White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger

Blurb

The White Spider is a book written by Heinrich Harrer that describes the first successful ascent of the Eiger Nordwand, a mountain in the Berner Oberland of the Swiss Alps with sections devoted to the history of mountaineering in the area.
The White Spider tells the story of the first attempts to ascend the Eiger's north face, beginning with Max Sedlmeyer's and Karl Mehringer's disastrous try in 1935 and continuing to the successful ascent by Kurt Diemberger and Wolfgang Stefan in July 1958.
After his successful summit of the mountain, Heinrich Harrer received many letters from mountain climbers, which he sifted through with climber and author Kurt Maix to become the contents of The White Spider. In particular, Harrer describes the tragedy of the 1936 attempt by Edi Rainer, Willy Angerer, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz in which all died.