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The Eiger is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at , constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys. The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. The north face, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition.〔Reinhold Messner, ''The Big Walls: From the North Face of the Eiger to the South Face of Dhaulagiri'', p. 41〕 The Eiger has been highly-publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions. Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname ''Mordwand'', literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall). Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres. The Eiger is mentioned in records dating back to the 13th century, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: ''Jungfrau'' – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (''Mönch''), and the Ogre (''Eiger''; the standard German word for ogre is ''Oger''). The name has been linked to the Latin term ''acer'', meaning "sharp" or "pointed", but more commonly to the German ''eigen'', meaning "own". ==Geographic setting and description== The Eiger is located within the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern, between the valleys and municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (west) and Grindelwald (east). It is located 2.2 km northeast of the Mönch and 5.6 km northeast of the Jungfrau, in the northeastern part of the Bernese Alps. The nearest settlements are Grindelwald (5 km), Lauterbrunnen and Wengen (both 7 km). The Eiger has three faces, north(west), west and southeast. The east ridge from the summit to the Ostegg (2,709 m), named ''Mittellegi'', is the longest on the Eiger. The north face overlooks the pass and resort of Kleine Scheidegg (3 km), or more precisely the region east of it, the north face lying entirely in the municipality of Grindelwald. The latter mountain pass lies between the valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald and connects the lower Männlichen-Tschuggen range to the Eiger. All the aforementioned localities are connected to Interlaken via mountain railways. The Eiger does not properly form part of the main chain of the Bernese Alps, which borders the canton of Valais and forms the watershed between the Rhine and the Rhone, but constitutes a huge limestone buttress, projecting from the granitic mass of the Mönch across the Eigerjoch. Consequently, all sides of the mountain feed the same river, the Lütschine, through the Weisse Lütschine on the west side (west face of the Eiger) and through the Schwarze Lütschine on the east side (north and east faces of the Eiger). Therefore all the water running down the Eiger converges at the foot of the Männlichen in Zweilütschinen, 10 km northwest of the summit, where the Lütschine proper begins its course to Lake Brienz and the Aare. Although the north face of the Eiger is almost free of ice, significant glaciers lie at the other sides of the mountain. The Eiger Glacier flows on the west side of the Eiger, from the crest connecting it to the Mönch down to 2,400 m, south of Eigergletscher railway station, and feeds the Weisse Lütschine, through the Trümmelbach. On the east side, the Eismeer (well visible from the windows of Eismeer railway station) flows from the Mönch down to 1,300 m through the Lower Grindelwald Glacier system, which feeds the Schwarze Lütschine. The massive wall of the Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger itself constitutes an emblematic sight of the Swiss Alps and is well visible from many places on the Swiss Plateau and the Jura Mountains. The higher Finsteraarhorn (4,270 m) and Aletschhorn (4,190 m), which are located about 10 km to the south, are generally less visible and situated in the middle of glaciers in less accessible areas. As opposed to the north side, the south and east sides of the range consist of large valley glaciers extending for about 20 km, the largest (beyond the Eiger drainage basin) being those of Aletsch, Fiesch and Aare, and is thus uninhabited. The whole area, the Jungfrau-Aletsch, comprising the highest summits and largest glaciers of the Bernese Alps, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger amounting to approximately 700,000 cubic metres of rock fell from the east face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks and fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eiger」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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