Swiss alpinists Roger Christen and Roger Schaeli have climbed the 1988 Anker-Piola route, The Sanction, on the North Face of the Eiger. Earlier in the year Slovak climbers Josef 'Dodo' Kopold and Miso Sabovcik made an interesting link-up of the left side of the face, based around the North Pillar.

Whilst it's not entirely certain how many times the Sanction has been climbed, the number of ascents is extremely small. Indeed, unable to find any information, Schaeli wonders if it had been repeated before his ascent.

The Sanction lies on the steep rock wall towards the right edge of the face, between the North Corner and the Geneva Pillar.

It is based on the imaginary line attempted by Clint Eastwood and partners in the well-known 1970s film, the Eiger Sanction.

Daniel Anker used his great knowledge of the Eiger to piece together this line, which was climbed alpine style over three days with an overall grade of ED3.

In 1998 Italians Gianni Faggina and Andrea Forlini went to repeat it but failed to find the line, or any of the bolts placed by the first ascensionists. They gave up when they noticed an attractive unclimbed line to the left, which they subsequently climbed and named Yeti.



Schaeli, who has vast experience on the North Face, having achieved many notable ascents, went for an exploratory probe with Max Grossman, and after climbing a "gravelly pitch" of 40m, discovered an area of rock fall and several very rusty bolts. Not the best start to a proposed repeat.



He returned two days later with Roger Christen, immediately finding the climbing to be wet, loose, friable, and rather runout.



On the second main pitch he pulled off a large rock and did well to keep in balance. Parting company with the wall would have resulted in a fall over a bulge onto a dubious piece of protection around five metres below.



He was only able to redpoint the third pitch on his second try and decided to climb one more rope length. If things didn't improve, the pair would retreat.



Fortunately, although far from straightforward, the terrain improved and the pair continued, reaching the exit onto the West Ridge at 8:30 p.m.



Although the route ends little more than halfway up the Eiger, it is still 1,000m from the base. Schaeli found the route difficult to follow due to the lack of in-situ gear (though belays are bolted).



Despite a crux of "only" 7a, this is a highly serious climb. Above the Anker-Piola first bivouac, there are 12 relatively sustained pitches to the exit, the fourth (on Piola's topo) the hardest at UIAA VIII. The first ascent party felt retreat would prove difficult above pitch seven.



Schaeli feels the seriousness is an important part of the character of this route and should be maintained. He makes a plea that if it is cleaned up by a future party, the bold climbing should be maintained by replacing like for like - only the original rusted bolts changed for stainless steel.



Much earlier Dodo Kopold and Miso Sabovcik wanted to climb the winter 1978 Czechoslovak Route (Flejberk-Rybicka-Smid-Smid: V+, A3/A4, 80°) on the left side of the North Face, which takes a relatively direct line through the rock walls above the Gallery windows, and then left of the Ramp.



Unable to find the start, they set off on another, unknown project. They retreated after two pitches and then opted for the easiest line on this side of the wall, linking several routes.



They first climbed the Polish Start to the Northeast Pillar (Cielecki-Lautajtys-Szafirski-Zyask, 1968, TD/TD+). This follows easier mixed ground well right of the line of the Northeast Pillar to the first terrace, where it traverses left, across the top of the first rock buttress/step on the pillar, to join the Austrian Route (Heibler-Maschka-Messner-Messner, 1968, TD/TD+) on the northeast face.



When Kopold and Sabovcik reached the crest of the pillar, they continued up the second rock buttress. This was originally climbed by Ian MacEacheran, Bugs McKeith and Kenny Spence in 1970, as part of their "Scottish Route" that climbs the North East Pillar direct (originally VI and A3).



Where the Scottish Route moves left, eventually joining the 1932 Lauper Route on the upper icefield, the pair climbed possibly a few new pitches before meeting the 2002 Keller-Odermatt route Griff ins Licht, which comes in from the right. They then continued up the right edge of the Lauper icefield, more or less on the line of the pillar, to reach the upper Mittelegi Ridge and the summit.



The overall grade was reported as ED, the route taking three days to complete.



It was a good "training" project for the pair, who are now in Pakistan with the goal of adding a new route to Great Trango Tower.



« Back