Odyssee 8a+

Odyssee follows roughly 1,400 meters of the steepest, hardest ground on the Eiger's north face, crossing the overhanging Rote Fluh and topping out around 3,700 meters. Its crux, at 8a+, is a steep, water-streaked pitch that takes about four hours to lead. When it was completed, Odyssee became the hardest free rock route on the north face, ahead of the previously established Paciencia at 8a.

History

Roger Schäli conceived the line in 2002 after watching Stephan Siegrist and Ueli Steck establish Paciencia nearby, and began working the project with Robert Jasper from 2009, later joined by Simon Gietl. Repeated bad weather stalled their ground-up attempts for years. The team completed the first ascent in August 2015, climbing team-free, with Jasper and Schäli each redpointing about 95 percent of the route's pitches during the push and finishing individual redpoints of the remaining pitches later the same season. A single continuous free ascent by one team, without any prior inspection or redpointing, had not been reported at the time.

On film

Odyssee (Eiger North Face, 1400m, 8a+) with Tobias Suter and Cédric Lachat (Guillaume Broust, 2022) is an outtake reel from a larger project, following Suter and Lachat's climb of the route. It shows the pair working through the long approach pitches and the sustained 8a+ climbing on the Rote Fluh section, giving a sense of what a roped team faces repeating Schäli, Jasper and Gietl's line years after its first ascent.