Ueli Steck

Ueli Steck (; 4 October 1976 – 30 April 2017) was a Swiss rock climber and mountaineer. He was the first to climb Annapurna solo via its South Face (though this is disputed by some), and set speed records on the North Face trilogy in the Alps. He won two Piolet d'Or awards, in 2009 and 2014. Having previously summitted Mount Everest, Steck died on 30 April 2017 after falling during an acclimatizing climb for an attempt on the Hornbein route on the West Ridge of Everest without supplemental oxygen.

Career

At the age of 17, Steck achieved the 9th difficulty rating (UIAA) in climbing. As an 18-year-old he climbed the North Face of the Eiger and the Bonatti Pillar in the Mont Blanc massif. In June 2004, he and Stephan Siegrist climbed the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau within 25 hours. Another success was the so-called "Khumbu-Express Expedition" in 2005, for which the climbing magazine ''Climb'' named him one of the three best alpinists in Europe. The project consisted of the first solo climb of the north wall of Cholatse (6,440 m) and the east wall of Taboche (6505 m).

Steck set his first speed record on the North Face of the Eiger in 2007, climbing it in 3 hours and 54 minutes. The record was lowered by Steck himself to 2 hours 47 minutes 33 seconds the following year.

In May 2008, climbing Annapurna, he broke off his ascent due to an avalanche threat, but the next week climbed to assist Spanish climber Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, who had collapsed. Medical help was slow in coming and the Spanish climber died despite Steck's help.

In 2008, Steck was the first recipient of the Eiger Award for his mountaineering achievements.

On 8 and 9 October 2013 Steck soloed the Lafaille route on the South Face of Annapurna."Annapurna South Face Routes"
russianclimb.com, accessed 13 October 2013. on the main and highest part of the face; this was his third attempt on the route and has been called "one of the most impressive Himalayan climbs in history", with Steck taking 28 hours to make the trip from Base Camp to summit and back again. The veracity of his claim has been challenge

The face had previously been climbed by the 1970 British Annapurna South Face expedition using siege tactics and taking nearly two months. Steck's was the first solo ascent of Annapurna, which won him his second Piolet d'Or.

In the winter of 2014/15, Steck and linked up the three north faces of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo/Drei Zinnen in 16 hours. In the summer of 2015, he climbed all 82 summits in the Alps higher than 4000 meters in 62 days without the use of motorized travel. Two days slower than the 60-day record, his time included a period when Steck had suspended the tour on July 22, after his climbing partner on the Aiguille de Rochefort, Martijn Seuren, had fallen to his death on this final peak to make him the first Dutch person to climb all 82 4000ers.Peter Beaumont
Dutch climber attempting 82-peak Alps challenge dies in Mont Blanc fall
The Guardian, 25 July 2015. Later that year Steck set a new record for the North Face of the Eiger, soloing it in 2 hours 22 minutes and 50 seconds.

In April 2016, Steck and his German mountaineering partner, David Göttler, found the bodies of Alex Lowe and paraglider David Bridges. Lowe and Bridges were killed in an avalanche in 1999 while searching for a route up Shishapangma to attempt the first ski descent.

Incident on Mount Everest, 2013

On 27 April 2013, Steck was climbing on the Lhotse Face, above Camp 3 of the Southeast Ridge route of Mount Everest. He was climbing with Simone Moro and Jonathan Griffith when they passed a group of 17 Sherpa climbers who were fixing rope for the rest of the teams on the mountain. There are conflicting accounts from both parties, with the Sherpa claiming that Moro and his team insulted them and knocked over ice while traversing above them. To ease the situation, Moro and his teammates descended to Camp 2. While discussing the incident with other climbers, Steck, Moro and Griffith claim they were violently attacked by a much larger group of Sherpa. They claim the Sherpa had covered their faces as they threw punches and rocks at them. The Sherpas not only deny the numbers claimed to be involved in the fight, but claim that the altercation was initiated by Martin Schmidt, who was falsely claiming to be Simone Moro, another climber on Steck's expedition team who was also involved in the earlier dispute. Tensions only eased after other foreign climbers at Camp 2, including Melissa Arnot, intervened to defuse the situation. Steck and his team left the mountain but the incident received worldwide attention, allowing Steck and his team to spread their version of events months before any Sherpas were even interviewed about the situation.

Personal life and death

Steck was born as the third son to a copper smith in the town of Langnau in the Emmental valley in Switzerland. As a child he played hockey and joined his father on ski tours. He was a carpenter by training and in adulthood lived in Ringgenberg near Interlaken, Switzerland.

Steck died on 30 April 2017 while acclimatizing for an attempt of the Hornbein route on the West Ridge of Everest without supplemental oxygen. This route had been climbed only a few times, the last of which was in 1991. His plan was to climb the Hornbein Couloir to the summit, then proceed with a traverse to the peak of Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain. This combination had not been achieved.

On April 16, during preparations for the attempt, his climbing partner, Tenji Sherpa, suffered frostbite, which would take some weeks to heal. Steck carried on with scouting and acclimatisation, climbing up to Everest's Camp 2, en route to the South Col. On April 29, he changed his plans, texting Tenji that he would climb the nearby peak of Nuptse instead, and did not respond to a follow-up question.

On April 30, he began climbing at around 4:30 AM with a French climber named who was attempting to climb Everest. When Graziani headed towards Camp 3, Steck broke off to the right to climb Nuptse. He was last seen partway up the face around dawn by several Sherpas and expedition members around the valley. Approximately below the summit, he fell an estimated . It is not known what caused the fall. His body was found in the Western Cwm, between camps 1 and 2, and transported back to Kathmandu where memorial services were held.

Steck was survived by his wife Nicole.

Awards

* 2008 Eiger Award for his alpinistic performances
* 2009 Piolet d'Or for his new route on Tengkampoche north face with Simon Anthamatten
* 2010 Karl Unterkircher Award for his climbing versatility
* 2014 Piolet d'Or for his solo ascent of Annapurna south face
* 2015 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year
*201
The George Mallory Award
- Wasatch Mountain Film Festival

See also

*History of rock climbing
*List of first ascents (sport climbing)

References

Further reading

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External links

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Biography on climbing.com

Obituary on theguardian.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steck, Ueli
1976 births
2017 deaths
Free soloists
Ice climbers
Mountaineering deaths
People from Emmental District
Sport deaths in Nepal
Swiss summiters of Mount Everest
Swiss mountain climbers
Swiss rock climbers