Ever since I started to climb in the early 1970s, this route has been on my bucket list. After reading a story about the Schmidt brothers climb in 1931, I was hooked. Toni and Fran's cycled 600 kilometers - with all their gear - climbed the face in two days, and then cycled back to Munich.
Ever since my first view of the North Face, on my way to climb the Dent d'Herens, I put it on my hit list. In the mid-1970s the Mountain Equipment ad with a picture of Dougal Haston's winter bivy on the face entranced me. I remember writing Tobin Sorensen, just back from soloing it in winter, and he wrote something like ... "a piece of cake as long as you are comfortable on unprotectable 5.7 rock." I have headed there a couple of times, but never got further than sniffing around the bottom.
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