-Takada and Watanabe on the North Face
Summit—300 Meters Remaining ( by Mitsumasa Takada)
Thus the Eiger North Face was finally conquered, but the appearance of Japanese climbers on the wall would have to wait until 1965. Tragically, Mitsumasa Takada’s achievement as the first Japanese climber to ascend the face came at the terrible cost of the death of his rope partner, Tsuneaki Watanabe.
Even I, who knew little of mountains at the time, still remember the newspaper reports of the accident. It shocked society deeply. The full account is described in detail in Takada’s book Summit—300 Meters Remaining.
Only one week earlier, Watanabe had achieved the first Japanese ascent of the Matterhorn together with Mitsuhiko Yoshino. Carrying the momentum of that success, he came to challenge the Eiger with Takada. (Yoshino, having injured his leg on the Matterhorn, remained behind in a supporting role.)
That summer the weather was exceptionally poor. Even sections usually climbed in ordinary mountain boots were coated with ice, and they had to keep their crampons on from the very beginning.
They climbed the lower rock walls smoothly and crossed the Hinterstoisser Traverse. After continuing upward for some time, they bivouacked at the “Swallow’s Nest,” a tiny ledge where even after cutting away ice and snow, there was barely enough room for the two men to sit.
The next day they advanced through the First Icefield, the Ice Hose, and the Second Icefield. The amount of ice and snow was unusually great, making conditions exceptionally difficult. Watanabe had already reached this point the previous year before retreating. This time his determination burned fiercely.
At 2:25 in the afternoon they reached the Death Bivouac. Passing through the Third Icefield, they bivouacked in the Kamin of the Ramp. Soaked by running water encountered on the route, tormented by snowfall following thunderstorms and temperatures of minus ten degrees Celsius, they endured a miserable night.
The following morning, the North Face was covered entirely in white snow.
They hesitated between retreat and advance. Yet with only 570 meters remaining to the summit, they decided to continue upward.
The upper section of the Ramp already possessed sixth-grade difficulty under normal conditions, but now it had become even worse, armored with ice and snow.
At last they passed through it and entered the Traverse of the Gods, but this too was buried beneath snow, making the normal route unusable. They therefore began traversing higher up.
There Takada slipped and fell thirty meters, striking his ribs and lower back badly. Forced into another bivouac, they now faced a desperate choice: retreat, or gamble everything on survival through reaching the summit.
They decided Watanabe would lead while Takada followed behind.
Sweeping snow away from the hard underlying ice, they climbed the Spider. Watanabe at the front gradually showed increasing exhaustion. At one point, the ice beneath his feet broke away, and he slipped more than ten meters, colliding with Takada as he fell.
Eventually they reached the final difficult crack leading toward the summit.
At a point marked by a ring piton in the chimney, disagreement arose between the two climbers. Should they climb directly upward, or traverse left? Watanabe, looking at a clipping from Harrer’s The White Spider, concluded that the printed route description contained a mistake and began traversing left. Takada argued that the direct route was correct, but as leader, Watanabe continued the traverse.
Saying that the rock quality was poor, Watanabe disappeared beyond an overhang.
A short while later came the cry:
“I’m falling!”
At that instant, a shock like an electric current ran through the rope in Takada’s hands as it snapped taut.
For a while there was no response.
Then, desperately hauling in about three meters of rope, Takada felt the weight lessen and saw Watanabe reappear. Apparently he had managed to reach a stance in a crack in the rock, where he now lay sprawled.
It was five o’clock in the evening.
Takada later believed that Watanabe must first have bounced against a protruding rock, then slid down the snow slope, allowing Takada just enough time to arrest the fall without being dragged off himself.
In a groaning voice, Watanabe asked:
“Is this Takidani?”
His consciousness was probably already clouded.
There was only one rope remaining. Takada faced an agonizing decision: remain where they were until discovered, or descend immediately and seek rescue.
It was already past six o’clock. Sunset was only two hours away.
He chose to gamble on a desperate solo climb for help.
“Watanabe! Hold on for two days!”
“I won’t last two days,” came the reply.
Yet the decision had already been made.
Takada lowered down all the bivouac equipment—the stove, fuel, food, and gear—using the auxiliary rope. Watanabe said nothing, but Takada could see him gathering the supplies beside him.
“Listen. Don’t move from there under any circumstances.”
Leaving those words behind, Takada turned toward the North Face.
His equipment consisted only of an ice axe, an ice hammer, a hammer, and a single auxiliary rope.
He later wrote that at that moment he realized he could rely only upon his own fate. What sustained him was his prior experience with solo climbing in Japan and the confidence born from his long-held ambition to climb the Eiger alone.
He climbed fragile, debris-covered steep slopes until confronted by a roof-like bulging rock formation of crumbling stone. There was no means of protection. Only his hands and feet could save him. A fall meant certain death. Yet there was no other way forward.
Desperately he forced his way across it, climbed further over ice-covered rock, and shortly after eight in the evening reached the ridge.
He continued upward along the Mittellegi Ridge.
Darkness had already fallen over the rocky crest. When he switched on his flashlight, it failed completely.
For an instant he considered bivouacking, but then remembered his companion waiting below. He convinced himself he could continue by snowlight and by the sensation of his hands and feet alone.
Step by step, he pressed onward, finally reaching the summit shortly after nine o’clock.
Immediately he began descending the West Face. Earlier reconnaissance of the route now proved invaluable.
Facing the rock, groping for holds and footholds, he descended cautiously through the darkness. Though overcome repeatedly by drowsiness, he remained in a state of extreme nervous excitement.
Half-delirious, avoiding crevasses while staggering onward, he suddenly saw lights appear ahead of him.
It was Eigergletscher Station.
At three-thirty in the morning, no matter how loudly he shouted, no one emerged. He pounded on the doors of the Eigergletscher Hotel, but there was no answer.
Like a sleepwalker, he continued on to the next station.
He reached the hotel at Kleine Scheidegg and hammered loudly on the door, but again there was no response. Walking for another hour, he finally arrived at the Alpiglen Hotel, where a Japanese climbing team was staying, and reported the accident.
It was five-thirty in the morning.
A local rescue party was organized, but because of the bad weather they could not move immediately.
A day later, Watanabe was found dead at the base of the Eiger North Face.
Apparently he had removed his own belay and moved from his position. Whether he had tried to climb upward or accidentally fallen while struggling, no one knows.
Later Takada was questioned extensively by reporters in both Europe and Japan, and some criticized his actions. Yet when one examines the full circumstances in detail, I believe his conduct deserves admiration rather than condemnation. Perhaps criticism may still be directed at the decision by the two climbers to continue upward despite the worsening conditions.
Even afterward, the Eiger North Face continued to be the stage for countless dramas of glory and tragedy. Together with the Matterhorn, it remains to this day one of the most famous alpine walls among Japanese climbers.
English version prepared with AI assistance
(Originally written in Japanese)
Japanese version:
From “Summit—300 Meters Remaining.”
The Eiger North Face