Obituary: Anderl Heckmair

The two Germans also used 12-point crampons for the first time; items of kit that revolutionised ice and steep snow climbing. Instead of laboriously cutting each step with an ice axe, they could simply kick their way up, the two spikes at the toe-end of the crampon biting into the slope to give instant purchase. The 12- pointers were part of the new equipment Heckmair and Vorg had collected from Sporthaus Schuster in Munich, with the Ordensburg picking up the bill. Kasparek and Harrer were envious. And, unlike the two Germans, they were actually Nazi Party members.

The meeting transformed the Austrians' chances on a face notorious for storms and stone fall, where speed is a life-saver. Kasparek wore less efficient 10-point crampons and Harrer had only nailed boots. Heckmair took the lead and Harrer, as last man on the rope, collected the metal pitons, his pack getting ever heavier. As with the Anschluss, the Germans were the dominant partner. Yet ironically, it was Harrer's name that became most associated in British minds with the Eiger through his classic account of the climb, Die Weisse Spinne (The White Spider, 1959).

Despite Heckmair's initial misgivings, the four formed an effective unit, and remained for the most part in high spirits (yodelling included), even when a storm overtook them high on the route. Heckmair took several falls, on the worst of which one of his crampon points drove right through Vorg's thumb, and the quartet survived repeated avalanches. On the summit on 24 July, they shook hands, scratched the ice from their eyebrows, and struggled down through deep snow to an extraordinary reception at Kleine Scheidegg. It was climbing's first media scrum. Heckmair recalled that at dinner an official from the German embassy in Berne made a speech "full of unpleasant nationalistic phrases".

It seems reasonable to accept Heckmair's insistence that he was apolitical and only interested in success as a climber. In the manner common among today's top climbers, he seized the offer of free gear and any other assistance that suited his ambitions. Regrettably for him the "sponsor" had more sinister aims than product promotion.

Heckmair remained with the Ordensburg until the outbreak of the Second World War, when due, he said, to "political unreliability" he was sent to the army. Vorg was killed on the first day of fighting on the Eastern Front and a similar fate could have befallen Heckmair had he not been posted back from Russia to a mountain training unit near Innsbruck.

An officer, and rival on the Grandes Jorasses, had pulled strings and Heckmair spent the rest of the war amongst climbing pals. Thereafter, he worked as a guide and ski instructor and went on long expeditions, notably with his wealthy patron the industrialist Otto- Ernst Flick. Their travels included easy climbs in the Ruwenzori, Rockies and the Andes.

Andreas (Anderl) Heckmair, mountaineer and guide: born Munich 12 October 1906; twice married; died Oberstdorf, Germany 1 February 2005.

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