it was a strange thing — i mean, we'd just made the first ascent of nuptse, the third peak of everestbeen a desperate climb. an amazing trip in a way. we all got on incredibly badly together. with one or two exceptions. and somehow we actually pulled it off. i'll neverforget, as you climbed up this gully, on the south side of nuptse, which is the retaining wall of the western cwm of evere5t. so suddenly as you come up this gully, suddenly, you pop your head over the top and you pop your head over the top and you're looking straight across the western cwm. and there is the south—west face of everest, black, veined in ice. it looks totally unattainable. but i wasn't that interested in it. because in those days, we were going to go back overland to europe. and i'd arranged to meet up with dom willens to attempt the north wall of the eiger. now at that time my horizons were not himalayan, even though i'd done two of the peaks. my horizons wa5 climbing in the alps, and that what fuelled my ambition. and the north wall of the eiger, anybody who looks at it and is going off for a day of gent