First British Solo Ascent of Eiger North Face - 1981

  

 

 

Widely acclaimed by serious climbers as a masterpiece of a mountaineering film. This film is a documentary of the first British solo ascent of the Eiger North Face by Welsh climber Eric Jones, skillfully blended with an excellent reconstruction of the dramatic epics and tragic history of the Eiger North Face.

 


Eiger Solo stills

The Eiger North Face was once thought of as being in the realms of the deranged, the obsessed and the imbecile. Eric Jones' ultimate dream was to climb the notorious North Face of the Eiger, alone. Filming Eric on his solo climb was almost as great a challenge to cameraman / filmmaker Leo Dickinson, who had to be lowered from a helicopter to Death Bivouac, high on the mountain to capture Eric's progress on film.

The climax of the film recreates John Harlin's 5,000 ft fall during the historic winter ascent of the Eiger Direct in 1966. The film also traces the history of the North Face, tragic and triumphant, including the early pre-war attempts that gave the mountain its notorious reputation.This film contains rare interviews with Heinrich Harrer, Anderl Heckmair, Don Whillans and Adolf Rubi.

Two things make this astonishing film unique: First, cameraman Leo Dickinson did not accompany Eric up the mountain but followed him in a helicopter dropping down at strategic points but mainly filming the nail biting climb with a telephoto lens. Second, Leo Dickinson himself obsessed with the Eiger's cruel history, has reconstructed the failed climbs of mountaineers before Eric, using experts who knew the ropes, so to speak, and could show the tragedies and triumphs exactly as they happened. The result: this film is probably the best of its genre on the subject, and thoroughly deserves to be regarded as a masterpiece of a mountaineering film.
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Reconstruction of Harlin fall

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  Best Mountaineering Film - Telluride
  Best Mountaineering Film - Trento
  Best Film - Kendall
  Best Film - Mountain Sports - San Sebastian
  Grand Prize    - Gravity Sports

Welsh mountaineer Eric Jones had always enjoyed making difficult ascents alone. Eric was the first British climber to solo the Matterhorn North Face, the Bonatti Pillar on the Dru and the Central Pillar of Brouillard on Mont Blanc. By the early 80s, Eric had become concerned that he was getting on and time was passing by. At about the same time, his ambition to solo the five North Face classics of the Alps had become an obsession, he was increasingly drawn to the Eiger North Face, which he had been watching from Grindewald for 5 summers previously, with the exception of 1978 when he suffered from frostbite after returning from the Messner/Habeler Everest expedition.

Eric Jones is a close friend of filmmaker Leo Dickinson's and has taken part in many world record and first ascent expeditions documented by Leo Dickinson on film:
Matterhorn North Face in Winter (1975) - first filmed winter ascent of Matterhorn North Face
Dudh Kosi (1976) - first kayak descent of Dudh Kosi, River of Everest;
Everest Unmasked (1978) - first ascent of Everest without oxygen masks by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler;
Ballooning Over Everest (1991) - first ever balloon flight over Everest, in which Eric co-pilots one of the two balloons.


Shortly after having successfully soloed the Eiger North Face, Leo Dickinson insisted on showing Eric the North Face from a helicopter.
"Did I really come up that?" Eric asked in disbelief, adding, "If I'd seen it all from here, I don't think I'd have bothered!"
"Perhaps you can now appreciate what it was like for me, watching you all the way up. So how does it feel?" asked Leo.
Eric replied,"I had a few frights, but that was all to be expected."
"And inwardly?"'
"Contentment, satisfaction and relief."
"And what now?" Leo asked.
"I'd like a cup of tea."

 

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Climbing Magazine - 1984 "This film is a skillful blending of Eric Jones's solo ascent of the 1938 route on the North Face with historical re-creations of significant events in the long and colorful history of the face. This historic material was particularly well done with superb period costumes and equipment and the contemporary footage is excellent as well. The balding, greying, 40-ish Jones comes off as a genuine human being, with fears, ambitions, emotions, good and bad moments - in short, qualities that both inspire the audience and endear him to them. This is certainly a film which deserves wider viewing and amply qualified as the Best Mountaineering film of the festival.(Telluride)"

Sunday Times: "Leo Dickinson has done it again. The most daring cameraman in Britain has just completed his boldest and perhaps his maddest project. He decided to reconstruct a fatal 5,000 ft fall on the North Face of the Eiger by doing everything he could to live it this side of the grave."

The Times: "Fly on the wall film - making assumes a different perspective under Leo Dickinson's intrepid camera work on the Eiger."

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Eiger Solo

First British Solo Ascent of the Eiger North Face by Eric Jones. Filmed in 1981.
$24.95 US / Canada
$27.95 Rest of world
FREE shipping & handling

DVD in NTSC released by Adventure Eye Inc 2004
Color, digitally remastered. Run time approx. 52 minutes.

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