anybody know if they were ever found, and where?
I'm reading "The White Spider," and was wondering if any of the clues which were'nt available when Harrer wrote it, have come to light.

The bodies of Gunther Nothdurft and Franz Mayer were found by accident on September 22, 1961 in a couloir on the West Face of the Eiger by Werner Stager.

This book covers the whole event- while it's obvious that it was written by a non-climber, not a bad relation of the events that happened there.

http://www.amazon.com/Climb-Up-Hell-Jack-Olsen/dp/0312194501

any chance you could fill me in.... i'm not very familiar w/Eiger (other than having read White Spider), why would they have been found on the west face? did they summit, and fall on the decent?
thanks for both of your replies. right now i'm living in Mexico and i'm afraid i won't be able to get a copy of that book very soon.

They were descending but no one knows if an avalanche swept them into the couloir or if they were bivouaced there.

If you want to read a good book on the history of the north face of the Eiger get a copy of Joe Simpson's "The Beckoning Silence". I promise you won't be able to put it down and if you didn't know The White Spider is one of Joe Simpson's favourite books and one that got him interested in climbing in the first place.

wow! that's a helluva story.
thank you for replying

Some more to read about the Eiger:
http://www.summitpost.org/image/130363/150228/eiger-from-the-armchair-route.html