Known as the "Swiss Machine," mountain climber Ueli Steck fell from the Nuptse peak in the Everest massif on April 30, 2017, leaving him dead at the age of just 40.
Cavan Images/Alamy Stock PhotoUeli Steck, the “Swiss Machine” who met his end near Mount Everest.
An incredibly strong and fast climber, Ueli Steck of Switzerland was considered one of the greatest mountaineers of all time. Within just a few hours, he could propel his wiry frame along climbing routes that took others days to complete. The agility, endurance, and precision required for such feats earned him the nickname the “Swiss Machine.”
But every machine eventually reaches its limit, and Steck reached his on April 30, 2017. At the time, he was preparing to summit Mount Everest. Steck had climbed the world’s tallest mountain before, but this time he wanted to summit both Everest and Lhotse, Earth’s fourth-highest peak, while climbing along the treacherous West Ridge without supplemental oxygen.
Sadly, he never made it that far. Ueli Steck was acclimatizing on Nuptse peak in the Everest massif when things went terribly wrong, and the 40-year-old mountaineer plummeted more than 3,000 feet to his death.
Ueli Steck’s Early Love For Mountain Climbing
Jonathan Griffith/Barcroft Med/Getty ImagesUeli Steck climbing Droite Mountain in the French Alps in 2011.
Ueli Steck was born on Oct. 4, 1976 in the small Swiss town of Langnau in Emmental. At first, the sport he was most interested in was hockey. But when a family friend brought him climbing on the nearby peak of Schrattenfluh, Steck became hooked on mountain climbing instead.
By 16, Steck was on even footing with most professional climbers. He quickly transitioned from local crags to the bigger, more challenging faces of the Alps. His focus was already shifting towards the pure, fast, and light style of climbing that would eventually make him a legend.
Jonathan Griffith/Barcroft Med /Getty ImagesUeli Steck at Grandes Jorasses in the French Alps in 2011.
At 18, he made his first ascent up the North Face of the Eiger, a 13,000-foot peak in the Bernese Alps. And it was on the Eiger that Steck would command the attention of the climbing world.
By 2007, the fastest that anyone had ever climbed the mountain was four hours and 40 minutes. That year, Steck climbed it in three hours and 54 minutes. He then went to break his own record in 2008 (two hours and 47 minutes) and 2015 (two hours and 22 minutes). It was an astounding feat — and Steck set a record that has yet to be beaten.
But even after setting another record on the Matterhorn, Ueli Steck wasn’t satisfied.
A Record-Breaking Mountain Climber
Whether on the Eiger or elsewhere, Ueli Steck pushed himself to the limit by being the first climber to conquer new routes or the first to make solo ascents up some of the world’s most treacherous mountains.
“The memories of the climbs are transitory. Unfortunately it’s already over as soon you are back in the valley,” he told The Alpinist in 2015. “…I want to live more adventures. That’s the only way to refresh the feelings. Climbing is about living it. I am looking forward to my next climb, my next run.”
Wikimedia CommonsSteck was considered one of the fastest mountain climbers in history.
Before long, Steck was honored by the climbing community for his achievements. He was awarded the Piolet d’Or (Golden Ice Axe) in 2009 for taking a new route up Teng Kang Poche in Nepal with a fellow climber, and in 2014 for his groundbreaking solo ascent up the South Face of Annapurna, also in Nepal, which Steck completed in 28 hours. This was an especially poignant moment for Stecker, as he had fallen and nearly died while attempting to climb Annapurna in 2007.
However, Steck’s ascent up Annapurna was controversial due to lack of independent proof. Some doubted his achievement because he had neither photographic proof or GPS documentation. That said, photographers at base camp had tracked his progress, and sherpas recalled seeing the glow of his headlamp near the summit. This was enough to convince the Piolet d’Or jury.
Wikimedia CommonsAnnapurna’s South Face.
In the years that followed, Ueli Steck continued to make news as a mountaineer, including for his feat in 2015 of reaching the summits of all 82 of the Alpine peaks over 4,000 meters (roughly 13,000 feet) in 62 days.
But an audacious climb up a dangerous Himalayan peak in 2017 would prove to be his undoing.
Ueli Steck’s Tragic Death On Nuptse Peak
Jonathan Griffith / Barcroft Med / Getty ImagesUeli Steck walking along the Gilat route of Droite Mountain in the French Alps in 2011.
Despite being aware of the dangers of climbing and even making a promise to his wife, Nicole, that he would limit his solo ascents, Ueli Steck continued climb the world’s most dangerous mountains alone.
And climbing alone is certainly as dangerous as one would think. In the words of mountain guide Michael Wejchert, who spoke to the New York Times after Steck’s death, “Those [solo climbers] who live into old age are usually the soloists who quit climbing alone.”
But while Steck was, in Wejchert’s words, “probably the best mountain climber in the world,” he was also among the most daring. Steck not only risked solo climbs, but also often did them with little equipment.
And in 2017, Ueli Steck set out on one of his most dangerous climbs ever. He planned to audaciously climb both Lhotse, Earth’s fourth-highest peak, and Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain. To acclimate ahead of this climb, he set out to climb the nearby Nuptse peak on April 30, 2017.
That morning, a Nepalese mountain guide named Vinayak Jaya Malla saw a climber on a ridge on the Nuptse peak that was least 23,000 feet high, just west of Everest’s summit. But shortly after that sighting, Malla heard a noise — and noticed that the climber was gone. Meanwhile, a number of other sherpas and climbers also witnessed someone fall from the high peak.
That climber, sadly, turned out to be Ueli Steck. Malla and another guide found his body at 9:34 a.m. about 3,000 feet below where they saw the climber earlier. Nearby, they also found a rock covered in blood.
PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty ImagesNepalese volunteers and friends of Ueli Steck carry his body at a hospital in Kathmandu on April 30, 2017, not long after his death earlier that day.
Sadly, in high-altitude mountaineering, there’s no such thing as a 100 percent guarantee of safety. One little mistake or unexpected event, such as a rockfall, can cause death. Ueli Steck knew this and put himself to the test time and again regardless, like so many great mountaineers do.
For him, the thrill of climbing was about more than reaching summits or setting records. It was about doing something new; doing something that was perhaps impossible. In a video that he posted just a few days before his death, Ueli Steck declared of his route along the treacherous West Ridge:
“I think it’s possible but we don’t know. That’s exactly the challenge, that’s exactly the interesting thing. Nobody has done that before.”
After this look at the life and death of mountain climber Ueli Steck, discover the stories of climbers who perished on Mount Everest including Rob Hall, Hannelore Schmatz, and George Mallory.
