Exhibition Notes

Men Breaking Ice

In January 1915, whilst war raged in Europe, a group of men, lead by Sir Ernest Shackleton on The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, became trapped in ice on their ship, The Endurance. For a whole month the men heroically attempted to free her but in October the pressure of the ice grew to such an extent that hull of the Endurance was crushed and on 21st November 1915 she finally sank out of sight.

Following this disaster Shackleton lead his men on an incredible journey to safety without losing a single life. On their return home most of the men went on to fight in the Great War where many subsequently perished.

Fetching the Body of Toni Kurz

On July13th 1936 Toni Kurz set off on his second attempt to climb the North Face of the Eiger with three climbing companions, Andreas Hinterstoisser, Edi Rainer and Willy Angerer. On July 22nd he tragically died at the end of a rope only metres from safety.

During the ascent, Willy Angerer was injured by falling rocks. As a result of Angerer's worsening condition and their slow progress across the second ice field, they abandoned the attempt on the Eiger and decided to descend. During another avalanche, Hinterstoisser became disconnected, plummeted down the mountain, and perished. Later, Angerer, now climbing below Kurz, was smashed against the wall, dying instantly. Edi Rainer, the climber who had been securing the other two, was pulled against the wall and died minutes later of asphyxiation. Kurz alone remained alive and uninjured.

Amid worsening weather, a rescue team attempted to reach Kurz from below, but due to the severity of the storm they were unable to reach him and were forced to leave him exposed to the elements for the entire night. The next day, the team again attempted to effect a rescue; Kurz himself, despite a frozen hand, made the effort to abseil down the face of the mountain and reach the rescue team. To increase the length of his rope, he unraveled it and tied it together again. This entire process took five grueling hours. He then lowered the rope to the waiting rescuers, who attached their own rope.

The mountain guides only had one long rope - 60 meters - with them. Unfortunately the rope was dropped and lost. As a result the team combined two shorter ropes to reach the required length. Kurz pulled up their rope, fixed it, and began his abseiling descent. He was stopped a mere couple of meters above his rescuers by the knot. To abseil any further he would have had to raise himself enough to release the pressure on the knot and let it pass though his gear. Desperately, Kurz tried to move himself past the knot, but in vain. Facing the futility of his situation, he said only "Ich kann nicht mehr" ("I can't [go on] anymore") and died.

His body recovered by a German team the following season

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