Harlin Route on Eiger Free-climbed

One of the  steepest routes in the Alps, the John Harlin direttissima on the North Face of the Eiger was free-climbed on September 20-23, 2010. The 1,800 metre long line was first climbed by John Harlin, Layton Kor and Scotsman Dougal Haston in 1966. After Harlin’s death, when a rope he was jumarring broke, Haston completed the line Germans Siegfried Hupfauer, Jörg Lehne, Günter Strobel and Roland Votteler.
Swiss guide Robert Jasper, accompanied by Robert Schaeli, managed to free-climb the route with mixed climbing up to M8, rock at the UK grade of E5 7a (5.13b/c). Jasper has already made a free ascent of the Japanese direct route. “As I lead-climbed the very pitch where John Harlin had his fatal fall in 1966,” said Jasper, “thoughts of my family and the risks of the mountain flitted through my mind.”