They were young, blue-eyed and unstoppable: How mountaineers Siegfried Kimmel and Gangolf Ruckert managed to climb the notorious route 45 years ago.
When Siegfried Kimmel and Gangolf Ruckert stood in front of the north face of the Eiger in the summer of 1973, they said: “That’s ridiculous, we can do it.” But the mountain in the Bernese Alps should soon find something better for the two Lower Franconians. They got caught in a sudden storm and had to turn back. After a tricky descent, they did not have secure ground under their feet until two days later. It was 45 years ago in August 1975, Siegfried Kimmel, from Aschfeld in the Main-Spessart district, and Gangolf Ruckert from Würzburg succeeded in “the extremely dangerous one , feared and …
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