View allAll Photos Tagged lefthand
Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, 19 in. / 48.26 cm. Generally UNCOMMON but conspicuous and widespread. In an argument over a perch spot. The lefthand bird successfully dis-placed the topmost bird.
1 of 2 in a series.
Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, United States.
©bryanjsmith.
One way to adapt a pair of old 886 chassis for travelling over extreme terrain.
N.B. This photo was taken on "dress down Friday", which explains why the righthand driver is wearing red and the lefthand driver is wearing green. Obviously, on a normal working day, the port driver would be in red and the starboard driver would be in green. Those Classic Spacemen really knew how to have fun and let their hair down.
Project Flickr - A view of the city of Lincoln, which is dominated by the magnificent cathedral
98/115 - Ancient... The image shows not only the Cathedral (this version was originally built 12th century AD, after the first was destroyed by an earthquake). On the horizon line on the lefthand side of the image is a big square building, which is a water tower (built in the early 1900s).
The water tower was architecturally designed to be in keeping with the surrounding medieval buildings. Just to the right of the tower is a smaller tower and a wall, this is Lincoln castle (built in the 11th century) I think that's ancient enough for this theme :-)
This is another picture I took at the bay of Binz on Rügen, Germany's largest island. This picture was shot at the same session as Sunrise in Red, 30 minutes later, when the colors moved further towards daylight. Changing the angle from the other one, you can see the bay of Rügen here, with the chalk cliffs in the distance on the lefthand side of the picture.
For this picture, a neutral density filter was used to get the exposure time to 25 seconds at an aperture of 11. The lens I used was the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 again, at 11 mm. During processing, I altered the white balance a bit to get even more of the natural orange, which is quite fitting to the calm mood.
I recommend to watch this picture Large On Black.
#MacroMondays #PhotographicEquipment
Detail of the film advanced lever area on the Exakta Varex VX.
camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Exakta_Varex_VX
There is quite some history on this camera. One 'weird" feature is that the film advance lever is on the lefthand side. My theory is that the camera was made to be used (mainly) on top of a microscope so that facing the top of the camera (mounted on a microscope) the lever would be on the right hand side again. As shown above. My $0.02 towards the history books. 😄
Vivitar Series-1 90 mm Macro (canon FD version) aka Bokina
------------------
HIT THE 'L' KEY FOR A BETTER VIEW! Thanks for the favs and comments. Much Appreciated.
-------------
All of my photographs are under copyright ©. None of these photographs may be reproduced and/or used in any way without my permission.
© VanveenJF Photography
My camera has a penchant for sitting in front of beautiful places on this earth… I love going along with it. Joyce tags along, too, sometimes. On our recent trip to New York, the camera and I got to tag along with her. Niagara and the surrounding area were stompin’ grounds for Joyce when she attended nearby Roberts Wesleyan College to begin her career in nursing. She decided that path because she was fascinated with how her grade school nurse cared for people, which is something that she, too, is quite good at. It’s evident in how she cares for me. I wanted to be a fighter pilot… but glasses. I have, on occasion, gotten the “fighter” part right.
Horseshoe Falls, part of the entirety of Niagara Falls, is a natural separation between America and Canada, better seen from the Canadian side. This very spot was a favorite for Joyce back in the day… or night, as it may be. I can well understand that. Though taken on a dark and stormy night (where’s Snoopy?), the brilliant lighting on the falls made the natural blue green color of the water shine through. It looks very much like a boiling cauldron with steam rising. The evident spectrum in the mist, however, makes me mindful of the Pillars of Creation, bubbles of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, in the Serpens constellation, for some reason. It’s difficult to get a sense of scale with this image… if you will take note of the bright green patch with evident lighting just above the falls on the lefthand side, those are full-size streetlights and full-grown trees at the overlook on the American side.
I found this, and other places along our path in the 5 days we were there, quite mesmerizing, not just in the beauty of the place, but in how these places shaped the one that I love. This picture carries a little more meaning in that respect.
Freightliner Class 70 No. 70004 enters Tunstead Sidings with 6H51, the 11:04 from Hardendale Quarry on 21st April 2021.
The track arrangement here can be deceptive. Although the two tracks were formerly the Midland mainline from Derby to Manchester Central, only the righthand track is now owned by Network Rail carrying traffic to Hindlow/Dowlow quarries via Buxton URS while the lefthand track on which the train is running is now a siding and part of the Tunstead complex.
The title of course being inspired by the excellent album from 10CC of the same name released in May 1977.
In the background there is an old hunting cabin, believed,to have been built and using by a Stony Nakota man by the name of John Lefthand. Apparently built in the 1920’s and used by him through to the 1960’s. It is very well built and is a well known landmark in the Cataract Creek area.
Once again in this chamber (or actually there are two chambers branching off in the Daedulum Luminarium), we see a range of colours. In the lefthand chamber a young mother appears holding her child. [You can enlarge the photo for a better view.]
The light experience was magical, but didn't defy the laws of optics. So the monochrome chamber is my own invention. The reason for this is simple: The colours were so bright the figures were lost in a sea of reds. A little work in processing and voilà, the colour disappears.
For over two years I've been sorting old photos and posting ones that never made it to Flickr at the time. Normally I leave the original posts alone. I may revisit and reprocess them later. For now they're flagged in the archives. This one I choose to repost for two reasons.
One: Since January I've been working through 2008. It was a difficult and special year. My mother died of cancer in February and several other traumatic things happened. Notably, in January and again around the beginning of February my apartment flooded due to the landlord's negligence. Yes, it happened twice. Pipes burst. They burst again. I lost furniture, books, and most unfortunately many photos from film photography over the first 30 years of my life. I vaguely remember pulling photos out of boxes or albums and laying them to dry. Many survived but many were lost. With Mom so sick and dying a couple weeks later, I don't think I ever processed the loss of those photos. I was already living with PTSD from previous experiences. Consequently I don't remember 2008 very well.
I do know that in May, 3 months after Mom died, I started keeping a daily photo journal on Flickr. It was probably the best coping tool I could have chosen, though I don't remember thinking about it that way at the time. Because of the habit of walking with a camera every day, 2008 was my most prolific year as a photographer prior to 2020. Revisiting it has been quite a journey. I've wittled about 10k images down to 7300, and posted an additional 171, flagging others that might be worthwhile. Mostly the photos are feel-good, about being outdoors. But sometimes they remind me of being lonely and short of funds, of missing my kids. I was working off-and-on for a pipe organ builder as needed, without a contract, benefits, or security. When we worked, the hours were long. I couldn't put my head into finding anything better. I couldn't do much writing, which made me unhappy. So the photography was a lifesaver in some ways. However, I usually only chose one photo to post every day, passing over the rest. Then I forgot about them.
Sorting from January to December, I've nearly come to the end. The weather looks to have been cold. Often I had to do night shots to fit around my work schedule. I'm a colour fan, and there wasn't much colour to be found. It became uninspiring. I stopped the daily walk-and-post routine after Dec. 21.
This shot is one of the most memorable from those dark days, so I'm posting it as a signpost. There are still many more photos from 2008 I'd like to post, but at some point I need to stop, move that vast chunk of data off my hard drive, and tackle 2007. The good ones are flagged, and now I have previews catalogued, so I can easily retrieve them whenever there's time to process them.
The second reason for reposting this photo is because I don't like the original edit. I cropped out the lefthand lantern, leaving only two. I disagree with that choice now. So I want to post it as a new photo rather than replacing the old one buried 13 years deep in my photostream.
So here it is, a nice memento, I think. Thank you for the beauty, 2008. Thank you for restoring some memories from a time that mixed happiness with grief, as all life does. But honestly I've had enough of you for now, and I'm ready to move on.
I'm sorting old photos and posting a few interesting ones. This image was uploaded to Flickr on May 3, 2022.
Thank you to everyone who visits, faves, and comments.
Freddy my fox getting much braver with the lights and camera shutter, the reduced power of the Nikon SB900's now at 1/64th power, the lefthand one now raised on 2 feet above ground on an upturned planter pot 12 feet to the left at 45 degrees, the second flash is 2 feet to the right of camera also 2 feet high.
Increased the shutter speed to 1/160 and that has helped in freezing the action, with the ISO still at 1600.
Camera info:- Nikon D3S all set to manual with Nikon 24-70mm f/5.6, approx 8 feet from fox, ISO 1600, shutter 1/160th, focal length 38mm. SB 900 strobe to right of camera triggered by Yongnuo 602's, second SB900 set of manual SU4 trigger by first flash.
not sure if this is any better
sooc except for a crop because my little cousin's hand was in the bottom lefthand corner
Well, this was fun. For me anyway and I hope you enjoy it too.
It’s a wobbly camera picture of winter trees in a copse at the top of the hill.
The in-camera image was OK, but a bit… boring. The winter colours were muted underneath a plain grey sky. One thing I really did like in this particular wobble was the way the textures in the trees came out. So I decided to self-indulge in a play and see if I could bring out something of the texture effect.
I threw into Nik Color Efex and had a look at the results of some of my own presets. This is a slippery slope as I tend to find a lot of possibilities that I find ‘interesting’. The problem is to decide which to go with. I’m trying to train myself to just stick with one of the first ones I find…
This is based on a mix of half a dozen of filters in CEfex, with the legwork being done with solarisation and bicolour filters. I like this software because, although I tend to produce extreme stuff with it, it lends itself to subtle uses. All the filters are based on advanced darkroom techniques of the filmy days of yesteryear.
Looking at the image we’re looking over a field towards the copse. There is a hedge in front of it and a road behind the hedge. If you can look carefully you can see a car at the lefthand end of the taller bunch of trees. At the righthand end of the same main clump of trees you can see a triangular road sign on a post. But, for me, it’s the textures in the trees that appeal.
This is more my 100x Wobbly Camera project. I’ll post a link to the in-camera wobble so you make more sense of it if you wish :)
Thank you for taking the time to look and read. I hope you like the image. Happy 100x :)
Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Eiger
seen from Fallbodensee
The Eiger (German pronunciation: [ˈaɪ̯ɡɐ]) is a 3,967-metre (13,015 ft) mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m (13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its nearly 1,800-metre-high (5,900 ft) north face of rock and ice, named Eiger-Nordwand, Eigerwand or just Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps.] This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the eponymous pass connecting the two valleys.
The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. The north face, the "last problem" of the Alps, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition.The Eiger has been highly publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions. Since 1935, at least 64 climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall).
Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres. The Eigerwand station has not been regularly served since 2016.
Etymology
The first mention of Eiger, appearing as "mons Egere", was found in a property sale document of 1252, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mönch), and the Ogre (Eiger; the standard German word for ogre is Oger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed".
Geographic setting and description
The Eiger is located above the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the west and Grindelwald to the north in the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern. It forms a renowned mountain range of the Bernese Alps together with its two companions: the Jungfrau (4,158 m (13,642 ft)) about 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) southwest of it and the Mönch (4,107 m (13,474 ft)) about in the middle of them. The nearest settlements are Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen (795 m (2,608 ft)) and Wengen (1,274 m (4,180 ft)). The Eiger has three faces: north (or more precisely NNW), east (or more precisely ESE), and west (or more precisely WSW). The northeastern ridge from the summit to the Ostegg (lit.: eastern corner, 2,709 m (8,888 ft)), called Mittellegi, is the longest on the Eiger. The north face overlooks the gently rising Alpine meadow between Grindelwald (943 m (3,094 ft)) and Kleine Scheidegg (2,061 m (6,762 ft)), a mountain railways junction and a pass, which can be reached from both sides, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen/Wengen – by foot or train.
Politically, the Eiger (and its summit) belongs to the Bernese municipalities of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The Kleine Scheidegg (literally, the small parting corner) connects the Männlichen-Tschuggen range with the western ridge of the Eiger. The Eiger does not properly form part of the main chain of the Bernese Alps, which borders the canton of Valais and forms the watershed between the Rhine and the Rhône, but constitutes a huge limestone buttress, projecting from the crystalline basement of the Mönch across the Eigerjoch. Consequently, all sides of the Eiger feed finally the same river, namely the Lütschine.
Eiger's water is connected through the Weisse Lütschine (the white one) in the Lauterbrunnen Valley on the west side (southwestern face of the Eiger), and through the Schwarze Lütschine (the black one) running through Grindelwald (northwestern face), which meet each other in Zweilütschinen (lit.: the two Lütschinen) where they form the proper Lütschine. The east face is covered by the glacier called Ischmeer, (Bernese German for Ice Sea), which forms one upper part of the fast-retreating Lower Grindelwald Glacier. These glaciers' water forms a short creek, which is also confusingly called the Weisse Lütschine, but enters the black one already in Grindelwald together with the water from the Upper Grindelwald Glacier. Therefore, all the water running down the Eiger converges at the northern foot of the Männlichen (2,342 m (7,684 ft)) in Zweilütschinen (654 m (2,146 ft)), about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northwest of the summit, where the Lütschine begins its northern course to Lake Brienz and the Aare (564 m (1,850 ft)).
Although the north face of the Eiger is almost free of ice, significant glaciers lie at the other sides of the mountain. The Eiger Glacier flows on the southwestern side of the Eiger, from the crest connecting it to the Mönch down to 2,400 m (7,900 ft), south of Eigergletscher railway station, and feeds the Weisse Lütschine through the Trümmelbach. On the east side, the Ischmeer–well visible from the windows of Eismeer railway station–flows eastwards from the same crest then turns to the north below the impressive wide Fiescherwand, the north face of the Fiescherhörner triple summit (4,049 m (13,284 ft)) down to about 1,600 m (5,200 ft) of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier system.
The massive composition of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau constitutes an emblematic sight of the Swiss Alps and is visible from many places on the Swiss Plateau and the Jura Mountains in the northwest. The higher Finsteraarhorn (4,270 m (14,010 ft)) and Aletschhorn (4,190 m (13,750 ft)), which are located about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the south, are generally less visible and situated in the middle of glaciers in less accessible areas. As opposed to the north side, the south and east sides of the range consist of large valley glaciers extending for up to 22 kilometres (14 mi), the largest (beyond the Eiger drainage basin) being those of Grand Aletsch, Fiesch, and Aar Glaciers, and is thus uninhabited. The whole area, the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, comprising the highest summits and largest glaciers of the Bernese Alps, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.
In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger, amounting to approximately 700,000 cubic metres of rock, fell from the east face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks and fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit.
Climbing history
While the summit was reached without much difficulty in 1858 by a complex route on the west flank, the battle to climb the north face has captivated the interest of climbers and non-climbers alike. Before it was successfully climbed, most of the attempts on the face ended tragically and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it and threatened to fine any party that should attempt it again. But the enthusiasm which animated the young talented climbers from Austria and Germany finally vanquished its reputation of unclimbability when a party of four climbers successfully reached the summit in 1938 by what is known as the "1938" or "Heckmair" route.
The climbers that attempted the north face could be easily watched through the telescopes from the Kleine Scheidegg, a pass between Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, connected by rail. The contrast between the comfort and civilization of the railway station and the agonies of the young men slowly dying a short yet uncrossable distance away led to intensive coverage by the international media.
After World War II, the north face was climbed twice in 1947, first by a party of two French guides, Louis Lachenal and Lionel Terray, then by a Swiss party consisting of H. Germann, with Hans and Karl Schlunegger.
First ascent
In 1857, a first recorded attempt was made by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann guiding the Austrian alpinist Sigismund Porges. They did manage the first ascent of neighboring Mönch instead. Porges, however, successfully made the second ascent of the Eiger in July 1861 with the guides Christian Michel, Hans and Peter Baumann.
The first ascent was made by the western flank on August 11, 1858 by Charles Barrington with guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren. On the previous afternoon, the party walked up to the Wengernalp hotel. From there they started the ascent of the Eiger at 3:30 a.m. Barrington describes the route much as it is followed today, staying close to the edge of the north face much of the way. They reached the summit at about noon, planted a flag, stayed for some 10 minutes and descended in about four hours. Barrington describes the reaching of the top, saying, "the two guides kindly gave me the place of first man up." After the descent, the party was escorted to the Kleine Scheidegg hotel, where their ascent was confirmed by observation of the flag left on the summit. The owner of the hotel then fired a cannon to celebrate the first ascent. According to Harrer's The White Spider, Barrington was originally planning to make the first ascent of the Matterhorn, but his finances did not allow him to travel there as he was already staying in the Eiger region.
Mittellegi ridge
Although the Mittellegi ridge had already been descended by climbers (since 1885) with the use of ropes in the difficult sections, it remained unclimbed until 1921. On the 10th of September of that year, Japanese climber Yuko Maki, along with Swiss guides Fritz Amatter, Samuel Brawand and Fritz Steuri made the first successful ascent of the ridge. The previous day, the party approached the ridge from the Eismeer railway station of the Jungfrau Railway and bivouacked for the night. They started the climb at about 6:00 a.m. and reached the summit of the Eiger at about 7:15 p.m., after an over 13 hours gruelling ascent. Shortly after, they descended the west flank. They finally reached Eigergletscher railway station at about 3:00 a.m. the next day.
Attempts on the north face
1935
In 1935, two young German climbers from Bavaria, Karl Mehringer and Max Sedlmeyer, arrived at Grindelwald to attempt the ascent of the north face. After waiting some time for the weather to improve, they set off, reaching the height of the Eigerwand station before stopping for their first bivouac. The following day, facing greater difficulties, they gained little height. On the third day, they made hardly any vertical gain. That night, the weather deteriorated, bringing snow and low cloud that shrouded the mountain from the observers below. Avalanches began to sweep the face. Two days later, the weather briefly cleared, and the two men were glimpsed a little higher and about to bivouac for the fifth night, before clouds descended again. A few days later, the weather finally cleared, revealing a completely white north face.: 225 Weeks later, the German World War I ace Ernst Udet went searching for the missing men with his aircraft, eventually spotting one of them frozen to death in what became known as the "Death Bivouac". Sedlmeyer's body was found at the foot of the face the following year by his brothers Heinrich and Martin Meier, who were part of a group looking for the victims of the 1936 climbing disaster. Mehringer's remains were found in 1962 by Swiss climbers below the "Flat Iron" (Bügeleisen) at the lefthand end of the second ice field.
1936
The next year ten young climbers from Austria and Germany came to Grindelwald and camped at the foot of the mountain. Before their attempts started one of them was killed during a training climb, and the weather was so bad during that summer that, after waiting for a change and seeing none on the way, several members of the party gave up. Of the four that remained, two were Bavarians, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, and two were Austrians, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer. When the weather improved they made a preliminary exploration of the lowest part of the face. Hinterstoisser fell 37 metres (121 ft) but was not injured. A few days later the four men finally began the ascent of the face. They climbed quickly, but on the next day, after their first bivouac, the weather changed; clouds came down and hid the group to the observers. They did not resume the climb until the following day, when, during a break, the party was seen descending, but the climbers could be seen only intermittently from the ground. The group had no choice but to retreat, since Angerer had suffered serious injuries from falling rock. The party became stuck on the face when they could not recross the difficult Hinterstoisser Traverse, from which they had taken the rope they had first used to climb it. The weather then deteriorated for two days. They were ultimately swept away by an avalanche, which only Kurz survived, hanging on a rope. Three guides started on an extremely perilous rescue attempt. They failed to reach him but came within shouting distance and learned what had happened. Kurz explained the fate of his companions: one had fallen down the face, another was frozen above him, and the third had fractured his skull in falling and was hanging dead on the rope.
In the morning the three guides came back, traversing the face from a hole near the Eigerwand station and risking their lives under incessant avalanches. Toni Kurz was still alive but almost helpless, with one hand and one arm completely frozen. Kurz hauled himself off the cliff after cutting loose the rope that bound him to his dead teammate below and climbed back onto the face. The guides were not able to pass an unclimbable overhang that separated them from Kurz. They managed to give him a rope long enough to reach them by tying two ropes together. While descending, Kurz could not get the knot to pass through his carabiner. He tried for hours to reach his rescuers who were only a few metres below him. Then he began to lose consciousness. One of the guides, climbing on another's shoulders, was able to touch the tip of Kurz's crampons with his ice-axe but could not reach higher. Kurz was unable to descend further and, completely exhausted, died slowly.
1937
An attempt was made in 1937 by Mathias Rebitsch and Ludwig Vörg. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, they were nonetheless the first climbers who returned alive from a serious attempt on the face. They started the climb on 11 August and reached a high point of a few rope lengths above Death Bivouac. A storm then broke and after three days on the wall they had to retreat. This was the first successful withdrawal from a significant height on the wall.
First ascent of the north face
The north face was first climbed on July 24, 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek in a German–Austrian party. The party had originally consisted of two independent teams: Harrer (who did not have a pair of crampons on the climb) and Kasparek were joined on the face by Heckmair and Vörg, who had started their ascent a day later and had been helped by the fixed rope that the lead team had left across the Hinterstoisser Traverse. The two groups, led by the experienced Heckmair, decided to join their forces and roped together as a single group of four. Heckmair later wrote: "We, the sons of the older Reich, united with our companions from the Eastern Border to march together to victory."
The expedition was constantly threatened by snow avalanches and climbed as quickly as possible between the falls. On the third day a storm broke and the cold was intense. The four men were caught in an avalanche as they climbed "the Spider," the snow-filled cracks radiating from an ice-field on the upper face, but all possessed sufficient strength to resist being swept off the face. The members successfully reached the summit at four o'clock in the afternoon. They were so exhausted that they only just had the strength to descend by the normal route through a raging blizzard.
Other notable events
1864 (Jul 27): Fourth ascent, and first ascent by a woman, Lucy Walker, who was part of a group of six guides (including Christian Almer and Melchior Anderegg) and five clients, including her brother Horace Walker[
1871: First ascent by the southwest ridge, 14 July (Christian Almer, Christian Bohren, and Ulrich Almer guiding W. A. B. Coolidge and Meta Brevoort).
1890: First ascent in winter, Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi guiding C. W. Mead and G. F. Woodroffe.
1924: First ski ascent and descent via the Eiger glacier by Englishman Arnold Lunn and the Swiss Fritz Amacher, Walter Amstutz and Willy Richardet.
1932: First ascent of the northeast face ("Lauper route") by Hans Lauper, Alfred Zürcher, Alexander Graven and Josef Knubel
1970: First ski descent over the west flank, by Sylvain Saudan.
1986: Welshman Eric Jones becomes the first person to BASE jump from the Eiger.
1988: Original Route (ED2), north face, Eiger (3970m), Alps, Switzerland, first American solo (nine and a half hours) by Mark Wilford.
1991: First ascent, Metanoia Route, North Face, solo, winter, without bolts, Jeff Lowe.
1992 (18 July): Three BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA clients died in a fall down the West Flank: Willie Dunnachie; Douglas Gaines; and Phillip Davies. They had ascended the mountain via the Mittellegi Ridge.
2006 (14 June): François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger.
2006 (15 July): Approximately 700,000 cubic metres (20 million cubic feet) of rock from the east side collapses. No injuries or damage were reported.
2015 (23 July): A team of British Para-Climbers reached the summit via the West Flank Route. The team included John Churcher, the world's first blind climber to summit the Eiger, sight guided by the team leader Mark McGowan. Colin Gourlay enabled the ascent of other team members, including Al Taylor who has multiple sclerosis, and the young autistic climber Jamie Owen from North Wales. The ascent was filmed by the adventure filmmakers Euan Ryan & Willis Morris of Finalcrux Films.
Books and films
The 1959 book The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer describes the first successful ascent of the Eiger north face.
The Climb Up To Hell, 1962, by Jack Olson, an account of the ill-fated 1957 attempted climb of the north face by an Italian four-man team and the dramatic rescue of the sole survivor mounted by an international all-volunteer group of rescuers.
Eiger Direct, 1966, by Dougal Haston and Peter Gillman, London: Collins, also known as Direttissima; the Eiger Assault
The 1971 novel The Ice Mirror by Charles MacHardy describes the second attempted ascent of the Eiger north face by the main character.
The 1972 novel The Eiger Sanction is an action/thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker (writing under the pseudonym Trevanian), based around the climbing of the Eiger. This was then made into the 1975 film The Eiger Sanction starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy. The Eiger Sanction film crew included very experienced mountaineers (e.g., Mike Hoover, Dougal Haston, and Hamish MacInnes, see Summit, 52, Spring 2010) as consultants, to ensure accuracy in the climbing footage, equipment and techniques.
The Eiger, 1974, by Dougal Haston, London: Cassell
The 1982 book Eiger, Wall of Death by Arthur Roth is an historical account of first ascents of the north face.
The 1982 book Traverse of The Gods by Bob Langley is a World War II spy thriller where a group escaping from Nazi Germany is trapped and the only possible exit route is via the Nordwand.
Eiger, 1983, a documentary film by Leo Dickinson of Eric Jones' 1981 solo ascent of the north face.
Eiger Dreams, 1990, a collection of essays by Jon Krakauer, begins with an account of Krakauer's own attempt to climb the north face.
Eiger: The Vertical Arena (German edition, 1998; English edition, 2000), edited by Daniel Anker, a comprehensive climbing history of the north face authored by 17 climbers, with numerous photographs and illustrations.
The IMAX film The Alps features John Harlin III's climb up the north face in September 2005. Harlin's father, John Harlin II, set out 40 years earlier to attempt a direct route (the direttissima) up the 6,000-foot (1,800 m) face, the so-called "John Harlin route". At 1300 m, his rope broke, and he fell to his death. Composer James Swearingen created a piece named Eiger: Journey to the Summit in his memory.
The 2007 docu/drama film The Beckoning Silence featuring mountaineer Joe Simpson, recounting—with filmed reconstructions—the ill-fated 1936 expedition up the north face of the Eiger and how Heinrich Harrer's book The White Spider inspired him to take up climbing. The film followed Simpson's eponymous 2003 book. Those playing the parts of the original climbing team were Swiss mountain guides Roger Schäli (Toni Kurz), Simon Anthamatten (Andreas Hinterstoisser), Dres Abegglen (Willy Angerer) and Cyrille Berthod (Edi Rainer). The documentary won an Emmy Award the subsequent year.
The 2008 German historical fiction film Nordwand is based on the 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face. The film is about the two German climbers, Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, involved in a competition with an Austrian duo to be the first to scale the north face of Eiger.
The 2010 documentary Eiger: Wall of Death by Steve Robinson.
(Wikipedia)
Der Eiger ist ein Berg in den Berner Alpen mit einer Höhe von 3967 m ü. M. Er ist dem Hauptkamm der Berner Alpen etwas nördlich vorgelagert und steht vollständig auf dem Territorium des Schweizer Kantons Bern. Zusammen mit Mönch und Jungfrau, deren Gipfel auf der Grenze zum Kanton Wallis liegen, dominiert der Eiger die Landschaft des zentralen Berner Oberlandes. Die etwa 3000 Meter über dem Tal aufragenden Nordflanken dieser Berge stellen die Schauseite einer der bekanntesten je als ein «Dreigestirn» bezeichneten Gipfel-Dreiergruppen in den Alpen dar.
Insbesondere die Nordwand des Eigers fasziniert sowohl Bergsteiger als auch Alpin-Laien. Durch dramatische Begehungsversuche und gelungene Begehungen dieser Wand wurde der Eiger weltweit bekannt und immer wieder ins Blickfeld der Öffentlichkeit gerückt – nicht zuletzt, da die gesamte Wand von Grindelwald und der Bahnstation Kleine Scheidegg aus einsehbar ist. Die Jungfraubahn mit ihrem Tunnel durch den Eigerfels ist seit ihrer Eröffnung im Jahr 1912 ein Touristenmagnet.
Namensherkunft
Die erste urkundliche Erwähnung des Eigers stammt aus dem Jahre 1252 – dies ist die zweitfrüheste urkundliche Erwähnung eines Schweizer Bergs nach dem Bietschhorn (1233). Am 24. Juli 1252 wurde in einer Verkaufsurkunde zwischen Ita von Wädiswyl und der Propstei Interlaken ein Grundstück mit den Worten «ad montem qui nominatur Egere» (dt.: Bis zum Berg, der Eiger genannt wird) abgegrenzt. Ein halbes Jahrhundert später wird der Eiger in einem Belehnungsbrief erstmals in deutscher Sprache erwähnt: «under Eigere».
Für die Herkunft des Namens gibt es drei gängige Erklärungen. Eine erste ist der althochdeutsche Name Agiger oder Aiger, wie der erste Siedler unterhalb des Eigers geheissen haben soll. Der Berg über dessen Weiden wurde deshalb Aigers Geissberg oder auch nur Geissberg genannt. Hieraus entwickelten sich dann im Laufe der Zeit die direkten Vorgänger der heutigen Bezeichnung. Die Herkunft des Namens könnte auch von dem lateinischen Wort acer kommen, woraus sich im Französischen aigu entwickelte. Beide Worte haben die Bedeutung scharf beziehungsweise spitz – in Anlehnung an die Form des Eigers. Die dritte Erklärung stammt von der früher gebräuchlichen Schreibweise Heiger, was sich aus dem Dialektausdruck «dr hej Ger» entwickelt haben könnte (hej bedeutet hoch, Ger war ein germanischer Wurfspiess). Wiederum wäre hier die Form des Eigers ausschlaggebend für seine Bezeichnung.
Im Zusammenhang mit dem Eiger wird auch des Öfteren die Namensähnlichkeit mit dem Oger, einem menschenähnlichen Unhold, genannt. In Anlehnung an das Dreigestirn «Eiger–Mönch–Jungfrau» gibt es die Erzählung, der Unhold Eiger wolle seine lüsternen Pranken auf die Jungfrau legen, woran er aber vom fröhlichen Mönch gehindert werde. Zu dieser Geschichte sind in Grindelwald alte Karikaturen und neuere Postkarten zu kaufen.
Lage und Umgebung
Der Eiger erhebt sich direkt südwestlich von Grindelwald (Amtsbezirk Interlaken). Die bekannte Nordwand ist genaugenommen eine Nordwestwand. Neben dieser existiert in der berühmten «Eiger-Nordansicht» auch noch die Nordostwand. Sie bildet die Basis für den scharfen Mittellegigrat, der vom Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher zum Gipfel zieht. Auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite begrenzt der Westgrat die Nordwand. Ihm folgt die Westflanke, in welcher sich der Eigergletscher und der Klein Eiger befinden. An diesen schliessen sich der Südwestgrat und noch ein Stück östlicher der Südgrat an, der wiederum die Südostwand begrenzt, welche bis zum Mittellegigrat reicht. Südöstlich des Eigers liegt der Grindelwald-Fieschergletscher.
In der Umgebung des Eigers befinden sich einige Viertausender des Aarmassivs. Im Osten ist er umgeben von Schreckhorn (4078 m ü. M.) und Lauteraarhorn (4042 m ü. M.), im Südosten vom Grossen Fiescherhorn (4049 m ü. M.), und im Südwesten ist der Mönch (4107 m ü. M.) durch das Nördliche und Südliche Eigerjoch vom Eiger getrennt. Zusammen mit dem Mönch und der Jungfrau (4158 m ü. M.) bildet der Eiger das «Dreigestirn», bei dem der Eiger den nordöstlichen und die Jungfrau den südwestlichen Endpunkt bildet. Entgegen der steil abfallenden Nordseite des Berges befindet sich im Süden des Eigers die Hochfläche und Gletscherwelt der Berner Alpen. Seit Ende 2001 gehört der Eiger zum Gebiet des UNESCO-Weltnaturerbes Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch.
Geologie
Der Eiger ist ein Teil des helvetischen Systems, das im Grossraum um den Thunersee die Decken des Alpennordrandes bildet. In einer späten Phase der alpidischen Gebirgsfaltung wurden die helvetischen Kalk-Sedimente von ihrer kristallinen Basis abgeschürft und in Form einer Abscherungsdecke nach Nordwesten verschoben. Während des Faltungsprozesses in der Alpenentstehung brachen die Kalkbänke auf und Kluft- sowie Faltensysteme entstanden, die später mit ausgefälltem Calcit geschlossen wurden. Wichtigste Bestandteile der Sedimente sind der Schrattenkalk der Kreidezeit und der Malmkalk. Als Füll- und Schmiermaterial dienten Mergel und Tonschiefer.
Die klar erkennbare Faltung des Helvetikums mit seinen gebänderten, plattigen Kalkschichten zeigt sich auch am Eiger. Das Massiv des Eigers besteht komplett aus Kalk der helvetischen Zone und schliesst die Flyschschichten und die Molasse des Grindelwaldbeckens steil nach Süden hin ab. Weil der Talkessel von Grindelwald so reich gegliedert ist, finden hier die verschiedensten Tiere einen Lebensraum.[6] Südlich des Eigers schliesst sich das Aarmassiv mit seinem Innertkirchner-Lauterbrunner-Kristallin an. Teilweise hat sich dieses über die Sedimente des Eiger geschoben. Im Bereich des Mönchs treffen die Sedimente auf Altkristallin. Die typischen Gesteine des helvetischen Systems im Bereich des Eigers entstanden während des Jura, dem mittleren Zeitabschnitts des Mesozoikums. Der vorherrschende Kalk ist dabei mit verschiedenen Gesteinen durchmischt. Es zeigen sich Mergel-Kalke und -Schiefer, Ton-Schiefer, Eisenoolith sowie kalkige Sandsteine.
Die Kalkschichten des Eigers lagern auf Gneis und sind um 60–70° nach Norden geneigt. Geprägt wurde die heutige Form des Eigers durch die Eiszeiten. Während der Riss-Kaltzeit reichte die Vergletscherung bis an den Fuss der Nordwand. In der Würm-Kaltzeit war die Mächtigkeit des Eises um 200 Meter geringer. Durch die Bewegung der Gletscher wurde die Erdoberfläche umgestaltet. Vom Eis überlagerte Landschaften wurden abgeschliffen, wohingegen unbedeckte Bereiche durch Verwitterung und andere Formen der Erosion verändert wurden. Mit dem Rückzug des Eises änderten sich auch die Druckverhältnisse im Gestein, was sich durch Entlastungsbewegungen formgebend auswirkte. Prägend für den Eiger und seine Form war die allseitige Umlagerung von Eismassen, welche für einen recht gleichmässigen und markanten Abrieb aller Wände sorgte. Darüber hinaus war die Nordwand durch ihre Exposition den Abtragungsprozessen wie Frostverwitterung mehr ausgesetzt.
Felssturz
2006 ereignete sich am Eiger ein grosser Bergsturz, der öffentliches Interesse auf sich zog. An der Ostseite des Berges, unterhalb des Mittellegigrates, war durch Felsbewegungen ein rund 250 Meter langer Spalt entstanden, der eine Breite von etwa 7 Metern erreichte.Danach senkten sich die äusseren Teile mehrere Zentimeter pro Tag ab. Eine Ursache dieser Felsabspaltung könnte sowohl das massive Eindringen von Schmelzwasser in den Felsen gewesen sein, als auch eine Instabilität des Gesteins durch den Rückgang des Gletschers unterhalb des Felsabbruchs infolge der globalen Erwärmung. Am 13. Juli 2006 um 19:24 Uhr stürzten rund 500'000 Kubikmeter Felsbrocken auf den Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher. Über der Gemeinde Grindelwald schwebte stundenlang eine Staubwolke. Bereits am Nachmittag desselben Tages war die sogenannte «Madonna vom Eiger» zu Tal gestürzt. Hierbei handelte es sich um einen ungefähr 30 Meter hohen schlanken Felsturm mit rund 600 Kubikmeter Volumen.
Seit diesen Ereignissen wird die Felsnase (Gesamtvolumen: ungefähr eine Million Kubikmeter Gestein), aus der die Gesteinsmasse abbrach, von der Universität Lausanne beobachtet. Die Beobachtungen ergaben, dass sich die Nase von Juli 2007 bis August 2008 auf einer nach Osten geneigten Gleitfläche um 15 Meter talwärts bewegte. Zusätzlich kippte die Gesteinsmasse um zwei Grad nach Nordosten. Die Kluft zwischen Berg und Felsbrocken betrug im August 2008 50 Meter. Immer wieder brechen Gesteinsteile ab und stürzen zu Tal. Gebremst und stabilisiert wird die Masse vom Gletschereis, in das die Felsnase gleitet. Dies verhindert, dass die Nase als kompakte Masse zu Tal stürzt. So gilt es als wahrscheinlicher, dass der Gesteinsblock in sich selbst zusammenfallen wird.
(Wikipedia)
So here I am on the slopes of Mount Vaea on which stands Vailima - meaning 'Water in the hand' -, last home of a childhood hero of mine, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). I was enthralled way back then by the likes of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Jekyll and Hyde, and of course by his tales of the South Seas. And it's thrilling to be here on Samoa to see the place my revered author spent the last four years of his tubercular life. In the lefthand inset is his wonderful house with the wide verandas, now a fine museum for all adepts! on the right is the waterfalls and pool on the lower side of the Mount. Stevenson - 'Under the wide and starry sky. Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die' (who doesn't know those lines!?) - is buried at the top which overlooks Apia, the capital of Samoa.
The inset at the right shows the waterfalls and pool where Tusitala liked to bathe. I don't want here to neglect Robert Louis's wife Fanny. She was called in Samoan: Aolete, Flying Cloud, and that was brought to my mind by the dark clouds (see inset) which soon erupted on Your Faithful as he was climbing down from that eyrie.
Along the stream and waterfalls the greens are wonderfully lit up by Heterotis rotundifolia, Pink Lady. I am very grateful to Hanno Shultz for his correction and identification!
What more can I say to conclude a great day?!
I suppose I could go on about the background of 'Vaea' but I won't; I don't want my oka to get warm!
An eight is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for eight rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars, and is steered by a coxswain, or "cox".
Each of the eight rowers has one oar. There are four rowers on the stroke side (rower's right hand side) and four on the bow side (rower's lefthand side). The cox steers the boat using a rudder and is normally seated at the stern of the boat. Because of the speed of the boat, it is generally considered unsafe to row coxless or to have a bowloader cox.
This is a close-up photo of the thumb of my left hand refracted in a wine glass of water, or is that someone's face pressed against the inner glass visor of a space helmet?
Second in a set of four images depicting the versatility of a handyman’s abilities.
Strobist: Main light medium beauty dish above and just to camera left, single blue gelled strobe on low power camera lefthand facing towards subject and another single strobe with blue gell camera right set on wide zoom for fill light.
View from Grundkopf (1949 m), Alps at Little Walser Valley.
Lefthand a impounding reservoir for snow guns.
In the center a trial winds up to Fellhornbahn.
Blick vom Panoramarestaurant Kanzelwand am Grundkopf (1949 m) unterhalb der Kanzelwand (2029 m) im Kleinwalsertal
Taken out of the lefthand side of our Boeing 737 at about 29,288 ft think this is the pretty island Grytoya just past Harstad. This was enroute from Oslo to Tromso on the 19th Feb 2020.
Having just past the Lofoten Islands which looked stunning but too far away in the distance.
My new found Dutch pal Rob, is seen here making his way up one of the easier sections of the higher slopes of Mount Teide. The summit cone lays ahead but our route would shortly take us on a lefthand bearing through a contorted lava field.
A reworking of an earlier aurora shot to bring out the stars that make up the constellation of Ursa Major or the Great Bear, the lefthand part of which we also know as The Plough. Taken in September this year from the south east cost of Iceland.
We had a company lunch today here at the studio in Kuala Lumpur so it was a fun day of eating massive amounts of Chinese food and running around, talking with the team. Afterwards, I went out with Janus and Will to the top of the Trader's Hotel to visit the Sky Bar for some drinks and snacks.
This bar is up on top of the roof and it is all open air. There is a pool down there that is always available for use, and it is surrounded by a ultra-chic bar. It was raining when I took this... I am up on the 2nd level of the bar, where there is a spa... you can see the little massage rooms down the lefthand side there.
from my daily photo blog at www.stuckincustoms.com