'The Best Route In The Alps'?

In today's Times, Stephen Venables, the mountaineering writer and first Brit' to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen 'explains the fascination' of the Eigerwand.

Actually it's a slightly disappointing piece that doesn't really come close to summonsing the visceral fear that seems to have wrapped itself round this particular lump of alpine rock from the first attempts onwards - it's all a bit stiff upper lip and finishes with the bald statement that: 'It is the best route in the Alps, and climbers will always aspire to it.' Perhaps Venables is correct in the sense that his low key, pragmatic approach to the climb is the best way to get up it, but surely the intertwined mythology and history of the route is what makes it so fascinating?

To read the full story on The Times web site click here. But for a more emotive experience read the Tom Patey essay 'A Short Walk With Whillanns' in the excellent 'One Man's Mountains', Jon Krakauer's 'Eiger Dreams' in which Marc Twight opts to carry a Walkman and The Dead Kennedy's in preference to a sleeping bag, or even Bonington's various descriptions including the first winter ascent.