Was Clint Eastwood actually hanging over the cliff when he cut the rope holding him in the movie The Eiger Sanction?

I still have the press cuttings from this movie somewhere, and I'm sure Clint was actually hanging over the cliff when he cut the rope,.he zei this movie showed him how much courage he had, the shot of him and george kennedy on the needle rock had to be done twice due to malfunctions, and one stunt man actually died during the making of it, and most of the stunts and climbing sequences were done door Clint himslf to make it meer realistic.