Fay and I started from Grindelwald at the bridge close to the Eiger Lodge at exactly 1:00 a.m. on 13 September 2026. From there we followed the roads and tracks up to Alpiglen, before joining the Eiger Trail and continuing to the via ferrata leading to the Ostegghütte.
From the hut we followed the cairns toward the Integral ridge. We moved efficiently, but in the darkness the route-finding was not always obvious and we made a few small navigation errors, losing some time before eventually gaining the ridge.
Once on the Eiger Integral, we moved freely across the majority of the route, only roping up for the two harder 5c pitches. The terrain is sustained and exposed, with sections of scrambling and climbing, loose rock in places, and some non-trivial route-finding.
We continued along the Integral to the Mittellegihütte, where we briefly stopped to refill our water bottles from the tap. From there we joined the classic Mittellegi Ridge and continued toward the summit, moving across the exposed ridge, fixed-rope sections and the final climbing above the hut.
We reached the summit of the Eiger at 3,967 m after 8 hours 46 minutes elapsed time from Grindelwald.
We carried everything we needed from the start, apart from refilling water at the Mittellegihütte, and received no outside assistance during the attempt.
We moved efficiently but never pushed hard as this was our first go at this route.