Original subtitles

- Welcome to the Alps.

This film is brought to you by Holcim,

a world leader in building materials.

We have our roots here in Switzerland, where people have worked

with the challenges of nature for centuries.

We build for the future so that our children's children can enjoy life

in the beauty of landscapes like the Alps.

We proudly present this real-life story of strength, performance, and passion.

Centuries ago, the Alps were insurmountable.

Too tall, too rugged, too steep to cross.

Over time, people with ingenuity and courage overcame this great natural barrier.

Climbers are still attracted to these jagged peaks,

none more treacherous than the north face of the Eiger.

The Eiger has cast a long shadow over the life of author and climber John Harlan.

With his wife Adele and his daughter Sienna,

John Harlan has returned to his boyhood home, Switzerland.

- Uno.

- Uno? Ah, how could that be?

All right, let's hope you have any yellows.

Even as a boy, I love the way these hillsides were sculpted by farmers.

Things have changed in 40 years, but respect for

the natural world is still a way of life here.

My main goal for this trip is to pass that

spirit of respect on to my daughter, Sienna.

- Where is Switzerland?

- So, there's this area here, just sort of the heart

of the Alps, really, right in the center of Europe.

- How long are we on?

- Well, we're about 700 miles in a big arc stretching

from southern France all the way to Slovenia.

- Oh.

- Europe sits between Africa and Asia, but

the continents didn't always look like this.

Way back in time, the continuously shifting

plates of the earth's surface pushed the continent

of Africa slowly north until it rammed into Europe.

The earth's crust buckled, pushing the ocean floor almost

three miles high, folding bands of rock like an accordion.

I love the Alps.

It speaks to my soul, to my heart to be in this environment.

- The Alps are unique.

Almost 20 million people live here in close harmony with nature.

- You have villages, little villages in just the most improbable of locations.

It's just amazing that you can even get there at all,

let alone have an entire village way up high on the mountainside.

It gives me such a warm sense of being in a culture, a real mountain culture.

As the editor of the American Alpine Journal, I love to write and to climb,

and I've actually climbed now on four continents and done a lot of new routes.

When I was nine, we lived in the Swiss village of Leysin above Lake Geneva.

Dad and I loved to ski together and climb together.

He had a real reverence for the mountains, and he definitely passed that on to me.

We have very fond memories of our times together.

He was my hero.

But when I was nine years old, Dad's obsession with the Eiger took over our lives.

The Eiger is the most dangerous mountain in Europe, and Dad

was determined to put up the hardest route ever attempted.

My life would never be the same.

The north face of the Eiger has claimed its 27th victim.

To the dead climber, American John Harlan, the funeral service was solemnly observed

at Lesin, mourned now by his wife, mother, and two children.

I was nine when it happened.

I clearly remember Mom came into the room crying and told us.

I just couldn't quite believe it.

It was 40 years ago that Dad died.

Ever since, I've had unfinished business with the Eiger.

Now the time feels right to confront my fears and honor my father.

Before he leaves Switzerland, John hopes to climb the north face

of the Eiger at last and free himself from its shadow.

- I promised Adele that I would not attempt the Eiger without

the very best climbers at my side, Robert and Daniela Jasper.

Robert has made it all the way up the north face of the Eiger a dozen times.

His wife Daniela is also a superb climber.

- Yeah, John was asking where could we do some

training climbs together, and I said, "What about our backyard?

The Jaspers and I both want to develop a

sixth sense about each other and how we climb.

They are every bit as interested in safety as I am.

- When we are on the same rope with John on the Eiger,

we need to know if we can trust each other with our lives.

Warm days make the Eiger too risky to climb.

While we waited for cool weather, I wanted to show Sienna

more of the things that I love about Switzerland.

The mountain passes were once impossible to cross most of the year.

Because of the Alps, the Italian region of Switzerland

developed separately from the French and German parts.

- We're in the southeast tip of Switzerland,

the region of Ticino, where the people speak Italian.

The Verzasca Dam in Ticino is over 200 meters high.

If you stacked nine of these dams on top of each other,

they'd be as tall as the north face of the Eiger.

- I knew when I married John that he wasn't afraid of living life on the edge.

That's who he is.

- This is catching a little bit here.

- It's alright.

And remember to enjoy it,

because this is probably the last time you'll ever do it.

- Don't stop me now

- Ok.

Don't stop me

'Cause I'm havin' a good time

Havin' a good time

I'm a shootin' star, leapin' through the sky like a tiger

Defyin' the laws of gravity

I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah

Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit

I'm travelling at the speed of light

I wanna make a supersonic man outta you

Don't stop me now

'Cause I'm havin' a good time

Don't stop me now

Yes, I'm havin' a good time

I don't wanna stop at all.

In the Alps, the tremendous influx of people

has raised a new challenge.

How to inhabit these mountains in a way that protects their future.

- The most famous pass to cross the Alps

I met up with professor Bruno Messerly

for his lively insights on the Alps.

Bruno Messerly studies how we as a species interact with these mountains.

To connect with the outside world,

they've had to

tunnel through massive mountains,

bridge valleys and carve roads into huge cliff.

Switzerland looks small on the map

but the mountains give it a large vertical dimension

- I mean this exercise begins several thousand years ago.

People came in here,

and had to adapt to this fantastic landscape.

- So, the same farmer have land in the bottom of the valley and also up in the hill?

- Yes.

It was not easy,

but look here you'll see

at the lower valley bottom,

They could plow, they had barley.

They had the cows, the cattle.

They come to steep slope here up.

And then, there must be the forest.

Then, this again grazing land.

And then begins the stony part,

then comes the snow and the ice.

It is fantastic to have in a vertical structure, all these different fields.

- And what kind of different types of rocks are there in the Alps?

- Ah, there's limestone which is sedimentary.

There's some crystal and rocks of different types including granite.

- And how tall are the Alps?

- Well they go up to fifteen thousand feet or more.

Tectonic uplift is still pushing the Alps higher,

but they are also being torn down by all the forces.

As the rock freezes and thaws,

it eventually cracks.

Gravity and erosion do the rest.

Many of the rocks that slide off these peaks are caught in a way

to the valleys

by the great Alpine glaciers.

Today as the earth warms,

glaciers melt faster than they can be replenished.

At this rate,

even the largest Alpine glaciers will shrink

to smaller fragments by the end of the century.

To drive this point home

professor Messerly showed me the alleged glacier

which has retreated two miles since 1850

- It is the longest glacier of the earth, not only of Switzerland, yeah.

so this is longer than all the glaciers that are on Mount Everest.

23 Kilometers here.

- And if the glacier was all the way down here 150 years ago

and now it's up there. Is that retreating even faster now than is was then?

- Yes. We are worried about it.

Glaciers have always gone through cycles.

Each time they advanced,

glaciers helped to reshape the Alps.

- like that but they are always changing even today.

But look. If we have something like...

Today, throughout the Alps,

the Ice Age has left it's mark.

Although glaciers never touched these edges,

they carved away it's space on both sides.

Pulled down by gravity and erosion,

the rock fell off,

leaving this razor's edge.

Glaciers can carve away the base of a mountain,

leaving a single jagged peak called a horn.

The most famous such peak is the Matterhorn.

A million years ago, the mountain was broader.

But during the Ice Age, each time the glaciers advanced,

they kept grinding downhill, scooping out,

and gradually whittling away its base.

Each receding glacier left steeper cliffs below

and precarious unsupported rock above,

which collapsed under its own weight.

Throughout the Ice Age, the cycle was repeated

until all that was left was a sharp, towering horn of rock.

At 14,730 feet, this dramatic icon

straddles the border between Italy and Switzerland.

- Dad always promised that he and I would climb the Matterhorn together.

We never got the chance, but I've climbed it twice.

- So this is where Whymper stayed, huh?

Edward Whymper was the first to climb the Matterhorn

in 1865, setting out from the village of Zermatt.

- Italians were going up and he had to race them to the top, and...

- Oh, yeah.

- And so he set off from here for the final successful climb.

The Matterhorn was the last great, unclimbed mountain in the Alps.

For their first attempt, they kept trying

from the Italian side because it looks easier from a distance,

but in fact, the way the geology of the mountain goes, the holds are

much more in-cut and easier to use on the Swiss side.

Whymper's team made it to the top,

the first ever to stand on this summit.

But on the descent, the rope broke.

Only Whymper and two of his companions survived.

Many thousands of people come to the Matterhorn each winter for one thing,...

snow.

- I study snow to understand the fundamental

processes that can lead to large avalanches.

- My friend Chris Pielmeier is a scientist at

a Swiss institute for avalanche research.

- There goes the avalanche.

It's not just skiers who are at risk.

In one recent winter in the Alps, avalanches killed 42 people and villages.

By redirecting the wind flow, these small and innovative structures

keep snow drifts from accumulating.

You can't stop the full force of a big avalanche once it gets sliding.

You actually have to prevent it from sliding in the first place.

The snowpack consists of many layers held in place by

millions of tiny little bonds between the snow crystals.

By probing the density of each layer, Chris can test the stability of the snowpack.

- The crystals constantly change, so one layer that was stable could become very weak

and a weak layer could become strong in time.

That weak joint can later fail and produce an avalanche.

We trigger avalanches to get information.

In the slide path, we have geophones.

We measure the pressure, the speed.

You only know how powerful it is when you have once measured it.

In 1966, this lonely old hotel at the foot of the Eiger

was the base of operations for Dad's final attempt.

A journalist stood here on the terrace and watched through a telescope

as Dad fell to his death.

Now, this hotel will be our home for a week or a month, whatever it takes.

The Eiger has the worst weather in the Alps.

The north face of the Eiger plummets nonstop for over a mile,

the tallest and the most treacherous wall of rock in Europe.

It's a huge, steep face of loose and crumbling limestone,

the shooting gallery of falling rock.

Even a pebble can kill you.

When it snows, avalanches can knock you off the wall.

But still, we plan to climb when it's cold because there's less rockfall.

The ice and snow lock the loose rock into place.

The summit of the Eiger stands just over 13,000 feet high.

Dad was the first American ever to climb the north face of the Eiger.

Four years later, he set out to climb the Eiger again,

this time by a radical new route straight up the face.

When yet another blizzard hit, Dad and his two teammates were trapped

halfway up the mountain at a place called the Death Bivouac.

Their ropes were suffering from wear and tear.

For nearly two weeks, they lived in a snow cave.

When they got a lull in the storm, they decided to make a final push for the summit.

Dad was going up a rope.

They noticed that the ropes were frayed,

but his teammate thought the rope would hold.

Dad's teammates completed the climb.

They named it in his honor, the John Harlan Route.

I intend to come back from every climb. There's no summit.

There's no climb that's worth dying for, for me.

John's very tense about this climb.

It's a dangerous face.

Is it worth the risk?

John cares very much that his daughter grows up with him.

The key to climbing safely is being methodical.

I think it's something that John needs to do.

I trust that it's important enough to risk what he has.

He knows what he has, and he would only

do something like this if it were that important to him.

He's going to have to work very hard to shut out all the

thoughts that will undoubtedly be creeping through his mind.

And I think when he reaches the point where his...

...where his father fell,

that is going to be a very emotional moment for him.

- Be careful.

- Everything will be fine. We waited for perfect conditions.

- I love you, Chris. - I love you.

- I love you, too.

- Bye.

- I'll miss you.

- Okay.

- Bye.

Starting the climb was almost like entering a trance.

I was entering this world of a dream that I'd had

for so many years, and now I was finally living it.

I've waited 40 years to set foot on the Eiger, but for the next three days,

I need to put my emotions on hold and try to treat this like any other climb.

Robert was the first person to tell me that the Eiger was his

favorite mountain, a place that was a part of his heart and soul.

And the only other person I knew who felt that way was my father.

- There's a little diagonal that goes to the right,

and Daddy's wearing a yellow jacket.

- I don't see him.

- Keep looking a little closer.

The Eiger is the tallest face in the Alps, and it's over a mile high,

and when you start up it, you see it's a mile high.

This is a three-day climb.

My back is already really hurting me.

When I got to the bivouac and opened my pack, I found a note from my ladies.

Here is John. Embrace this experience.

Think one step at a time.

Remember that we are with you at all times. I love you, Adele.

I love you two, Adele and Siena.

I'm going to love, love, love, love, love all over again.

- We'll have a safe night and climb well tomorrow.

When you climb in the Eiger North Face, you hear the cow bells and the

noises from down there, but in the same time you feel to be very far away.

I'll be lying on one side the whole night,

but I'll be tied in so I don't have to worry about rolling off.

Starting out before dawn is spooky.

Robert traversed off to the left and...

...I came down off the ledge and

then when Daniela was coming down,

her legs were much shorter and she couldn't reach the foothold.

And there was no protection in.

I was stuck on the bivouac ledge.

And I knew if I would jump and miss the foothold,

I would tumble down about 80 feet before the rope could catch me.

She managed to make it down okay, fortunately.

But it was an ominous start to the day.

When you climb the Eiger, I think you cannot avoid thinking

about the people who died in the wall,

especially if you come to certain places where you know there were

big tragedies and you simply have to think about it.

In a way, this also makes the face very special.

It's very alive.

A scary thing about the Eiger is that the rock is often loose and so,

if you fall and the protection doesn't hold, then you can fall a

very long ways.

Even a dangerous climb can be made safer,

if you just approach it intelligently.

We need to secure the ropes to the cliff

so as I go up, I look for good cracks for anchors, where the rock

is solid enough.

But the rock is coated in ice so even with the axes,

it's hard to get a solid grip.

I followed John through all the difficult sections

and I just happened to be looking through the scope

at the moment when he slipped and...

...naturally my heart stopped.

The weather on the Eiger changes very fast.

Really crazy weather.

Down in the valley you have clear sunshine,

and up there you have a snowstorm.

I have already thought a number of times about my father

and the fact that he came up this route.

And I can't dwell on that too much while I'm climbing.

But we'll see what happens overnight.

I have a long night coming up.

Dad was bivouacked on a ledge like this when he scribbled

a final note to us:

"We're hoping to make the top in a few days

but we're being very safe so don't worry.

I love you all very, very much. Dad."

After we passed the spot where Dad's rope had broken,

I glanced back.

I'd been trying to get past that place for 40 years.

I flung my grief and fear off the mountain, and kept going.

Up here, so high on the face

we're beyond the point of no return.

It's terrifying in a way

because you know you can't go back down...

...only up.

The weight of forty years is lifted.

But I was emotionally exhausted and so was Daniela.

- Oh, God.

- Great.

For me, this climb has helped heal an old wound.

But instead of focusing on my connection with Dad like I expected,

I felt much closer to my wife and daughter,

who stood by me while I did what I had to do.

- We'll see you really soon, okay?

- I love you too.

By the time I got to the summit my back pain was getting much worse.

Robert persuaded me to get lifted off the mountain.

This was no easy decision for me.

I really wanted to keep going,

but I knew he was right.

When I landed in the, in the field, and I saw my kids there,

I just felt so great.

It was so good to have them back.

Often the way down is much more dangerous than the way up,

because you are really tired,

and so you must think about every step.

Just a little jolt of adrenaline there at the very end.

- Congratulations. - Yeah, thank you.

The emotional struggle that I...

...went through on the Eiger was worth it,

because it has allowed me to connect Siena with this

love for the mountains that I felt as a boy.

But I have one more stop to make back to the town of Leysin

where I grew up.

Dad was buried here in a snowstorm.

When I was here before, it had always been a very sad experience,

but this time I felt, I felt like I'd been freed in many ways.

Like I'd done the climb and honored my father and moved on.

It was almost a liberating experience to be here.

These mountains attract strong people.

They always have.

The Alps embrace us, just as they welcomed the first settlers

who looked up at these peaks many centuries ago,

and said to themselves...

"We belong here".