The weather improved and they made preliminary explorations of the lowest part of the face. Hinterstoisser accidentally fell but was not injured. A few days later, the four men began ascending the north face. They climbed quickly, but on the second day the weather changed; clouds came down and allowed observers on the ground only intermittent visibility of the climbers on the face. On the second day, the party was bombarded by rockfall, a notorious problem on the north face route. Angerer was hit just below the shoulder blade and injured. It is said that he tried to continue climbing, but the expedition had to be stopped for the night. The climbing resumed on the following day, when, during a break in the clouds, the party was observed descending. Later, it would be learned that the group had no choice but to retreat, since Angerer had suffered more serious injuries than initially assessed. The party became stuck on the face when they could not recross a difficult traverse – which became known as the Hinterstoisser traverse – from which they had pulled the rope during their ascent. Exhausted on their third day of climbing, with two days of bad weather, Hinterstoisser still tried for hours to cross the traverse, which was now covered in
verglas. On the way up, Hinterstoisser had used a technique called a "tension traverse", where a rope is fixed and kept taut, allowing the lead climber to "lean" on it for balance. However, this technique cannot be used when descending. The weather worsened, and falling rocks, snow, and water could be seen from the town. The group decided to
abseil from the lower lip of the First Ice Field down the vertical face (the great rock barrier). A ledge ran along the wall of rock, which, if they could get to it, would lead them to the Stollenloch, an entrance to the train tunnel. As belay devices had not yet been invented, they rappelled using the
Dülfersitz method. Contact was made with a railway guard at the
Eigerwand railway station halfway down the descent. During their exchange, the climber claimed everything had been going all right (perhaps out of pride and knowledge that they were very close to safety). However, as Hinterstoisser set up the last abseil of the descent, an
avalanche came down the mountain, taking Hinterstoisser, who had unclipped from the group, with it. He was found at the bottom of the mountain days later. Angerer also fell and was killed when his body hit the rock face, while Rainer quickly
asphyxiated from the weight of the rope around his diaphragm. Only Kurz survived the avalanche, hanging on the rope with his dead comrades. == Rescue attempt ==