What are the motifs in The White Spider: The Story of the North Face of the Eiger by Heinrich Harrer?

The physical and the mental are recurring ideas in the story. Climbing a mountain is assuredly a physical activity. However, Harrer emphasizes the character-building aspects of climbing when he praises it. Harrer believes that not only physical prowess but mental acuity, calm, and balance are necessary ingredients for overcoming the harshest challenges nature has to offer. The North Face of the Eiger embodies these harshest challenges, with its deadly iciness, constant avalanches of rock and snow, and easily underestimated features, so changeable in the turbulent weather.