Climbing the Eiger, 2005

Getting off the Eiger is almost as hard as getting up it. We had two options. One was the West Flank, which has been described as a steep slate roof with all loose tiles. A British guide in the hut told us to avoid this descent that no one does it in the summer. The other option is the South Ridge which is also used as an ascent route and rated AD. We down-climbed, rappelled, climbed over gendarmes on this route for an interminably long time. The route had icy corniced ridges requiring us to break out our ice axes and crampons then more rock requiring us to take them back off. At one spot the ridge ran straight into what appeared to be a dead-end wall with a ring-pin on it. I had to clip the pin and then reach out blindly around a corner and grope for a hold then swing around. A fun move at the Gunks but scary as hell in this situation