Eiger: Wall of Death on iPlayer

It's a good week for mountain fans on the BBC iPlayer. Not only are there six hours of the Great Climb to take in, but there's also a one-hour documentary about the Eiger Nordwand titled 'The Eiger: Wall of Death' timed to coincide with our walk below the face last week.

Fortunately the content of the programme isn't nearly as sensationalist as its title, with the film mixing some amazing historical footage of early attempts on the Nordwand – there are shots of Dougal Haston below the White Spider on the Harlin Direct for example – with thoughtful comments from leading mountaineers including Chris Bonington and Stephen Venables.

The programme also accompanies Kenton Cool and his climbing partner to a wintery Kleine Sheidegg, where conditions on the face are woeful, as checked by the team after exiting onto the face from the railway window. According to the commentary, the BBC have been trying to film an ascent of the face for two years and failed, this time was no different.

It finishes with Uli Steck's astonishing two-hour 47 minute solo ascent of the face from bottom to top, when he talks about treating it as a 'run'. 

Definitely well worth watching if you didn't catch it on the television at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tlwj3/The_Eiger_Wall_of_Death/