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Climbing For The Fatherland

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The race to conquer the world's greatest mountains was one fueled by obsession, personal ambition and love of adventure. But in the 1930s it took on a more sinister aspect: nationalism.

One mountain face in particular came to be seen as the Last Great Problem: the vast, brooding Eiger Nordwand in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland. The world’s finest climbers were lured to its foot – and perished in the merciless world of ice and storm that awaited them above. Then in 1938 an Austro-German team conquered the face amid bitter accusations that they were climbing for Hitler – that it was fascist ideology that spurred them to take up this suicidal challenge. The Nazis exploited their success to the full: this was incontrovertible evidence of Aryan physical and moral superiority. Set within the framework of a present-day ascent of the North Face, Climbing For The Fatherland tells the story of this remarkable feat and voyages into the nature of heroism itself.

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