Ueli Steck, a renowned Swiss mountaineer, was born on October 4, 1976, in Langnau im Emmental, Switzerland, and tragically passed away on April 30, 2017, in Nepal. He earned the nickname "Swiss Machine" due to his exceptional solo ascents and speed records.
As a child, Ueli Steck played ice hockey, but at the age of 12, he discovered rock climbing and joined the Swiss Alpine Club. At 18, he scaled the north face of the Eiger and the Bonatti pillar in the Mont-Blanc massif. In 1998, he soloed the Haston Couloir on the Mönch in 3.5 hours, and in 1999, he completed the Lauper route on the Eiger in 5 hours.
Ueli Steck's climbing career was marked by several notable ascents. In 2001, he made the first ascent of the west face of Mount Pumori with Ueli Bühler. From 2002, he teamed up with Stephan Siegrist, and they achieved several notable climbs, including "The Young Spider" and "La Vida es Silbar" on the north face of the Eiger, as well as chaining the three north faces of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau in 25 hours in 2004.
In 2005, Ueli Steck made the first solo ascent of the north face of Cholatse (6,440 m) and the west face of Tawoche (6,505 m). He continued to push his limits, setting a new Eiger north face record of 3:54 in 2007 and breaking his own record with a time of 2:47:33 in 2008.
Ueli Steck was also known for his rescue efforts. In May 2008, he and Simon Anthamatten attempted to rescue mountaineer Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, who tragically passed away on May 23. Ueli Steck stayed by his side until the end.
In 2009, Ueli Steck completed a record trilogy (Eiger, Grande Jorasse, Matterhorn) on the north face in 1 hour 56 minutes, reaching the summit of the Matterhorn via the Schmid route. He received the Piolet d'Or 2009 in technical difficulty for the first ascent of the north face of Tengkampoche (6,500 m) with Simon Anthamatten. On July 9, he soloed the Gasherbrum II (8035 m).
In 2011, Ueli Steck climbed the south face of Shisha Pangma (8,013 m) in a record time of 10:30 a.m. and 18 days later, he climbed Cho Oyu (8,201m) with Don Bowie. He presented his film, "Ueli Steck: Speed," in Martigny, Switzerland, on November 18, 2011.
Ueli Steck continued to push his limits, creating the Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau triptych in less than 12 hours in August 2012. On October 9, 2013, he added to his list of achievements with a solo ascent of the south face of Annapurna. In the summer of 2015, Ueli Steck carried out the #82summits project with Michael Wohlleben, reaching the end of the project in 62 days.
On November 11, 2015, Ueli Steck and Nicolas Hojac climbed the north face of the Eiger via the Heckmair route in 3 hours 46 minutes, beating the roped ascent record. Five days later, Ueli set a new Eiger record of 2:22:50.
Tragically, Ueli Steck died on April 30, 2017, while training for a combined ascent of Everest and Lhotse in less than 48 hours without oxygen via the West Ridge route. He was discovered dead by rescuers after slipping on a patch of ice and falling 1,000 meters from one of the faces of Nuptse during an acclimatization ascent.
