Okay. That decision was made before the original American member of the team had his unfortunate accident.
8 seconds sound clip from the The Eiger Sanction movie soundboard.
You can hear this line at 01:21:10 in the Blu-ray version of the movie.
Quote context
[...]
- He's our ground man. Until we hit the wall, he has complete control.
- It's always like that. The ground man has the last word now and the leader once we're on the face.
- Okay, that brings us to another issue. Who's to be the leader?
- I thought that was settled. I thought you were gonna lead.
- You make a good point. Jonathan has climbed the mountain twice before.
- Correction, if I may. The good doctor has failed to climb the mountain twice before.
[...]