1952: The Great Year on the Eiger Summary and Analysis

Pierre Julien and Maurice Coutin climbed the North Wall in July 1952, with one bivouac. Later in the month, a large group of climbers arrived at the Eiger. Austrians Sepp Larch and Karl Winter climbed the summit July 26 and climbed down the next day, discovering that a party of nine, including Hermann Buhl, had followed them.

Brothers Otto and Sepp Maag started up unnoticed on the 26th to lay in supplies at their bivouac, and ran across Buhl and his partner Jöchler, who were doing the same. Buhl and Jöchler found an ideal bivouac spot below the Rote Fluh, but it was blocked from descending by falling stones. The next day the Maag brothers started their ascent, as did Buhl and Jöchler. French climber Gaston Rébuffat and a...