Climbing Feat at Eiger Peaks: The Irish Ascendancy, Unveiling the Scaling Pioneer from Sugar Loaf to Ogre
Charles Barrington, a 24-year-old Irishman, made history in the Swiss Alps in 1858. With no prior mountaineering experience, Barrington, along with Grindelwald mountain guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren, achieved the first ascent of the Eiger summit.
On August 11th, Barrington planted a flag on the summit of the Jungfrau at noon, marking his successful climb of this majestic peak. The day before, he spent the night in a cave with his guides at the base of the Jungfrau, where they also enjoyed a meal of French fries.
The Eiger, known as "ogre" in German, was Barrington's next challenge. He convinced his guides to join him in climbing its western flank and ridge on their own. At the summit, a person waited for them with food and water.
Barrington's ascent of the Eiger was not his last Alpine feat. Twelve years later, he won the first Irish Grand National on his horse Sir Robert Peel.
Fast forward to the present day, and the Swiss alpinists Nicolas Hojac (32) and Philipp Brigger (33) have set a new record for climbing the Eiger, MoΜnch, and Jungfrau in just 15 hours and 30 minutes. This record is almost 10 hours faster than the previous one.
Sadly, the glaciers that Barrington climbed are not in the same condition as they were in 1858. The ice sheet under Barrington's feet was already changing due to pollutants from the industrial revolution. Rising global temperatures are contributing to the glacier's retreat, with the Aletsch glacier, visible from the Jungfraujoch complex, having retreated by more than 3km since 1870 and lost over 200m in ice height.
The Jungfraujoch complex today features a man-made snowy plateau and a small hut, a stark contrast to the cave where Barrington spent his night in 1858. The north face of the Eiger, known as the "murder wall," towers over Grindelwald like a great pyramid of ice, snow, and crumbling limestone.
Work on the railway line that would tunnel through the Eiger and the Monch mountains began in 1896, a testament to humanity's enduring fascination with these majestic peaks. At 4,158m, the Jungfrau is much taller than the 552m Sugar Loaf, a peak visible from Barrington's family home.
After his descent to Kleine Scheidegg, Barrington received a gun salute and a hero's welcome. But his story doesn't end there. After climbing the Jungfrau with a beefsteak on his face to soothe glacial sunburn, Barrington went on to conquer the Eiger, and in doing so, etched his name into the annals of mountaineering history.
