The members successfully reached the summit at four o'clock in the afternoon 24 July 1938. They were caught in an avalanche as they climbed the White Spider on the upper face, but all possessed sufficient strength to resist being swept off the face. Throughout the climb, the four men were constantly threatened by snow avalanches and rock falls. Įiger North Face, Bernese Alps, Switzerland The four decided to make the rest of the climb as a single team, with the experienced Heckmair leading. Halfway up the mountain, Harrer and Kasparek encountered another team making the attempt, Ludwig Vörg and Anderl Heckmair from Germany. Following his final university exams in July 1938, Harrer and Kasparek traveled to Kleine Scheidegg at the foot of the Eiger and set out on their climb. The near vertical wall, with its ice-field known as The White Spider, had claimed several lives and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it. Knowing an extraordinary feat of climbing could win him a place on a Himalayan expedition, Harrer and a friend, Fritz Kasparek, resolved to be the first to climb the North Face of the Eiger (3,967 m, 13,025 ft) in Switzerland. Mountain climbing was Harrer's true passion. In 1937, Harrer won the downhill event at the World Student Championships at Zell am See. The Austrian Alpine skiing team, however, boycotted the event due to a conflict regarding the skiing instructors' status as professionals. In 1935, Harrer was designated to participate in the Alpine skiing competition at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Harrer became a member of the traditional student corporation ATV Graz. From 1933 to 1938, Harrer studied geography and sports at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz. His father, Josef Harrer, was a postal worker.

Heinrich Harrer was born 6 July 1912 in Hüttenberg, Austria, in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in the state of Carinthia. He wrote the books Seven Years in Tibet (1952) and The White Spider (1959).

While on expedition in the Indian Himalayas, Harrer and his group were arrested by British forces because of the outbreak of World War 2 and he escaped to Tibet, staying there until 1951 and never seeing active combat. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, the 'last problem' of the Alps. Heinrich Harrer ( German: 6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, Nazi in the Schutzstaffel (SS), and author. Katharina Haarhaus (1962–2006, his death)

Seven years in tibet harrer