Heinrich Harrer Is Dead

Heinrich Harrer, one of the four man team that climbed the north face of the Eiger near Grindelwald, died yesterday at age 93.

Being an armchair mountaineer, I have read his book on the feat, "The White Spider", several times. Usually this is best done on cold, wintery nights because it describes the details not only of his climb, but those of the failed attempts before that. He was an Austrian and was hailed by Hitler at the time as part of the "super race". He was 25 years old at the time. He later was interned in India and spent most of WW II in Tibet where he was a teacher-friend-advisor to the Dalai Lama. This was chronicled in his book," Seven Years in Tibet" which became a popular movie later.

He returned to CH several years ago to witness a repeat of his climb done by a Swiss team of four for Swiss TV. Prior to WW II, he became a member of the Nazi party in Germany, but he was cleared of any of its misdeeds later.

Anyone with any interest in mountains will enjoy both his books. When one walks along the massive north face, one is impressed even more by his team's efforts. He was the last remaining of this team, Anderl Heckmair, Heinrich Harrer, Fritz Kasparek und Ludwig Vörg..