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

Courage is a theme. Harrer admires courage as a fundamental virtue. In his book, he argues strongly against those who criticized attempts to climb the North Face as suicidal or purposelessly dangerous. Harrer sees the North Face as a challenge where one can fully explore courage and put it to the test. He admires all who find it within themselves to brave the climb. Harrer sees the initial unsuccessful climbers as courageous pathfinders who led the way to later success. Those who died on the face, he admires for enduring the trials of the mountain, even though that endurance is self-afflicted.