Heinrich Harrer (6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was a renowned Austrian mountaineer, explorer, writer, sportsman, and geographer. Harrer gained fame as part of the four-man climbing team that achieved the first successful ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, famously known as the "last problem" of the Alps, in July 1938.

During his adventurous life, Harrer joined the Nazi Party shortly after the annexation of Austria in March 1938 and was received by Hitler after the climb. In 1939, he went on an expedition to the Indian Himalayas, where he was detained by British colonial authorities with the outbreak of World War II. He successfully escaped to Tibet, residing there until 1951, an experience he later documented in his widely acclaimed book Seven Years in Tibet (1952). Another popular work by Harrer is The White Spider (1959).