Rope Knot Takes A Student’s Life

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 236, 6 October 1936, Page 2

Rope Knot Takes A Student’s Life

Anton Kunz, 17-ycar-old German student holidaying in Switzerland, lost his life because of a knot in a rope. With tlireo friends ho had set out to climb tho 13,000 ft. high Eiger peak. Their route led up tho steepest and most ditficult side of tho mountain. The rock face was almost sheer. After three days’ climb an avalaucho swept down. Kunz saw his friends swept off their feet, cling- desperately to a ledge and then drop one by ono exhausted; they fel 1200 ft to their death. Kunz was left alone on a narrow ledge iu a blinding snowstorm. Through their telescopes the inhabitants of a town at tho foot of tho mountain had watched tho climb, had seen tho avalanche and then when the weather had cleared had picked out the lonely liguro still clinging to the mountain face. A rescue expedition set off, got a rope to tho boy and began to guide him down. He mado fast the rope and tried to slip down it. All was going well till he came to a knot in the rope. He hesitated. He fainted from sheer exhaustion. Another fall of stone swept him away when he was only a few yards from safety. So tho Eiger has claimed another party i'or its victims.