Stephan Siegrist

Ueli and Stephan returned repeatedly to the route they equipped in 2003. While climbing the route La Vida es Silbar (Anker/Siegrist, 2000), Stephan saw the possibility of another logical and separate line on the face. In 2001, Raul Bayard and Stephan Siegrist drilled the route’s first holes.

This summer, Ueli and Stephan reserved time to continue their project. Unfortunately, the weather this season was far from great, making it only possible to check the route 3 times for no more than 2 consecutive days in a row at best. Between thunderstorms and bad weather, the team had enough time to climb some sections of the route. They had estimated they would need two full days to complete the route, but chances of catching the right conditions didn’t seem possible and a continuous free ascent eluded them.

Paciencia is all about rock climbing. The unstable weather and the early snowfall during the middle of August were constant setbacks, making summer of 2008 less than ideal for climbing the Eiger’s North face. There just wasn’t 48 hours of stable and dry weather!

The duo’s patience and tenacity finally paid off! Although there was some fresh snow on the last pitches of the route, on Friday August 29, thanks to the north east wind (Bise), the face stayed dry. They began climbing at nine o’clock and exactly twelve hours later they had climbed 16 of the 23 pitches. After a calm night in the bivy, the two climbers completed the 7 remaining pitches the following day on a mix of rock and snow. At one o’clock in the afternoon they arrived on the Czech Pillar. The descent followed; a race down the west flank to the train on Eiger Glacier that brought Stephan to a High-Line event in Thun and Ueli to his well-deserved sport climbing holiday! While climbing the route, they alternated leading in a team free ascent.