“It’s not justifiable by any logical terms. That’s probably why you do it”. Joe Simpson used these words in his two old years documentary “The Beckoning Silence” while trying to explain what drives some mountaineers to do what they do.

Known for his documentary “Touching The Void”, Joe Simpson documents in  this documentary the fatal summit attempt of Eiger by young Edi Rainer, Willy Angerer, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz.

Toni Kurtz

Toni Kurtz’s attempt to be the first to scale Eiger’s North Face in 1936 was met with the death of three teammates and himself. He died of exhaustion, suspended from a rope just 15 feet away from rescue. The last words spoken by Toni were: “Ich kann nicht mehr”. I was emotionally drained after watching “The Beckoning Silence” and gawking at Toni Kurtz’s body hanging from the cliff.

Why couldn’t they just rescue him?

Life is not fair (and I really need to get used to it).

PS: I’ve heard great things about The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer who describes mountain climbing attempts of the “Eiger North Face”, including also this tragedy of the 1936 attempt by Edi Rainer, Willy Angerer, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz.

PS 1: We watched North Face movie some days ago, and I was not impressed.

“Every mountain has its soul.

If the mountain doesn’t accept you

and you don’t submit to her will,

she will ruin you.”

And Lantang Lirung ruined him.

RIP, Tomaz.

Tomaz Humar (1969 - 2009)

Richard Dick Proenneke retired at age 50 in 1967 and decided to build his own cabin on the shore of Twin Lakes in Alaska. The first summer he scouted for the best cabin site, and cut and peeled the logs he would need for his cabin. He returned the next summer to build the cabin by hand. He lived there for over 30 years, but returned to civilization in 1999. He left his cabin to the parks service and it remains today as a popular visitor attraction in the still-remote Twin Lakes region. During his stay in the wilderness, he filmed his adventures. Bob Swerer later turned the film into a video, “Alone in the wilderness”. “Alaska Silence & Solitude” and “The Frozen North” are the follow up to “Alone in the Wilderness”, filmed 20 years later. I saw just “Alone in the wilderness”, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. What a man, what a life.

ps: I couldn’t sleep this night, so I just finished watching “Alaska Silence & Solitude” too. Pure meditation. Lovely.

Many months ago I wrote about “the ugliest mountain” as William C. Slingsby wrote first time he saw Mt. Stetind in Norway.  I can neither explain why I like Stetind so much nor why I would love to climb it.

PS:

Ifound this video of the famous norwegian couple,  Cecilie and her husband Rolf while they were climbing Stetind some years ago: