• 1950 (July 26): Fourth ascent in one very long day with a bivouac on the summit by Leo Forstenlechner and Erich Wascak. They overtake Swiss climbers Jean Fuchs, Marcel Hamel, Raymond Monney, and Robert Seiler, who achieve the fifth ascent on 27 July. • 1957: Two Italian (
Claudio Corti and
Stefano Longhi) and two German climbers (
Franz Meyer and
Gunther Nothdurft) encounter extreme difficulties in the higher part of the route, as Nothdurft becomes ill and Longhi, who is suffering from severe frostbite, falls near "the Spider" and cannot be lifted by his companions. Corti (who has been in turn hit by a falling stone) becomes the first man rescued from the face from above in a famous 54-man rescue action (first undertaken by volunteer climbers and non-Swiss guides) when German guide Alfred Hellepart is lowered from the summit on a steel cable by
Ludwig Gramminger's rescue system. Longhi is not so lucky and dies of exposure before he can be rescued. Meyer and Nothdurft died in an
avalanche on their descent of the Eiger's west face after completing the 14th ascent of the north face (they had left the injured Corti with all their provisions—including a small tent—and were trying to descend from the mountain and call rescue). The body of Longhi remained on the face for more than two years before being recovered. • Claudio Corti, being the sole survivor, was quite wrongly castigated by some quarters of the international press and was held responsible for the disappearance of the two German climbers Northdurft and Mayer (Northdurft had already soloed to the Swallows Nest and back). He was accused of various dark deeds, even of pushing the Germans off the face. Corti actually thought he had done the first Italian ascent of the face until it was pointed out that he had finished the climb tied to the back of another climber. • 1958:
Kurt Diemberger and Wolfgang Stefan make the thirteenth ascent. As the bodies of Nothdurft and Meyer were found later on the
descent route from the Eiger—both had been killed by an avalanche—Diemberger and Stefan were finally awarded the 14th ascent of the face. • 1959: Adolf Derungs and Lucas Albrecht, two Swiss masons, climb the face with very primitive equipment. Derungs wore four shirts one on top of another and Albrecht carried an old overcoat as far as the Spider. Both students, brave to the point of rashness and very tough, descend by night by the west flank. Three years later, in 1962, Derungs disappears while attempting a solo ascent of the north face. ==1960s==