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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which two members of the party injured their hands on the ascent?

2. When was the first attempt to climb the North Face?

3. Who did Harrer tell about his plans to climb the North Face?

4. On what day of the climb did Toni Kurz and his party turn back?

5. Why did Rebitsch and Vörg start up the northeast face of the mountain?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Buhl, Jöchler, the Maags, and the French traveled up the Spider, in what arrangement did they bivouac?

2. What metaphor did the author use to describe the societal function of mountain climbing?

3. What knowledge did Sedlmayer and Mehringer have and lack when they attempted to climb the North Face?

4. Describe the reaction to Harrer telling a doctor in Lhasa that he was among the first party to climb the North Face.

5. What research did Harrer do for his book?

6. What were Otto and Sepp Maag doing when they first encountered Buhl and Jöchler in July 1952?

7. Who were the climbers forced out of Switzerland in 1937?

8. How does Harrer portray the climbers' relations with the newspapermen?

9. What did Rebitsch and Vörg do, after a harrowing climb on the mountain, when they learned that Gollackner had died on the mountain?

10. Describe the first climb up the Eiger.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the roles of skill and chance in climbing the North Face of the Eiger.

1) How does Harrer address luck or chance in success or failure of climbing the North Face? How big a role does luck or chance play in success or failure?

2) What skills are necessary to climb the North Face? How can skill mitigate bad luck or ill chance, if it can?

3) What role does skill play in a successful climb of the North Face? How essential is skill, and are there any substitutes for it?

Essay Topic 2

Harrer sees taming the North Slope as expanding the domain of humanity. Discuss this aspect of the book.

1) Is humanity's intellectual and physical domain expanded by the successful attempts to climb the North Face? How does this expand human accomplishment?

2) How does Harrer ultimately feel about the affect of humans climbing the North Face? Once the North Face has been repeatedly climbed, has something been lost as well as gained?

3) Is the expansion of the human domain inherently good? Is it inevitable? How does the North Face fit into the bigger picture of human accomplishment?

Essay Topic 3

Extreme mountain climbing pushes the limits of human ability. Discuss this aspect of climbing in Harrer's book.

1) What drives human being to push the limits of human ability, according to Harrer? Is this a worthwhile pursuit?

2) How do the limits of human accomplishment change over time? Does climbing the North Face become less of an accomplishment in any way over time?

3) What does it mean to say that a task is impossible? How does the impossible become achievable?

(see the answer keys)

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