Obituary - Ueli Steck, celebrated mountain climber

Died: April 30, 2017

UELI Steck, who has died aged 40 in a mountaineering accident near Mount Everest, was a celebrated mountain climber and one of the most renowned mountaineers of his generation.

He was best known for his speed-climbing, including setting several records for ascending the north face of the Eiger, a classic mountaineering peak in the Bernese Alps that he climbed in two hours and 47 minutes without using a rope.

In 2013 he also achieved the first solo climb of the Annapurna south face in Nepal after almost losing his life in a fall there in 2007.

For that he received the Piolet d'Or, considered the Oscar of mountaineering, the following year.

In 2015 he decided to climb all 82 peaks in the Alps higher than 4,000 metres (13,100ft) travelling between mountains by foot, bike and paraglider only.

He completed the feat in 62 days, helping cement his reputation as the "Swiss Machine".

Steck said in an interview last month with the Swiss Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that he considered himself an outsider in the mountaineering scene because athletic achievement was more important to him than adventure.

Born in Langnau im Emmental in Switzerland, Steck first got the bug when he was 12 and went climbing with a friend of his father. He began scaling walls in gyms and made the Swiss junior national sport-climbing team and climbed the North Face of the Eiger near Grindelwald in Switzerland for the first time when he was just 18. It was a hugely impressive achievement and he went on climb it again another 34 times, including his first solo climb when he was 28.

He made his first trip to Everest 2011, at the age of 34. In 2013, he and fellow climber Simone Moro from Italy were involved in a confrontation with Sherpas after they allegedly ignored orders from the Sherpas to hold their climb and caused ice to fall on them. The climbers were later met with angry Sherpas, who threw rocks.

Speaking about the incident afterwards, Steck said: "They say, ‘It was just Westerners in the wrong place. They were arrogant to be there. The Sherpas are there to do their work.’ Well, I respect their work, but they should respect my work.”

In recent days, Steck had been planning to climb 8,850 metre (29,035ft) Mount Everest and nearby Mount Lhotse next month when he was killed at Camp One of Mount Nuptse. His body has been recovered from the site and taken to Lukla, where the only airport in the Mount Everest area is located.

He was the first casualty in the spring mountaineering season in Nepal that began in March and will end in May.

Hundreds of foreign climbers are on the mountains to attempt to scale Himalayan peaks in May when there are a few windows of favourable weather.

Asked about his forthcoming Everest-Lhotse expedition, involving a quick climb from one peak to the other including an overnight in the "death zone", Steck said: "When I'm on Everest I can stop at any point. The risk is therefore quite small.

"For me it's primarily a physical project. Either I get through, or I don't have the strength for the whole traversal."

Asked what he would consider to be success on his expedition, Steck said: "Of course I want to climb Everest and Lhotse. But that's a very high goal. Failure for me would be to die and not come home."

Asked once about his approach to fear, he said: “I’m never afraid,” he said. “I wouldn’t do it if I was afraid of it. I’m not an adrenaline junkie. I’m really Swiss, calculating.”

Steck is survived by his wife Nicole Steck, who is also a climber.