I recall seeing this film on TV in about 1959 and thinking how exciting mountaineering was. The danger, the skill, the view. I was really impressed by the Matterhorn. All of this had me and my mates roping ourselves together with a clothes line a crawling, over-cautiously up any grassy slope we could find. This was enhanced if it snowed since there was he possibility of slipping and either being saved, or dragging your pals down with you. A scene in the movie which caused me a few sleepless nights. Looking at it now, it is quite tame and pretty unrealistic but, at the time, the cries of the falling climbers as they plunged down the mountainside were rather scary and unnerving. I don't remember too much of the rest of the film except the English climber having the amusing name of Whymper. Between the climbing sequences it was rather boring. Eight years later I was staring down a cliff face on Mount Snowdon with fatigue-trembling legs, thinking that mountaineering wasn't such an appealing pastime after all!
Review of The Challenge
