“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.