The ongoing attempts on the north face of the Eiger (the Eigerwand) - which had thus far resisted all efforts, and had taken the lives of six German and Austrian climbers - were a particular object of his disdain, provoking his most notorious outburst (in his 1938 Presidential Valedictory Address to the Alpine Club, just before the first successful ascent by Anderl Heckmair and party):