2022, Austria/Switzerland, 23:51 min
Director: Johannes Mair
Genre: Documentary (Adventure, Sports).
The “Odyssey” is considered, together with the “Paciencia”, the most difficult line of the Eiger North Face. The first attempts on the 33-pitch line began in 2009, but it was not until 5 years later that local Roger Schäli, together with Robert Jasper and Simon Gietl, succeeded in making the first free ascent after an odyssey lasting almost two months. In 2018,Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher were able to repeat the route for the first time, for which they needed four days. In the style also practiced by the first ascenders,the so-called “bigwall style”, they had to carry food, water, equipment and a portable tent through the wall for this. After the successful repetition, a new idea and a new goal were born, because if it were possible to climb the route with difficulties up to the grade 8a+ in one day, it would be possible to do without the extra weight and to master the route in the “alpine style”. Climbing the hardest line of the Eiger North Face in one day was therefore not due to the record alpinism of the 1980s, where it was often a question of how many north faces someone could climb in what time, but it was primarily a question of changing climbing style. Record alpinism was about to return, however, as the venture was soon to become a race for the first one-day ascent of the “Odyssey”, as a top Belgian climbing team had also set their sights on the same goal. The film tries to look behind the scenes of top alpinism and to show that behind all the success stories in the climbing magazines, things can often be pretty tough. In an alpine wall the size of the Eiger with its countless objective and subjective dangers, any undertaking can quickly become a dangerous adventure. The Eiger North Face retains the reputation it has.