Luis Trenker-Film

During an early, unsuccessful attempt at climbing the Matterhorn, Edward Whymper finds himself rescued by an italian guide, Jean Antoine Carrel. The two men quickly build a friendship and agree to reach the peak together. However, local villagers ploto to divide the alliance of Whymper and Carrel and both men join rival teams as they set out in a race to conquer the mountain. A mountaineering drama based on the novel by Carl Haensel and inspired in the dramatic true story of Edward Whymper, who led the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. There is another version of the film titled The Challenge, shot the same year in English.

The film follows the life story of Johann Augustus Suter, the owner of Sutter's Mill, famous as the birthplace of the great California Gold Rush of 1848.

Constance, the young widow of a wealthy American, gets a love letter from the Engadine region, signed by the famous guide Toni Anewater she had met during a holiday in the previous year. Constanze and her friend Dorothy therefore go to Switzerland for winter sports. But identical love letters to other ladies in London, Paris and Rome have been sent. Toni does not know anything about the letters. Everything seems to be a cunning of the hotel owner to attract tourists.