Mountain · Switzerland
Eiger
The Eiger is a dramatic mountain in the Swiss Alps, standing 3,967 metres tall. Its huge, dark North Face is one of the most feared climbing walls in the world.
Picture credit: qwesy qwesy (CC BY 3.0) · Andrew Bossi (CC BY-SA 2.5) · Andrew Bossi (CC BY-SA 2.5) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Eiger?
Eiger is part of the Bernese Alps.
You will find it in: Switzerland.
Summit: 46.578° N, 8.005° E
The story behind it
The Eiger's fame comes almost entirely from one feature: its North Face, a nearly 1,800-metre wall of steep limestone, ice, and loose rock that drops almost straight down toward the village of Grindelwald below. For decades after the mountain's ordinary summit was first reached in 1858, climbers considered the North Face impossible, and several attempts in the 1930s ended in death, earning it the grim nickname 'Mordwand', or 'murder wall' in German, a dark play on its real name. It was finally climbed in 1938 by a team of two Austrians and two Germans, a first ascent still celebrated today. What makes the Eiger unusual for climbers is that a railway tunnel actually runs straight through the mountain, with a train station carved into the rock partway up the North Face itself, originally built as a tourist stop with a window looking straight out onto the terrifying wall.
Find it on the globe
Eiger is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How tall is the Eiger?
The Eiger is 3,967 metres tall, which is not especially high for the Alps, but its enormous, steep North Face makes it famous around the whole world.
Where is the Eiger?
The Eiger is in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, right above the village of Grindelwald, close to the famous neighbouring peaks called Mönch and Jungfrau.
Why is the Eiger's North Face so famous?
It is a huge, steep, unstable wall that killed several climbers in failed attempts during the 1930s before it was finally climbed in 1938, making it a legendary test of courage.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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