The Tragedy of 1957 Summary and Analysis

In 1957, Italian climbers Stefano Longhi and Claudio Corti started to climb the North Face on August 3. They found themselves on the wrong route, bivouacked, and got on track the next day. German climbers Günther Nothdurft and Franz Mayer were just starting out but had lost their equipment according to Corti's later account, which Harrer finds hard to believe. Observers' accounts from telescopes are at odds with Corti's. Corti's descriptions of the face are also imprecise, and Corti's knowledge of the face was limited at best.

In a separate account of Corti's, he describes joining up with the Germans later at the Second Ice Field, saying only the Germans' provisions had been lost. Still, this account is also full of discrepancies. According to observers, the parties only joined up near the Spider, days later. They record six...