Andreas Hinterstoisser

Biographical Record & Archival Chronicle

Born on June 29, 1910, in Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, Andreas Hinterstoisser was a natural rock athlete who had developed exceptional technique on the fierce limestone walls of the Berchtesgadener Land. An accomplished climber in both summer and winter conditions, Hinterstoisser demonstrated an intuitive reading of blank rock that set him apart from most climbers of his generation. By the mid-1930s, the Eiger North Face — the last great unsolved problem of the Alps — had claimed several lives and attracted the most ambitious young climbers from Germany and Austria, driven partly by the politically charged mountaineering nationalism of the era. In the summer of 1936, Hinterstoisser partnered with his close friend Toni Kurz and two Austrian climbers, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer, for an attempt on the face. On July 18, the four-man team set out from the foot of the 1,800-metre wall. At the critical first band of smooth, vertical limestone that had stopped all previous parties — the slabs below the First Icefield — Hinterstoisser improvised a revolutionary horizontal pendulum manoeuvre, swinging across the holdless wall on a fixed rope to gain a small ledge system on the far side. No one had conceived of traversing the face horizontally rather than attacking it straight up. The move worked, and the four climbers crossed the traverse and pushed high onto the face. They reached the Second Icefield and beyond, setting a new height record on the face. Then storm descended and disaster followed: Angerer had been struck by rockfall, the weather was deteriorating, and the team made the fatal decision to descend. When they reached the Hinterstoisser Traverse from above, they found that the rope across the slabs had been pulled up after their crossing. They had no means to reverse the traverse. The entire party was trapped. Hinterstoisser died during the subsequent stormy descent on the night of July 21, unable to downclimb the verglas-coated rock. He was twenty-five years old. Two years later, Heckmair, Vörg, Harrer, and Kasparek left the Hinterstoisser Traverse rope permanently in place — a lesson learned in blood.

Notable Milestones & Ascents

• Invented and executed the Hinterstoisser Traverse, the critical horizontal pendulum manoeuvre across smooth limestone that unlocks the Eiger North Face, on July 18, 1936
• Led the 1936 four-man team to the highest point yet reached on the Eiger North Face before catastrophic storm trapped the party
• The Hinterstoisser Traverse remains a named, mandatory section of the Eiger North Face first ascent route to this day
• His tragedy directly inspired the 1938 first-ascent team to leave the traverse rope in place permanently, enabling the historic success