Continuing their quest to free the great classics of the Eiger, Robert Jasper and Roger Schaeli have more or less followed the John Harlin Route, the original direttissima on the North Face, at M8- and 7a.

The German-Swiss pair spent three days in late September climbing the route as far as the Spider high on the face.

To this point the rock is generally considered to be quite good, but above, where it moves up right to a smaller ice patch named the Fly and then through the final steep barrier to gain the summit icefield, it is quite loose, with difficulties originally graded V+ and A1.

Jasper and Schaeli chose to avoid this and take a faster exit via the top section of the classic 1938 Route, reaching the top late in the evening...

• Full report on the BMC Website