Customer Reviews

The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Five FATEFUL Stars!! "The EIger Obsession" is written by John Harlin III, the moutaineering son of the famous American Alpine big wall climber John Harlin II and recounts the Harlin family's involvement with life, love, death, and the world of climbing over the decades. He focuses mainly on the general climbing history of the Swiss rockface called "the Eiger" (aka "the Ogre") and the Harlin family legacy surrounding this imposing and unforgiving rockwall's routes, among others. John Harlin II, an audacious larger-than-life character, was the 28th person to die on the Eiger in an accident: by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was attempting his self-conceived "Direttissima'" (direct) route, "straight up" the center of the 6000 ft wall, with most of the climbing world aware of the attempts. Harlin joined a long line of famous climbers who were either successes like the famed Heinrich Harrer who was amongst four in the 'first to the top' group in 1938, or failures like the equally famous Toni Kurz, who with the other three members of his team dead including Hinterstoisser, was trapped by an ice storm and with a horribly frostbitten hand, he would die inches from rescuer's hands, tearing at the knotted rope that sealed his fate with his teeth. The elder Harlin fit both categories, success and failure. The stories are mesmerizing, as are the stories of the Harlin family coping with circumstance and the Eiger route attempts by the father and, decades later, the son.

Climbers all over the world, even those who have never been to Europe, can recite from memory the features of the Classic Route of the Eiger: "the Difficult Crack", "Rote Flüh" (Red Crag), the 'point of no return' "Hinterstoisser Traverse", "the White Spider", "the Death Bivouac", "the Swallow's Nest", "the Traverse of the Gods", and so on, up to the "Exit Cracks", recounted here in intense, vivid detail. Harlin tells us the stories and difficulties which drew many famous climbers to attempt the Eiger as a test of will and ability. Harlin II had already climbed the Classic Route and had been on the mountain many times, but his "Direct Route" 'upped the ante' considerably and Harlin assembled a 'crack team' that included Americans (himself and rock technician Layton Kor) and Europeans (Sir Chris Bonington and Dougal Haston) to climb it. The book details how Harlin II perished and how a combined team is cut off from retreat and literally climbing for their lives thru horrible conditions. And at what price?

In the book, Harlin III, now a 50 year old expert climber in his own right, admits he has been obsessed by his father's death and the Eiger's 6000 foot deadly wall. "I can't go climbing without Dad's shadow hanging over me. And I love that shadow as much as it appalls me." With his own wife and daughter watching through the telescope at the world-famous Kleine Scheidegg, this book puts you on the mountain during the climb, as John Harlin III attempts to complete the Classic route and deal with it's many psychological implications. For many of us, decades after his father's death, this book finally gives closure to the John Harlin-Eiger story. Meanwhile the Eigerwand continues to lure climbers with the death toll now in the 60's at this point in time, and despite the recent availability of helicopter rescues, some of the unprepared and unlucky climbers will continue to perish. Kudos to John Harlin III for an excellent climbing and life experience book. My Highest Recommendation!! Five "White Knuckled" Stars!!
(NOTE: John Harlin II, the father, is the subject of a famous book called Straight up John Harlin : The life and death of a Mountaineer.)

John Harlin III climbed above his fear and finally made it to the summit of the mountian that killed his father. He gives us a timeline of events from when his dad was alive to when he finally completed his climb. A good story and read. Although I do feel bad that he lost his father, he has had more oppurtunities and adventures in his life then dozens of people combined. So life for him wasn't all that bad. But then again, I bet he'd trade it all to have had a life with his father. Can't wait to watch the film. Hope it's as good as the book.

This book is up there with Houstons K2 the Savage Mountain and Krackauers Into Thin Air. John the III doesn't seem to be as obsessed and reckless as his father. I came away from the book feeling that his father cared more about climbing than anything else. At one point he told his wife he felt oppressed by his children and only felt alive when they were not around. I thought that very strange. The other incident that bothered me was when Harlin the III made friends with a young climber named Chuck and took him climbing with him. He pushed Chuck pretty hard, hard enough to where Chuck fell off Mount Robson and killed himself. Harlin the III pointed the dead body out to the authorities and hightailed it out of town, that friendship lasted all of two weeks. That incident struck me as very strange. Overall the book was an entertaining read.

An absorbing tale of adventure and exorcising personal demons. John Harlin III is an outdoorsman and mountain climber and successfully navigated climbing the face of the Eiger, where his own father had died some forty years earlier. Notwithstanding the book's subtitle, the mountain did not kill his father, a broken rope led to his father's fall.

In any event, the reader does not get the impression that the younger Harlinis obsessed by any particular Oedipal complex. We can empathize with his plight of living in the shadow of an iconic, larger-than-life mountain climber. At one point in his life, he is tormented by the question, "What have you done in life, other than be the son of a famous man?"

We may all overtly or subliminally have the challenge of surpassing the accomplishments of our fathers. John Harlin III provides a touching memoir of struggle and transcendence, freeing himself from the haunting memories of his father's unsuccessful attempt to climb a mountain that became his obsession.

According to the psychoanalyst Coriat, checkmating the king, the goal of chess, is the symbolic equivalent of the desire to kill the father. John Harlin 111's obsession was to slay the very mountain that had slain his father - the Eiger, a thirteen thousand foot giant looming above the Alpine village of Grindelwald in western Switzerland. By doing this, he might also slay his demons: paternal abandonment,"not being good enough", and other psychic challenges that bedevil mankind.

The Eiger's North Wall is six thousand feet of vertical hell armored against intrusion by frequent cannonades of rocks, intermittent avalanches, and murderous storms that can suddenly glaze its face with ice. It is the ne plus ultra of the great rock faces in the Western Hemisphere.

Nicknamed "The Blond God", Harlin's father was a larger-than-life figure who like the Norse God, Wotan, often turned a blind eye toward familial responsibilities to wander in search of cutting edge adventures. After climbing the Eiger employing the 1938 Heckmair Classic Route, John Harlin11 crafted the first direct route up the North Wall. At four thousand feet, on the verge of launching the summit push, his rope broke, and he plummeted to his death.

By the time of Harlin 11's demise, his nine year old son was already a superlative skier and possessed a passion for mountaineering. As he grew older, he further developed his skills by climbing, among others, demanding rock faces in Yosemite and the Canadian Rockies and making virgin ski descents of extreme mountain slopes.

Harlin 111 married, but the newlyweds initially opted for a wolf-hybrid puppy, Lupine, instead of biological parenthood. Thus far the son had kept his vow to his widowed mother to avoid Alpine climbing, especially the Eiger North Wall. Unlike his father, he was a devoted husband, and, after Lupine's death ironically from a two hundred foot fall, he would become a devoted father to his newly born daughter, Siena, as well.

Despite many accomplishments far beyond the abilities of most mortals, John Harlin111 still languished in the shadow of his legendary father. Harlin 111 was a complex mix of great natural ability and risk-taking tempered by sensitivity and a deep responsibility toward his mother, wife, and daughter. Yet the only way to come into the light was to heed the siren call of the Alps and, in particular, of the Eiger. For years he had avoided this rite of passage. By climbing the Eiger, he would slay not the mountain, but purge those demons that had plagued him for decades.

In 1999, he climbed the Matterhorn and later established a new route on Mount Blanc. At last, he was an alpinist. But the mercurial Eiger Weather frustrated his unfulfilled desire.

Serendipitously, in 2005, MacGillivray Freeman Films offered Harlin a chance to climb the Eiger as part of an Imax film production it would show on screens eighty feet high. The project would showcase his and his father's story. MFF would foot the expenses while he waited at an inn in the valley of the Eiger for a window of excellent weather. His family would be with him. The movie would be a marvelous legacy for Siena. This amazing opportunity could close the circle.

John Harlin and two friends climb the Classic Route under superb conditions. In some of the best writing in the entire book, Harlin describes their progress through the famous North Wall challenges; revels in his growing excitement and confidence in the climb; reveals his mature handling of an ego challenge at the Exit Cracks.

In the lead, Harlin now climbs out of the shadow of the Eiger and into the dazzling sunlight of the Summit Icefield. At last, he has come into the light. With each step towards the summit, he sheds demons that have tortured him since his youth. Finally he stands atop his nemesis.

On his descent, his wife and daughter rush up from the Moench Hut to greet him. As they frolic together ecstatically in the snow, totally in the moment, I was swept by emotion. No mountaineering author I've ever read has crafted a more satisfying conclusion.

John Harlin's long odyssey is over, but his adventures continue!

The journey this son of a famous mtn climber makes becomes rather boring and redundant. Very predictable, and not very insiteful for those who read it. I wouldn't recommend it.

In 1966 I was at the Club Vagabond in Leysin Switzerland, the summer after John Harlin II fell to his death attempting to climb the north face of the Eiger direttissima style. I've read many accounts since. Recently I wanted to write about my time at the Vag, and the effect that reading about the Eiger Direct climb, and being in the company of such luminaries as Dougal Haston, Layton Kor, Mick Burke and Don Whillans had on the direction of my life. I picked up John Harlin III's Eiger Obsession just for the account of his father's climb, but got much, more more. In spite of the dismissive reviews from some on this page, I found John III's story very engaging, and well told. Yes, he did have a lot of opportunities, but he struggled to create his own - and succeeded. In the end, I got a lot more from his story than I did from his fathers - and I got a LOT from both. Well done, John. Both of you!

The north face of the Eiger Mountain in the European Alps has taken the life of many climbers. The author's father fell 4000 feet to his death when he was almost at the summit. This is the unforgettable story of conquering your fears and making an IMAX movie.

The book would be more aptly entitled "The Dad Obsession". There is far too much whiny introspection and far too little discussion of the technical difficulties and triumph of the ascent. A terrible job of editing which allows the author to constantly share his obsession with his memories of his father and their effect on his life. A far better tale is Heinrich Harrer's "The White Spider" (Paladin Books, 1989) written by one of the team of four which first successfully scaled the Eiger in 1938, which book, by the way, respectfully mentions John Harlin II more than once and cites the first successful ascent of the direct "John Harlin Route" in 1966; the one during which Harlin II's rope broke leading to his tragic death. Harrer's is a first-class treatment of mountaineering and ascending the Eiger.