Overview
- Kurz, Andreas Hinterstoisser, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer set out in 1936 to climb the unclimbed North Face known as Die Mordwand.
- Hinterstoisser established the diagonal traverse that now bears his name by fixing a line across a polished section of the wall.
- Expecting to descend a different way, the team removed the rope; a sudden storm coated the traverse with verglas and cut off their way back.
- On the retreat Hinterstoisser fell, Angerer—severely injured by rockfall—died of exposure, and Rainer also perished, leaving Kurz alone on the face.
- Swiss guides Christian Almer Jr. and Hans Schlunegger closed to shouting distance as Kurz lowered himself after cutting away bodies, but his rope proved too short after roughly two days, a tragedy later remembered in Heinrich Harrer’s The White Spider and in named features on the Eiger.