseil down to me."
52:19But they can't do it.
52:21They can't do it in those conditions.
52:26And it's getting on to darkness.
52:29They can't afford to be pinned out in
52:31the open in this storm. They will die,
52:33too.
52:36And they say it to Toni, "You have to
52:38hang on until the morning. You must hang
52:41on."
52:50It must have been heartbreaking for
52:51those guys to leave him there.
52:54They probably knew
52:55that he wasn't going to make the night.
52:59They could hear his cries coming back to
53:01them.
53:12This is a man
53:14who would never have asked for rescue in
53:15his life.
53:16And he was pleading almost childlike for
53:19them not to leave him.
53:28And I can remember feeling like that.
53:33I hung in a very long dark night.
53:36And I can remember just
53:39just almost being overwhelmed
53:41by the loneliness of the situation.
53:45The sense of being abandoned.
53:52And he had known as a guide that his
53:54chances of surviving that night would be
53:57slim to nil.
54:01Cold takes you in a particularly
54:03insidious way.
54:06As if it's creeping through you.
54:08Tentacles of cold are starting to creep
54:10through you, starting to
54:12slow everything down,
54:15to turn things off inside.
54:20And
54:22the thought of just sleeping
54:23is so seductive.
54:28It would have been so easy
54:32just to let it go.
54:36And truth
54:38if my partner hadn't cut the rope,
54:40I would have died of cold.
54:48So, I can imagine what he felt like
54:51hanging on that rope.
54:54You are helpless like that.
54:58And just incredibly alone.
55:13I knew people died in mountains long
55:15before I had my accident.
55:19I sort of understood you were playing a
55:21game
55:22for very high stakes.
55:25And you might not actually have a choice
55:27over your fate.
55:31But recovering from the accident in
55:33Peru,
55:34I wrote this book Touching the Void. In
55:36the end, I wrote it in 7 weeks and I
55:38thought if it sold 500 copies,
55:41then I would be happy.
55:43I discovered I had another talent.
55:47But the process of writing made me
55:51think too much
55:53about what we were doing,
55:56about the price some of us were paying
55:58for this.
56:01I started thinking about the people who
56:05died.
56:08Some were acquaintances and some were
56:10good friends and some were friends
56:12I never stopped thinking about.
56:14And some died in different ways and some
56:16died in inexplicable ways and and often
56:19when they died, the first thing you you
56:21did was you asked how, not why.
56:24Because you wanted to know
56:26what they did wrong.
56:30We did something that we loved with a
56:31passion. You know, and it was life
56:33enhancing and life defining and yet it
56:35was killing our friends
56:37and nearly killing us.
56:44And I suppose when I started writing,
56:47I had opened a Pandora's box of fears
56:51that you could never quite put the lid
56:52on.
56:54Despite all the climbing I did,
56:57I knew that I was more exposed and more
56:59vulnerable.
57:03And I suddenly realized my love affair
57:06with risk-taking had cooled.
57:11I didn't want to play this game anymore.
57:27A summer storm on the Eiger is often
57:29followed by a cold front.
57:32All the water that's been pouring down
57:34the face freezes.
57:36Ice fills every ledge, crack, and
57:38foothold
57:40and glazes every surface of the rock.
57:43During Kurz's fourth night on the Eiger,
57:46its vertical face had frozen solid.
57:55I just can't imagine how long that night
57:57must have been.
58:01What on earth Kurz did
58:04to hold on to life.
58:09He'd lost his glove
58:11and his exposed hand was now
58:14completely frostbitten.
58:16His arm was like a claw.
58:28And then he would have heard the
58:29clanking of metal and the shouts of the
58:31guides as they came back along the
58:33tracks they'd made the previous night.
58:37He must have thought,
58:39"The guides, they're just going to get
58:41me down. They're just going to get me
58:42down."
58:46For the second time,
58:48the rescue team made it to within 150 ft
58:50of Kurz.
58:52But the vertical cliffs above them were
58:53now sheathed in millimeter-thick black
58:55ice.
59:00The rescuers reported that climbing up
59:03was impossible.
59:04Somehow, they had to find a way to get
59:07Kurz down.
59:09But the rope he was hanging on wasn't
59:10long enough to reach them.
59:12So, first, Kurz had to free himself. And
59:15then he had to find more rope.
59:18They said to Toni, "The only way you can
59:20do that
59:22is cut Angerer free."
59:25Angerer is hanging below him,
59:28frozen to the rock wall.
59:33And he's faced with this awful
59:34predicament.
59:41He has to get his knife
59:43and hack away
59:45at the frozen fibers of the rope.
59:50This is a man who's just spent
59:52the last 4 days living with
59:55in great intensity.
59:58He's just going to cut him free.
1:00:10But cutting away Willy Angerer was just
1:00:12a start.
1:00:15To make enough rope to reach the
1:00:16rescuers, Kurz had to climb up and cut
1:00:19away Edi Rainer, too.
1:00:26In the valley, the drama unfolding on
1:00:28the north face was drawing a crowd.
1:00:31For hour after hour that day, they
1:00:34waited for glimpses of Kurz between the
1:00:35clouds.
1:00:40It was mid-morning
1:00:42by the time he started his slow and
1:00:44painful progress up the rope.
1:00:46He had to get up about 5 10 ft and he
1:00:49got to a point where the rock steepened.
1:00:58And then he could hand over hand up the
1:01:00rope using his feet on the rock,
1:01:02get himself up to Rainer.
1:01:05Hey, Edi.
1:01:08Ed.
1:01:16Kurz needed 150 ft of rope to reach the
1:01:19rescuers.
1:01:24But even when he'd cut Edi free, he
1:01:25didn't have enough.
1:01:29The only way to make more
1:01:31was to unravel the frozen three-ply rope
1:01:34with his frostbitten hands.
1:01:37I just think about what it was like.
1:01:42Just all night to stay awake, stay
1:01:44awake, don't let the cold take you.
1:01:46They'll come for me in the morning.
1:01:49And when they come for you in the
1:01:50morning,
1:01:51there's yet another impossible task set
1:01:54to you. And then another one and another
1:01:56one.
1:02:02That in a way haunts me.
1:02:11It wasn't just luck that I survived.
1:02:15I made an effort.
1:02:18Cuz all I had to do once I found a way
1:02:20out
1:02:21is endure.
1:02:23It wasn't easy, but that's all I had to
1:02:25do.
1:02:27So I know what strength of mind it takes
1:02:31just to keep death away.
1:02:43It took Kurz 5 hours to unravel the rope
1:02:46and knot the pieces together.
1:02:51But when he finished,
1:02:53he had a single strand that at last
1:02:55linked him to the rescuers,
1:02:57just 150 ft below him.
1:03:02Now he couldn't abseil on this rope cuz
1:03:04it was only a single strand, it wasn't
1:03:06strong enough.
1:03:08But he could pull a rope up
1:03:10and the guides attached pitons
1:03:13and a climbing rope.
1:03:15Toni!
1:03:16Aufsteigen!
1:03:20But as Kurz began to pull up the rope,
1:03:23the rescuers realized it wasn't long
1:03:24enough.
1:03:25Toni!
1:03:26Anhalten!
1:03:28So they got another
1:03:30and then they joined the two ropes with
1:03:32a knot.
1:03:35TONI!
1:03:36AUFSTEIGEN!
1:03:40And they watched this bunch of pitons
1:03:44and the rope
1:03:45gradually going up, painfully slow.
1:03:53All he now had to do,
1:03:56all he had to do,
1:03:59was abseil down to safety.
1:04:08From the beginning,
1:04:16on the afternoon of his fifth day on the
1:04:17Eiger,
1:04:19Toni Kurz began his descent towards the
1:04:21rescue team.
1:04:22He had 150 ft of broken ground and one
1:04:25vertical and overhanging cliff to
1:04:27abseil.
1:04:29If the rescuers had calculated right,
1:04:31the two climbing ropes they'd knotted
1:04:32together would be just enough to bring
1:04:35the weak and exhausted climber down.
1:04:40This is the painfully slow, inch by
1:04:43inch, jerking down movement of a man who
1:04:46is at the absolute limit of his physical
1:04:49strength.
1:04:52His hands were frostbitten
1:04:54and he did what any sensible person
1:04:56would do.
1:04:58He got the abseil rope and he clipped it
1:05:01through this carabiner, through a snap
1:05:03link at his waist.
1:05:04Because he knew with his frozen hands
1:05:06and his frozen arm, he would have very
1:05:08little control.
1:05:11And the guides are now looking up.
1:05:15They see his legs appearing over the
1:05:17overhang.
1:05:19They are going to get him. He was almost
1:05:22within reaching distance.
1:05:30But as he starts to come down,
1:05:33he sees the knot joining the two ropes.
1:05:38It's about 50 ft off the ground.
1:05:42And as Kurz inches down towards safety,
1:05:46he feels below him the knot
1:05:50tight against his fist.
1:05:52And he knows instantly
1:05:54what the problem is.
1:06:05The knot is jammed against the snap
1:06:08link.
1:06:12And he's now just swinging in space,
1:06:16out of reach of the guides,
1:06:18off to the side from them, off to the
1:06:20left.
1:06:22They'd traversed as far around as they
1:06:24could reach.
1:06:26And then the face dropped away below
1:06:27him.
1:06:31If he'd managed to abseil down to a
1:06:33point that was level, they could have
1:06:36thrown a rope to him, pulled him across.
1:06:41While he was above them, they could do
1:06:43nothing for him.
1:06:44Couldn't throw a rope to him, they
1:06:45couldn't pull him down to them, there
1:06:47was nothing they could do.
1:06:49And he knows he can't get this knot
1:06:52through the snap link.
1:06:54He's finished.
1:07:02And the guides there helplessly
1:07:04screaming encouragement to him, you can
1:07:06do it, come on, just one more effort.
1:07:13They could hear him mumbling
1:07:16unintelligibly to himself trying to
1:07:18exert himself with one last effort force
1:07:21this knot through.
1:07:26And it wouldn't go.
1:07:32Suddenly,
1:07:34he sat forward.
1:07:36He stopped fighting the knot.
1:07:39And he said in a clear,
1:07:41strong voice,
1:07:44Ihr kommt mich nicht
1:07:48I'm finished.
1:08:01I suppose I look at Toni Kurz and the
1:08:03manner of his death
1:08:05and I know that that should have been
1:08:08me.
1:08:09That his story should have been mine.
1:08:12In truth,
1:08:14I should have
1:08:16died on a rope in Peru.
1:08:19And that will never be explainable to me
1:08:22why I was allowed to live
1:08:25and he wasn't.
1:08:29The rescuers who watched Kurz die
1:08:31were never able to reach his body.
1:08:34He was finally cut free by a team of
1:08:36mountain guides from Germany
1:08:39who arrived just too late to help in the
1:08:41rescue.
1:08:453 days after his death, the Swiss
1:08:47authorities banned all climbers from the
1:08:49north face.
1:08:50But 4 months later, after a legal
1:08:52challenge, the ban was lifted.
1:08:56For ambitious young climbers, another
1:08:58public tragedy had only added to the
1:09:00legend of the Eiger.
1:09:05Toni Kurz and his fellow climbers, Edi
1:09:07Rainer and Willy Angerer, had watched as
1:09:10Andreas Hinterstoisser unlocked the
1:09:12heart of the north face.
1:09:14In honor of his brilliant climb,
1:09:16it was called the Hinterstoisser
1:09:18Traverse.
1:09:22And using that route, a team of German
1:09:24climbers made the first descent 2 years
1:09:26later, in 1938.
1:09:29In all, eight climbers died trying
1:09:32before the last great north face of the
1:09:34Alps was conquered.
1:09:39Of all of them,
1:09:40Toni Kurz proved the hardest to forget.
1:09:44As Joe prepared to head home,
1:09:46he made one last climb to look across to
1:09:48the mountain where he died.
1:09:53I read the story of Toni Kurz at 14.
1:09:58It stuck with me for the rest of my
1:09:59life.
1:10:01That to me just seems the most dreadful
1:10:05way to die.
1:10:09And it somehow it inspired me.
1:10:14Why on earth would that inspire you to
1:10:16climb? Well,
1:10:19because he never gave up.
1:10:22Right to the end,
1:10:24he thought he could win through.
1:10:28He displayed to me something quite
1:10:30extraordinary about the human spirit.
1:10:32The ability to just despite anything
1:10:35that's happening to you, to just keep on
1:10:38going.
1:10:40And he deserved to survive. He deserved
1:10:42to live.
1:10:46The photograph I always remember
1:10:49is of the young, smiling, tousled-haired
1:10:52guide laughing at the camera with the
1:10:54adventure of the climb ahead of him.
1:10:58And I thought,
1:10:59he thought that was worth living for.
1:11:03I better go and try and see if I can do
1:11:04that.
1:11:08If you were going to risk all that,
1:11:11not just risk the hardship and the pain,
1:11:15but risk your life,
1:11:17put everything on the line
1:11:20for a dream,
1:11:21for something that's worth nothing, that
1:11:23can't be proved to anybody.
1:11:26You just have the transient moment
1:11:28on a summit.
1:11:31When you come back down to the valley,
1:11:32it goes.
1:11:35It is actually a completely illogical
1:11:38thing to do.
1:11:41It's not justifiable
1:11:43by any rational terms.
1:11:48That's probably why you do it.
1:11:57My dream is to climb the Eiger.
1:12:01And it just never turned out like that.
1:12:03I haven't climbed for 3 years.
1:12:07I lost the passion to do it.
1:12:09I don't have that sort of immortality of
1:12:12youth that it'll never happen to me
1:12:15self-confidence.
1:12:18It's an awareness of frailty I never had
1:12:20when I was 20.
1:12:24But I'm not saying never cuz I know what
1:12:26I'm like.
1:12:29And coming back here to do this, the
1:12:31face was in perfect condition and
1:12:33the meadows were like the summer and I
1:12:35just felt that old rush coming back.
1:12:41Oh god, you idiot.
1:13:03Beckoning Silence is available soon on
1:13:06DVD and includes exclusive unseen
1:13:08extras. To pre-order your copy, visit
1:13:10channel4.com/shop.
1:13:13Next up, new comedy on 4 with Russell
1:13:15Brand's Ponderland pondering his
1:13:18childhood.

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