Obituary in the New York Times. | Image: John Harlin III

March 22 remains one of the most somber anniversaries in mountaineering history. On this day in 1966, American climber John Harlin was killed during an ambitious attempt to climb a new, direct route up the infamous north face of the Eiger in Switzerland. The North Face is a rock face that has the reputation of being the most dangerous alpine route in the Alps. Harlin had previously conquered the North Face (“Nordwand” in German), becoming the first American to do so.

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However, this feat was not enough and the ambitious alpinist decided to set out to establish the “Direttissima,” a brutally direct line straight up the face, ignoring the natural weaknesses and traverses that previous climbers had relied on. The climb, undertaken in winter, was organized in a siege-style approach more commonly seen in Himalayan expeditions, with fixed ropes, camps, and a multinational team battling relentless storms, extreme cold, and constant rockfall. Harlin had planned this direct route for years.

What began as a rivalry between Harlin’s American-led team and a German group soon turned into a cooperative effort—less a competition than a shared fight for survival against the mountain. The Eiger North Face, often nicknamed the “Mordwand” or “Murder Wall,” had already claimed dozens of lives by that point, its reputation cemented by tragedies in the 1930s that captured global attention.

The direct route as well as the Heckmair route marked in this image. | Image: John Harlin III

On March 22, disaster struck. While ascending fixed lines high on the wall, Harlin was hauling himself upward when the rope—frayed from constant abrasion against sharp rock—suddenly snapped. He fell to his death about 2,000 feet from the summit, plunging down 3,00 feet—an instant and catastrophic end that shocked both teams and the wider climbing world following the ascent.

Despite the loss, the climbers made the difficult decision to continue. Just three days later, on March 25, the combined team reached the summit, completing the line Harlin had envisioned. In his honor, the route was named the “John Harlin Direttissima,” a line that remains one of the most direct and committing ways up the face.

Harlin was 30 when he died, but his legacy extends beyond that tragic climb. A pioneer of modern alpinism, he established the “International School of Modern Mountaineering” in Leysin, Switzerland, in 1965. The term “Modern” was later dropped. At the time of his death, Harlin was working as athletics director at the Leysin American School near Lake Geneva. His son John Harlin III, was nine when his father died. 40 years later, John Harlin III would retrace his father’s final climb, documenting the journey and the enduring impact of the tragedy in a book called The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain That Killed My Father.

John Harlin II and his 2 companions with the equipment for the 10 day climb. | Image: John Harlin III