Always in conversation: Eiger - the vertical arena. Like an arena of rock and ice, the 1,800-meter-high north face of the Eiger towers over the alpine meadows and mountain inns of Kleine Scheidegg and Alpigeln above Grindelwald. An arena perfectly suited for thrilling ascents and descents. Spectators can comfortably follow the action on the wall from the restaurant terraces with binoculars while sipping their aperitifs. The Eiger is the quintessential public mountain. The first ascent of the striking, widely visible peak took place in 1858 by an Irish occasional mountaineer and two men from the Bernese Oberland via the west face, which is still considered quite difficult today and is the standard route. The northeast ridge, once deemed "impossible," was first climbed in descent in 1885 and ascended in 1921 by the Japanese Yuko Maki and three locals from the Bernese Oberland.