Meanwhile....on the other side of the valley Jo and I hopped on the train up to Kleine Scheidegg, and then the connection up to the Eigergletscher station. This is the point where the Junfraujoch railway goes into a tunnel and then ascends up the inside of the Eiger, winding it's way up to the Junfraujoch, Europe's highest railway station. It's also where we picked up the Eiger trail, which is how we accessed the start point of the via ferrata which climbs up the Rotstock. The Rotstock is a smaller peak which is connected to the west side of the north face of the Eiger.
Here is a shot as we approach, you can see the trail going down past the grassy slope. We have to ascend that slope to get to the start of the climb
Here is a shot looking up the grassy slope, the summit of the Rotstock is high above
And here is a different view of the Rotstock....the snow covered peak in the background is the Eiger
At the top of the grassy slope we stopped to get our climbing gear on. Here is a self portrait before we headed up.....just in case we didn't make it and someone found our camera.....I am kidding!!!
Here is a show of JJMW (JoJo Mountain Woman) before heading up
The first part is a vertical ascent....there is one climber ahead of us and if you look really closely you can see a series of vertical ladders that you use to get up the tricky parts
Some action shots of JJMW
Once you get past the ladders you scramble up a scree slope and into a couloir....there was still some snow covering parts of it. In the picture you can also see a small window...there are a number of these you come across. They were used as vents and/or rock dumps during the construction of the Junfraujoch railway. We took that ride a few years ago....if you go back to the posts from that trip you can see where the train stopped and we got to look out the gallery windows in the middle of the north face of the Eiger.
Once you get passed the scree slope and deeper into the couloir it becomes more vertical again. But in some places there are actually steps carved into the rock, which makes for easy going.
Another shot of Jo on her way up
And in this shot you can see the eventual summit in the background. It's the large flat spot on the right
We crossed a few waterfalls on the way up, and came across wildflowers clinging to the side of the mountain
Getting closer, and that's where we are headed
And eventually we reached the summit. A few other climbers were just about to leave and they offered to take a picture for us
We had brought a picnic lunch with us, but there was weather coming our way so Jo signed the summit log for us and we started to make our way back down after a few more pics
Looking down to Kleine Scheidegg
View down to Grindewald
And Jo celebrating, with the small town of Murren (and Delanie) far in the distance
A few more shots at the top looking towards the summits of the Monch and the Jungfrau
To get back down you descend the west flank, which is a long slope that is used by those who summit the Eiger. There is a lot of scree and in some sections there are fixed ropes that you use to lower yourself down the steep sections
Eventually we arrived back at the Eigergletscher station where we hopped on the train and ride back down to Lauterbrunnen where we met up with Delanie. The three of us sat on our connecting balconies and enjoyed some local wine and cheese....and the view as well
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