Climbing-British alpinist Manners makes Eiger history after forging her own path in sport

Aug 27 : Fay Manners had climbed the Eiger North Face before. But this summer, the British alpinist returned not to follow an established route, but to create one of her own.

With Swiss climbing partner Roger Schaeli, Manners spent 13 days on the wall establishing “Solar Eclipse,” a 2,952-foot (900-metre), 33-pitch route, becoming the first British woman to open a new route on the face.

Part of the Swiss Alps, the Eiger is known for its roughly 5,900-foot (1,800-metre) North Face, a wall of rock and ice exposed to extreme weather and falling rocks. A series of deadly attempts helped build its reputation before a German-Austrian team made the first successful ascent in 1938.

Four years ago, Manners climbed the Heckmair Route. She said the experience prompted her to research the wall obsessively and made her want to return.

Unlike repeating an established climb, where climbers know a route is possible and can consult information about its difficulty and direction, establishing a new route means finding a line through previously unclimbed terrain.

“You don’t know how hard it's going to be, you don’t know the sort of protection that you'll need to put in, you really don't know if you're going to be able to make it to the top,” Manners told Reuters.

For Manners, the creativity behind establishing a route carries significance beyond reaching the summit in a male-dominated sport.

“If you're looking in the guidebook and every single name of the person that's opened a route is male ... somehow that's telling you that men are opening routes and women aren't,” the 39-year-old mountaineer said.

“I think that having women go and do that creative process, opening new routes, putting all the hard work in ... is really important,” she said.