Made it to Interlaken a few days after Mt. Blanc to attempt the Eiger by way of the Mittellegi Ridge ( not the North Face! ). From my hostel in Interlaken, you can see the Jungfrau. Interlaken sits between two lakes, Brienz and Thun, and is very pretty. They have left a big field undeveloped in the middle of the city so that you can walk around it at night and just enjoy it. We need more of that kind of thinking in the States! Went up to the Berner Oberland region one day and hiked around Murren and saw the beautiful mountains around. They are truly beautiful. There is a lot of mountaineering history in this one range. So many tough climbs in one spot! Spend another day at Eigergletscher just below the base of the Eiger. Look at the North Face.

I meet Freddy on Sunday at the Eigergletscher train station and we head up to Icemere which is inside the Eiger. We walk down a tunnel, open a door, and we are on the glacier. We have to cross the snowfield and glacier on the backside of the Eiger to get to the rock, where we will climb to the Mittellegi Hut. You never know when the glacier will fall so we go pretty fast to the rock and then we start climbing. There is maybe a steep 5.6 or lower climb for the first few 100 feet, and then you walk to the hut. It is weird walking though because it is fairly steep and there is loose gravel all over. Freddy helps me get a feel for it, walk like an Indian softly, but each step is 100%, makes sense.

In about 2 hours we are to the hut. It is only 2 years old and very relaxing. Unlike the Gouter Hut, this is relaxing. There are only 20 people here compared with about 90 on Mt. Blanc. The hut was relaxing, but the view was freaking me out. I knew there was exposure on the Mittellegi Ridge, but I had hoped that seeing it up close would make me feel better. No Such Luck! It starts right at the hut and rises to the summit. I started to get a little psyched out, but figured Freddy would kill if I said I wanted to turn around! I did not want to turn around either.

We started out at 4 the next morning. I handled the exposure fine. You really focus on where you step and realize that thinking about it does not do you any good. It is really amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. We summited in about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Again, it was georgeous. We saw a full moon in the dark ( noticed it for about a split second and did not think about it until Freddy's wife, Lisa, brought it up when we saw her later in the day ). The summit was smaller and more peaceful than Mt. Blanc. We sat up there for about 40 minutes, no wind and warm, a perfect day. The view of the mountains was even better than from Mt. Blanc, so many high, majestic peaks in one place!

The down was not bad. We, or I, went slow because there is loose rock and I was not so good at walking on that, plus we were in crampons for a while. Freddy had to work hard watching me and also belaying me from steel rod to steel rod. That was fun for me. Towards the bottom, Freddy found some long snow and we glissaded. Freddy calmly stood on two feet and basically skied it - while I tried to do the same, rocking back and forth to stay on my feet, falling, using my ice axe to self arrest, and then having to get back on my feet because we were roped together and Freddy does not fall!!!! It was pretty funny. Made it back to Eigergletscher in about 4 1/2 hours and then we went to Kleine Schedigg for a beer! Got to love the Alps! Again Freddy took great care of me.

This was really some experience!