Go ahead–fall under the spell of the mighty Eiger and her nordwand. Our six-day Eiger program culminates in a brush with the famed north face on your ascent of one of Switzerland’s most notorious peaks.
Day 1: Prepare for the Eiger’s limestone cliffs by rock climbing at a local crag in mountain boots.
Day 2: Approach the Monchjoch Hut via Junfraujoch
Here we’ll practice glacier skills, such as cramponing and crevasse rescue, and do an acclimatization climb.
Day 3: Climb the Monch
This 4,000-meter peak is right outside the door of the Monchjoch Hut and offers excellent rock and snow scrambling with an exposed snow ridge at the top. You will get a bird’s-eye view of the Mittellegi and the East Ridges of the Eiger.
Day 4: Climb the Jungfrau
A longer snow climb with some rock scrambling leads to an airy ridge and some ice, depending on conditions. Return to Gridelwald.
Day 5: Approach the Eiger via one of two approaches:
-Mittellegi Ridge: Approach Mittellegi Hut. This is an interesting, but not long, approach. We’ll take the Junfraujoch train to the North Face of the Eiger stop, half way up the mountain. Then, we follow stairs down and out onto a snow ramp and rock climb a pitch onto a low angle rock face that winds up to the hut–perhaps the most scenically positioned hut in the Alps.
-East Ridge: Approach the Monchjoch hut.
Day 6: Climb the Eiger!
The Mittellegi Ridge is one of the most aesthetic alpine rock climbs in the Alps–always airy as you climb up this narrow ridge. The rock quality is excellent and the views sensational. We will descend the West Flank or the East Ridge. Return to Grindelwald.
