Ueli Steck's family spends the evening ( Gedenkfeier) his memory in Interlaken on May 24, at the Congress Center Kursaal Interlaken.

Below are two articles from the Swissinfo website

Swiss super climber Ueli Steck has made history forever with his unforgettable and unique achievements in solo speed climbing. Anyone who believes that records were the meaning and purpose of his whole life is deeply mistaken. However, it is clear that, in the end, he turned himself into real car, functioning like the most accurate Swiss watch movement. And in this sense, Ueli Steck was and will forever remain the ideal type of a true Swiss.

(AFP)

Ueli Steck, who died last week in the Himalayas, was for the Swiss a living embodiment of all the qualities that, according to outside observers, form the basis of a unique Swiss identity. He was successful, diligent and modest, he was a man not inclined to exaggerate the scale of his achievements. Yes, he had success in his asset, but this is only because before that he did a good job and got the full right to his 15 minutes of fame. Ueli Steck was a very modest man.

By oneself

In addition, he embodied just as vividly all the values ​​that we Swiss like to ascribe to ourselves. He was accurate in the literal sense "to the millimeter." He was open to the world, flexible and had a talent for quick and carefully calculated response. Finally, Ueli Steck was a real born loner. If he forced himself to enter into any alliances or unions, then only when it was required by the conditions of the project, in which he participated completely voluntarily. He had many friends and practically no enemies. He was respected by everyone with whom he encountered at least once, not to mention those with whom he worked on a permanent basis.

It is not surprising, therefore, that his tragic death came as a real shock to Switzerland. He left behind thousands of people whom he met or encountered in one way or another in the Swiss Alps. Where an ordinary tourist dragged heavily to the top, puffing and brushing sweat from his forehead, there Ueli Steck easily pranced on his trained legs, canceling, as it seemed to many, the law of universal gravitation, and along with a couple of postulates and constants. At the same time, he never turned up his nose, overtaking his overweight fellow citizens, he always greeted them politely and kindly, as inexorable Swiss etiquette requires.

Often he gave public lectures in which he spoke about his plans and views on life, and which were one of the sources of his income - and these conversations in the style of "alone with everyone" have always enjoyed steady popularity. Ueli Steck was a talented storyteller, but he never lost his ability to critically evaluate himself too.

Motives and landmarks

The main motive of Uli Steck's whole life was not at all the constant hunt for meters and records. He just liked to work on himself, set goals for his body and come up with ways to achieve them. To do this, he endlessly improved both his purely physical form and climbing technique. He especially liked fitness classes, for which he adhered, for example, to a strict diet, completely restructuring his system of burning fats and carbohydrates in order, as it seemed to him, to qualitatively increase his athletic performance. There was nothing new in this, but in the end he really managed to widen the horizons of the possible, and this was the best fit for his nature, because Ueli Steck bowed to the seemingly endless possibilities of the human body to the same extent, in which he admired the mountains, which, as you know, can only be better than mountains that he has not yet been to!

And so, step by step, he began to conquer such peaks and conquer such spaces that were already beyond common sense and rational human reason. This attraction was high-speed climbing, which turned into his distinctive brand, into his brand, which became his “horse”. Many simply shook their heads in bewilderment, considering speed records Ueli Steck as an expression of his vanity, narcissism and even eccentric selfishness. Many believed that in doing so, he violated the philosophy that initially underlay the relationship between Gore and the Swiss, and the main principles of which were calmness, work, inspiration and respect for the eternal peaks, against which any, even the most "significant" person involuntarily looks small and lost. Ueli Steck, on the other hand, did not particularly pay attention to all these commandments, turning the legendary North Face of Mount Eiger into a distance that, it turns out, can be overcome in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

(SRF-SWI)

Ueli Steck was a man who mercilessly pushed himself forward all the time, and he was perfectly aware of this. That is why he devoted so much time to insurance and safety issues, and he did not make the main bet at all on hooks, ropes and carabiners. He was sure that in the mountains, and indeed in life, the human factor comes first, and that is why he tirelessly polished, honed and improved all his already almost superhuman abilities. All this turned him into an outstanding athlete and a shining benchmark for a whole generation of young super-climbers, who have long been trying to conquer not even the mountains, but themselves.

A penchant for extreme

And now the question arises - what to do next for a person who has developed his abilities so that for him the ascent to the top of 4 thousand meters has long turned into a Sunday run? And there is only one thing left for him to do - to move the border of the possible farther and farther, to set goals for himself more and more incredible and impossible. There was no other alternative, and there could not be. This is exactly what the laws of sports - and marketing - demanded of him!

Less risk, more endurance, more significant peaks - this is how he formulated his main task for himself. Ueli Steck was afraid of death, given that he had already had a couple of opportunities to look into her pewter eyes. And then ... Who would have thought that the brilliant racer Michael Schumacher would become a victim of a seemingly routine ski trip? And who would have thought that Ueli Steck was in for a similar blow of fate? He knew that sooner or later, simply by the laws of statistics, a serious misfortune would happen to him. But the death on the slope of Mount Nuptse last Sunday? This he did not plan and died, making the most common ascent. He was an outstanding Swiss and a great mountaineer.

Ueli Steck on illusions, speed and heroism

(John Heilprin/swissinfo.ch)

Two weeks ago, the great Swiss climber Uli Steck died. We publish for the first time an exclusive interview with him, made in Basel in 2010.

Grammar requires the past tense - “was”, “climbed”, “passed”, but the mind is on strike and completely refuses to believe. Will I never see Uli again? Well, at least at the speeches, where he talked about his crazy climbs to the top, illustrating them with photographs and videos. After all, that’s how we met eight years ago: a minute before the start of Steck’s slide show, I ran into a crowded hall, all the seats were taken, the audience was waiting, only one young man, thin and inconspicuous, stood between the rows.

Convinced that he was the Swiss equivalent of a grandma who worked as a ticket collector in St. Petersburg theatres, in desperation I rushed to him for help. Quietly, it seems, even silently, he led me across the hall to the only empty seat (in the front row!), and then went up to the stage and turned out to be ... Ueli Steck. That same evening, delighted and fascinated, not only by the records, but also by Uli's human qualities, I asked him for an interview. In March 2010, I left Zurich for Basel to meet the world's toughest extreme climber.

solo. In free fall

The Swiss Ueli Steck is a superman: he does the impossible. He climbs without oxygen tanks on rocks, on ice, on mixed terrain, on sheer walls at an altitude where most professional climbers get altitude sickness. He opens up new routes in the mountains and prefers to go through the most difficult of them alone - solo. He rarely uses insurance and sets world records for climbing speed.

I am waiting for Ueli Steck in a private park near Basel, in a rectangular pavilion made entirely of glass. No walls, everything is transparent and I can view Uli without being seen. He drives up in a car with Bernese license plates, gets out, slung his bag over his shoulder, and walks towards the pavilion with a very characteristic gait, as if the law of attraction, by special agreement, binds him less strongly to the earth. In a park near Basel, the wind howls lingeringly, trying to get through the cracks of the glass pavilion. Shtek enters, shivering from the cold.

However, Steck does not take a sleeping bag with him even when he walks in the Himalayas and sleeps on the peaks in minus 30 degrees. In pursuit of speed, he refuses the most necessary - provisions, a sleeping bag or a safety rope. The lighter the weight, the faster the rise. Few can boast that they were on the eight-thousander.

Frozen?

Yes, frozen. I love when it's warm!

What do you feel when you stand at the top? And in general - how is it up there?

At such a height, of course, there is less oxygen, the air is more rarefied, it is heavier, and it is also cold. Not only athletes can climb the eight-thousander today. You can buy a commercial tour. Therefore, it is not only the height at which the top is located. It's also a matter of which route to choose, which wall to climb. I choose the most difficult or those that no one has walked yet.

The ascent of the last eight-thousander (out of fourteen in the world) was made in 1964, in those years the maximum height was the most important, the route was chosen the easiest. Today, there are completely different trends in mountaineering - extreme climbers are attracted by complexity and inaccessibility.

And the feeling of loneliness?

Yes, it is, because I walk alone, solo. In such cases, you realize that a person cannot equate himself with nature. When you are on a wall of two thousand meters, you spend the night in it, you realize how majestic the mountain world and nature are, how powerful they are.

Why do you prefer solo ascents?

This is the most serious test.

Isn't it too frivolous to constantly risk your life, to tempt fate?

I live very intensely and I am well aware of what it means to live. What will happen to us tomorrow, none of us, including you, knows. Feeling completely secure is an illusion. This is what I learned in mountaineering because I put myself in danger all the time. But I did not do it lightly, on the contrary, I always knew what risk I was taking. The degree of risk in mountaineering can be calculated, it is important to be well prepared.

Weather forecasts are very accurate these days.

But probably not in the Himalayas.

The Himalayas are much better than Switzerland! Even their forecasts for Switzerland are more accurate than our local ones... A lot can be predicted. Perhaps, from the outside, my “experiments” really look frivolous, but they are not. I am a typical Swiss, very careful, organized, correct. For example, climbing a route like Excalibur seems crazy to an ordinary person.

At first, the wall seemed absolutely smooth to me, then I began to study it and saw that it had a structure, bumps that you could cling to. I mentally created a plan for myself, and, in the end, did not think about what movement to make. I could do this path with my eyes closed, I knew all the difficult places by heart and could draw them on a piece of paper. Good preparation gives a feeling of complete control over the situation.

Concentration becomes meditation

Excalibur is a three hundred and fifty meter rock wall in the Bernese Highlands. Before climbing without insurance and alone, Ueli Steck climbed there five times with insurance, studying every step, every roughness of the stone, tapping the rock, as a doctor taps chest patient. During the ascent to Excalibur, he was so focused that there was simply no room for any thoughts other than those that calculated the next step. There are situations when there is only a second, only - now!

At such moments concentration becomes meditation. In the solo style, you can always - in a pinch - hook on the hook and wait for help; in the style of free solo there are none aids, relying only on their own strength. This requires not only a shiny physical training, but, above all, a flexible psyche, able to instantly adapt to different situations.

On Excalibur, Uli was watched by chamois. On training climbs, he took salt for them, and over time, the animals became almost tame and came very close - half a meter. These few chamois climbed with Uli and descended Excalibur with him. But they could not climb the route of the extreme climber - they are excellent climbers, but not as tenacious as Steck. In a small cave in the rock of Excalibur, he left his jade amulet - a gift from a jeweler friend - in gratitude to grief for the fact that an extremely difficult and dangerous climb went well.

I have the impression that you almost personify the mountains, they are not just stones for you, but something alive.

For me, all nature is alive, mountains are not just a dead mass. I have deep respect for mountains.

What mountains do you have a special relationship with?

Each is attractive in its own way. But I know that I can’t conquer every peak on Earth - I just don’t have enough time. It's hard to say why I'm going to a particular mountain, it depends on many factors, including accidents. Sometimes mountains are attractive to me, on which I have not been, maybe I have never even seen. Sometimes, on the contrary, mountains with which I have already built a relationship - for example, Makalu or Annapurna.

I don't want a reward

Annapurna in the Himalayas is the first eight-thousander mountain to be climbed. There Uli was twice, and both times he had to interrupt the expedition. In 2007, due to a stone falling on him, shattering his protective helmet, he lost consciousness and fell as much as three hundred meters. In 2008 - due to one tragic story in the Himalayas on south wall Annapurna.

Ueli Steck and his Swiss mountaineer friend, with whom he was preparing the first ascent of the wall, were at base camp when they received a radio call from above, from a height of seven and a half thousand meters, and asked for help. The Spaniard Iñaki Ochoa and his expedition comrade Horia Colibasenu developed altitude sickness. The helicopter called in to rescue Iñaka and Horia couldn't fly higher than the base camp, it vibrated and was hard to keep from tipping over into the gorge.

Uli Steck took dexamethasone and started to make his way upstairs, into the night, into the snow. When, after three days, sinking into the snow, climbing three thousand meters, he reached the climbers, Iñaki could no longer move. For two days, Uli melted the snow, gave him water and gave him injections, in consultation with a doctor in Switzerland. But nothing helped the Spaniard. When Inaki died, Ueli Steck buried him by throwing his body into a crevice.

For helping climbers, Uli, other members of the international expedition (several of them Russians) and Sherpas received gold medal Spanish government for merit in sports. Another award was presented to U. Steck in 2009 - the French order "Piolet d'or", mountaineering "Oscar".

You have several awards, don't you? For example, a medal of the Spanish government.

I didn't see her with my eyes. It's completely normal when you are upstairs, and a person is in trouble there, you need to help him. It is I who should help - this is my personal opinion. I didn't go to the award ceremony, I'm not interested at all. It is inconceivable that help can be rewarded, this is some kind of problem in our society.

But you had to interrupt your project in the Himalayas, it required a lot of preparation! And you climbed up to Inaki for a long time in very difficult conditions!

I went upstairs for three days and spent two days with him.

Another of your awards is Aiger. You got it for the North Face speed record. What does this mountain mean to you?

The Eiger is a special mountain for me, I have been there so many times. Thirty times - I mean only the North Face. And so I have a lot of impressions from Eiger, different, but very positive, and this gives a feeling of something familiar. Great feeling! The Eiger is a mountain where I feel at home.

speed. In pursuit of speed

Eiger is one of three standing nearby famous mountains of the Bernese Oberland - Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. From the top of the Jungfrau originates the largest glacier in Europe - Aletch, a glacial desert twenty-four kilometers long. The highest mountain railway in Europe leads to the Jungfrau, it is partly what determined the popularity of the Eiger North Face. It is also called the "wall of death". After all, this is the most difficult route in the Alps, requiring not so much rock climbing as ice climbing, a very special technique.

After another death while trying to conquer the Eiger, the Bern court even imposed a ban on climbing the North Face. However, it was canceled a few months later. Only the most experienced climbers can conquer the Eiger. The ascent takes about two days. They spend the night, tied with safety ropes, sitting on small ledges, which the wall has carefully prepared for its rare guests.

In 2003, a South Tyrolean climbed the North Face of the Eiger in four and a half hours, and this made Ueli Steck think about how one could overcome eighteen hundred meters of rock and ice in such a short time. In February 2007, he climbed the wall twice to study it better, then he climbed the classic Heckmayer route and achieved a record time of 3 hours 54 minutes!

After analyzing his record, Uli realized that he did not use his abilities to the maximum. For a year he was preparing for the next ascent - and it became a sensation. Having abandoned the safety rope (saving on weight and time spent on insurance) and, having lost five kilograms, Steck literally takes off on the “wall of death”, breaking his own record - in 2 hours, 47 minutes, 33 seconds.

Ueli Steck is famous for his speed on the most difficult routes. By the way, two books about Uli published by National Geographic are called “Speed” and “Solo”. There are thirty-three routes to climb the Eiger North Face, and one of them was discovered by Uli with another famous Swiss climber, Stefan Siegrist. This is the most direct and most difficult route.

When you look at photographs in which you cling to sheer cliffs over an abyss, you get the impression that you are a fearless hero, like James Bond. Do you know what fear is?

I am a very fearful person. Fear is an important feeling. If a person does not experience fear, he can overestimate himself and make a mistake that can cost him his life. Fear helps to survive, especially in our profession, it helps to prepare well for a hike, to correctly assess the situation. But I'm - I'm really very cautious and, in fact, even timid. Here you are laughing, but it's true. Even in Everyday life! I am a typical Swiss, I look at security issues very responsibly, this also applies to different types social security and pension fund or thoughts about the future.

Do you ride a bike with a helmet?

Well, no, not that much. But, for example, I am terribly afraid to walk through the dark nooks and crannies in cities.

But you can always run away.

Yes, I run fast.

What do you especially appreciate when you return from hiking in the mountains?

Probably comfort, especially when I return home from a long expedition. Do not freeze, getting out of bed in the morning, drink a cup of warm coffee - it's great! But then there comes a moment when I have to get out of my comfort zone, when I have to leave. Because staying at home is too easy. This is not for me.

in solo style

It's time for Shtek to leave: we need to get ready for the performance, which will soon begin in the hall of the glass pavilion. These reports, in which pictures are much more expressive than words, are his main income. We say goodbye and he thanks me for coming to Basel.

I went to the exit along the central path of the English-style private park, to the high gate with wrought iron bars. They were tightly closed, and I had to find a place where the brick frame of the gate was connected to the wire fence. And, although I was sure that the entrance to the park was being watched by video cameras, I turned around and, making sure that there was no one behind me, I climbed over the fence. In solo style and without insurance.

According to World Radio Switzerland, the strongest Swiss climber is currently acclimatizing before climbing the southeast ridge of Everest without the use of oxygen. In an interview from base camp taken three days ago, Uli stated: “If I don’t quit the game, I will die sooner rather than later”.

Ueli Steck, whose accomplishments are featured in Rock and Ice magazine, is best known for his record high-speed solo climbs of the Eiger North Face (2:47), Grandes Jorasses North Face (2:21), Matterhorn North Face (1:56) and for applying your corporate identity- high-speed solo in the Himalayas - in 2011, he, like lightning, ran up Shisha Pangma (8027 m) in just 10 hours and 30 minutes.

This spring, Steck arrived in the Everest area with Freddie Wilkinson, who recently received the Piolet d'Or award for the first Alpine-style ascent of the world's second unclimbed summit, Saser Kangri II (7,518m - India).

Uli has five permits: Cholatse (6440m), Lobuche (6145m), Ama Dablam (6812m), Tabocha (6542m) and Everest.

On April 16, the Swiss reported climbing Lobuche as a preparation for climbing the highest peaks. On April 23, in his blog, Uli wrote that, together with Wilkinson, due to too loose snow, he was forced to turn back while climbing the north face of Cholatze. Three days later, together with their partner, they climbed to the top of Ama Dammblam.

Whether Ueli Steck will try to set a speed record on Everest is unknown, but at least another climber - Chad Kellogg from Seattle, also in the area, is counting on a new speed record without the use of oxygen, which is currently held by Kazi Sherpa, set by him in 1998 and amounting to 20 hours 24 minutes along the southeastern ridge. The record with oxygen - 8 hours 10 minutes - belongs to Pemba Korje Sherpa, who climbed the same ridge in 2004.

Among the hundreds of climbers who are preparing to climb Everest this spring, everyone's eyes are riveted on one person - the "Swiss machine" Uli Steck, his route and climbing style.

swissinfo.ch: Your latest project is quite ambitious - try to climb three difficult Himalayan peaks (Taboche, Cholatze and Ama Dablam) before climbing Everest. Doesn't it bother you that you can covet a piece that you can't swallow?

Uli Steck: That's right, a busy program, and although my main goal is to reach the summit of Everest without oxygen, I would rather climb other peaks than sit idle for two months at the base camp. Even if I manage to climb at least one peak out of three, it will be something.

swissinfo.ch: You call your project “Khumbu Express”, which makes it look like you're running up and down the mountain without taking the time to enjoy it.

W.Sh.: I probably enjoy the mountains more than most of you here. Climbers going to Everest go up and down several times to acclimatize. I go to other peaks, where I admire different things (landscapes). Some people think that I take on too much, but I prefer to climb mountains rather than sit around doing nothing.

swissinfo.ch: How important is it to you to climb Everest without oxygen?

W.Sh.: To climb Everest on the classic route is certainly not the most outstanding achievement in my career. On the other hand, this is the highest point on the planet and reaching the top without oxygen and the help of Sherpas is a serious challenge. There are a few things on my climbing list that I would love to do, and Everest is one of them.

swissinfo.ch: Are you under a lot of pressure to rise to the top of the world?

W.Sh.: I have to be very careful, because a lot is expected of me. If I don't get out of this game, I'll die sooner rather than later. I have never climbed Everest without oxygen, so this is a serious challenge, even on the classic route. I hear a lot of rumors about my plans, and among them a lot of nonsense. In the end, I do what I have to, and if I don't succeed, it's not the end of the world. I don't feel pressure anymore and I don't care what others say.

swissinfo.ch: You are a real mountaineer, known for your remote and difficult routes. And how do you like life in the luxurious and commercial base camp of Everest?

W.Sh.: There are people involved in commercial expeditions, as well as those who climb Everest with oxygen. But when you come here, you have to accept it. Commercial expeditions are not for me, but they bring money to Nepal - a poor country. If you want adventure, don't come to Everest. There are so many other interesting mountains around. Here you can only choose - to climb with or without oxygen, but giving up the fixed railings is not an option at all.

swissinfo.ch: Are you going to use railings hung by Sherpas?

W.Sh.: What is the question - to use the railing or not? It's like driving a car with a seatbelt on - stupid, like not looking at the weather ahead of time. I may go without a belay, but if I decide that it is necessary, I will definitely snap into the ropes.

swissinfo.ch: You're known as a climber doing crazy things, and a lot of people think you might die young. Do you ever feel like you're risking your life?

W.Sh.: First of all, it's too late for me to die young - I'm already 36! And no, I never risked my life. I'm a control freak. When I did the speed solo on the north face of the Eiger, I was probably safer than the guys in the ropes - I knew that I would not fall off. It's like going down the stairs - moving your legs you never think that you will fall. However, you need to be honest with yourself - such things can only be done at certain periods of life, if you try to repeat them without having the necessary skills, then you run a big risk. Risk is always linked to your skills, and I trust mine.

swissinfo.ch: Have you ever thought about what you would do if you couldn't climb anymore?

W.Sh.: In the future, I would like to move away from sponsorship so that I can fully decide what I would like to do. I know for sure that the rest of my life I would like to climb. When you are sponsored, there is a lot of pressure and a lot of expectations from you - and then suddenly you become too old, even at 36 years old. I will have to make a living in another way, and I am already working on it. Now I am writing my third book and I really like this side of my career. I discovered a lot of new things in writing.

swissinfo.ch: Your record for the fastest climb on the north face of the Eiger was broken by a young Swiss. What do you think about this?

W.Sh.: Such is life - the bars are raised, and I always knew that sooner or later it would happen. I can still be proud that I discovered a new direction in high-speed ascents.

swissinfo.ch: How do you keep your head up as a celebrity?

W.Sh.: It's hard sometimes, especially when I'm being treated like a superhero. If it gets really unbearable, I have to tell myself that I'm an ordinary guy - and if I can't (convince myself), then my wife certainly does.

We continue to publish articles, in this article we will talk about:

October 4, 1976, Langnau im Emmental (Switzerland) - April 30, 2017, Nuptse (7861), Nepal

If you try to list on the fingers of one hand the most outstanding climbers of our time who create history here and now, then, undoubtedly, the name of the Swiss Uli Steck will be in this top ten. Anyone interested in what is happening in mountaineering, this name is familiar. It rattles with sensational headlines both in the near-alpinist and in the wide European press.

The main motive of Uli Steck's whole life was not at all the constant hunt for meters and records.
He just liked to work on himself, set goals for his body and come up with ways to achieve them. To do this, he endlessly improved both his purely physical form and climbing technique. He especially liked fitness classes, for which he adhered, for example, to a strict diet, completely restructuring his system of burning fats and carbohydrates in order, as it seemed to him, to qualitatively increase his athletic performance.
There was nothing new in this, but in the end he really managed to widen the horizons of the possible, and this was the best fit for his nature, because Ueli Steck bowed to the seemingly endless possibilities of the human body to the same extent, in which he admired the mountains, which, as you know, can only be better than mountains that he has not yet been to!

And so, step by step, he began to conquer such peaks and conquer such spaces that were already beyond common sense and rational human reason. This attraction was high-speed climbing, which turned into his distinctive brand, into his brand, which became his “horse”. Many simply shook their heads in bewilderment, considering Ueli Steck's speed records as an expression of his vanity, narcissism and even eccentric selfishness.
Many believed that in doing so, he violated the philosophy that initially underlay the relationship between Gore and the Swiss, and the main principles of which were calmness, work, inspiration and respect for the eternal peaks, against which any, even the most "significant" person involuntarily looks small and lost.
Ueli Steck, on the other hand, did not particularly pay attention to all these commandments, turning the legendary North Face of Mount Eiger into a distance that, it turns out, can be overcome in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

The future legend of mountaineering, Ueli Steck was born on October 4, 1976 in the small Swiss commune of Langnau im Emmental, in the heart of the Alps.

As the youngest of three brothers, Uli entered the sport through ice hockey, playing on junior teams as a fullback, and who knows, the world may have lost a great hockey player.

However, Uli, who grew up in a charm that he could see from home, could not get past the mountains.
After spending several years of his early youth in a hockey rink, he learned tenacity, grit, and sportsmanship. Becoming a mountaineer, he transferred all his qualities and attitudes to the "vertical relief".
When Uli, a teenager at the age of 12, climbed his first peak Sheideggwetterhorn (3361m), he thought: "This is a real mountain." Then his obsession with the Eiger took off. It is noteworthy that apart from Uli, no one in his family was essentially interested in mountains.

The path to high-altitude mountaineering in those years lay through rock climbing, and Uli, leaving hockey, himself, without any outside help and advice, joined the Swiss climbing club, in which, a couple of years later, he received a place in the Swiss national junior climbing team, as part of which he even performed at national competitions, and at the age of 17 he was able to pass the rock difficulty of 8a.
But the artificial walls of climbing walls and small climbing routes on natural terrain bored Uli pretty quickly, and the majestic mountain peaks were so tempting and so close...

Uli about himself:

"When I was little, I played hockey. It's such a cool team game, in which if your team lost, it is clear that it was the fault of this or that player. If there were no guilty among the players, then everyone understands that the point is the bad work of the coach. He must change his tactics, strategy and training system. In mountaineering, everything turned out differently - if a person did not reach the top, then there is no one's fault, except his own. And this philosophy is close to me"

In 1995, at the age of 18, Uli begins his legendary climbing career. And the first, truly "adult" ascent for him was the mountain, which he had dreamed of for so long. The ascent was made by. This ascent was neither solo, because Uli's partner was his friend Markus, nor high-speed, because the couple climbed to the top at the "usual" climbing pace, nor facilitated, because the young and inexperienced Uli could not afford to risk his life in an essentially unknown environment.

Then he managed to pass the Bonatti route on the South Face of Mont Blanc.

Young Uli, like most of his fellow novice climbers, understands that climbing mountains alone (without a mountain guide certificate) will not earn a living, and the growing desire to climb more and more required more and more investments in equipment and preparation for expeditions.
Uli was forced to look for a profession for himself, and such a profession was the profession of a carpenter, which he learned after leaving school.

In the aftermath, some of Uli Steck's critics clung to the profession, saying that he never aspired to be a mountaineer:
"A former carpenter, Uli never aspired to be a real mountaineer or mountain guide, he just turns mountaineering into a 'sport' and his position in the world is maintained by no more than a dozen of his fans" Uli's critics say.
There was some truth in these words, Uli never aspired to become, making a living by taking clients to the mountains, his vocation in the mountains was something else.

The unrestrained, temperamental nature of Uli soon led the young Swiss to the idea of ​​solo and high-speed races to the tops of the mountains.
So, among his first achievements, one can note a solo ascent along the Haston couloir to the top of the four-thousand-meter Mönch (4001 m, Switzerland) in 1998, along which he climbed in 3.5 hours and a race along the Lauper route, passing along the North-Eastern face of the Eiger, he climbed this route in 5 hours.

It is worth saying that Uli, as it may seem, did not immediately come to the Eiger, even with climbing experience, he had to learn new skills before the first climbing ascent. About one of these first experiences, Uli recalled as follows:

Uli on his first climbing experience:

One day a friend of my father asked me:
- Do you want to climb? Do you see the route? Climb.
In his view, climbing means leading, not second climbing.
We had two pythons. Rope. No gazebos.
- Come on, I'll follow you.
- But I don't know how to insure!
- What is there to be able to do - put the rope around you and give it out, like this.
I was terribly scared.
It was normal, this is how mountaineering developed.
It must have had some effect on me.

In 2000, Uli came to another route on the Eiger North Face - "Yeti", which he climbed in tandem with his compatriot. This was the second run of the route.
In the same year 2000, Uli opens his first climbing route: the 1000 meter "Nordwand Express" passing along the diretissima of the northern face of Mönch. This route is categorized by difficulty M5 / WI5.

Also, 2000 was his first experience of winter ascents: Uli climbed the route to the top of Pointe Walker Peak (Walker) - 4208 meters high, which is.

From the next year, 2001, Ueli Steck enters the "world stage", discovering the Himalayas and the highest peaks of the world.

And the first Himalayan peak for him was the seven-thousander Pumori (7161 m), on an expedition to which he was invited by a professional mountain guide from Switzerland, his namesake, Ueli Bühler. In this expedition, the duo opened a new route to the summit, passing a 1400-meter line along the Western Face of the mountain. The difficulty category of this route is M4 with the key in the 80 degree ice slope which is located at around 6600 meters.

On this expedition, the team decided to make an unprecedented ascent of the stunning 1400 meter rocky West Face of the mountain, this ascent took place in an easy alpine style, without pre-prepared camps and a large number equipment. The deuce completed the entire route with a 60 meter rope.
However, despite Buhler's professionalism and Steck's incredible energy, the ascent did not pass without incident: Buhler was injured by a rockfall on a rocky area, and Uli, passing through a snowy balcony, inadvertently brought it down, also falling down, and if not for Buhler's insurance , Uli would hardly have returned from this ascent.

The whole ascent took the Swiss two days with a cold night on the wall. The descent from the summit followed the standard route along the East Ridge of the mountain. In general, the entire assault exit lasted 43 hours.

Returning home, again paired with Stefan Sigrist, in 2001, 24-year-old Uli opens another big route: the 1100-meter "The Young Spider", passing through the center of the Eiger North Face. This line has a difficulty category of 7a A2 M7 WI6 and is by far the most difficult route on the Eiger!

Eiger. North wall. route "The Young Spider" number 29

The following year, in 2002, Uli, paired with American climber Sean Easton, opens a stunning route in Alaska to the top with a height of 2909 meters.
This 1600 meter line, called "Blood from the Stone" was laid on the east, vertical wall mountains. The difficulty category of the route is rated as 5.9 M7 A1 AI6+ X.

Mount Dickey, "Blood from the Stone" route

In the spring of the following year, in a team with Erhard Loretan and Stefan Sigrist, Uli attempted to climb the North Face of the Nepalese seven-thousander Jeannu (7710 m).
Their assault ended at around 7100 meters due to bad weather.

During the summer of 2003, Uli, together with Stefan, returned to the Eiger again, where they climbed the route "La Vida es Silbar" (V 7c, 900m), which was bolted by Sigrist and Konrad Anker in 1999.

Another attempt to pass a new route to Jeanne, also paired with Erhard Loretan, again ended without success.

Uli about trying to climb Jeanne:

“It was great, we were completely touched. I was just a kid then, I had no experience, and I thought: “Oh, we will climb the north face of Zhanna!”
I was invited by Erhard Loretan “Oh, I will climb with my idol on the north wall of Jeanne!”
And even if we didn't climb, it was an important step in my life, in my climbing career, I learned so much.
Erhard Loretan had a huge influence on me. Even just to spend time in the mountains with him…

He explained to me a bunch of things that I used on Annapurna, for example, to continue climbing at night, then you don’t need to carry a sleeping bag, that’s all his influence.
I learned a lot and it was great. When you're young you have to come up with ideas like that, it's important, I think in mountaineering it's important to have crazy ideas and just try.
I mean when you have no chance of climbing badly."

In November of the same year, in a team with David Faselem, Ralph Weber and Stefan Sigrist, Uli went to Patagnia, where he repeated the ascent along the route of Ermanno Salvaterra "Spigolo dei Bimbi" to the top of Punta Geron. It was the second ascent along the route and only the third to the summit itself!

Uli's further growing reputation as a strong and successful mountaineer allows him to leave the profession of a carpenter and devote all his time only to mountaineering.

Uli about himself:

"When you start something new, everything - time, energy - everything goes into preparation. You think about how you will do it, prepare your consciousness to perceive what you have planned as the norm.
After everything is left behind, you need some time to comprehend what you did. Usually it's: "Crazy!"

2004 was a significant year for Uli, because it was with the high-speed climbing of the famous "Trilogy of the Alps", which includes the three walls of the Bernese Alps: Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, in just 25 hours, Uli became a world famous climber.
It is worth noting that in the category of complexity of the routes familiar to us, climbing these peaks is rated as 6A, 5B, 5A with a total height difference of about 3800 meters.

Also in 2004, Uli returned to rock routes, free climbing lines such as Silberfinger (6b, 200m) and Excalibur (6b, 350m). And did the first repetition of the route of Stefan Glowach "Letzte Ausfahrt Titlis" (8b, 500 m) which is located on the Eastern face of the Swiss mountain Titlis (Titlis). Uli and Ines Papert, who later repeated the passage, suggested downgrading this line to 8a+.

In 2005, Uli set out to prove that the idea of ​​quickly climbing a series of mountain peaks in one expedition could also be applied to the Himalayas, the highest peaks in the world.
He decided to organize his expedition called "Khumbu-Express" in the Khumbu Valley (Nepal) and the first of a series of peaks was the North Face of Mount Cholatse (Cholatse, 6440m), on which Uli passed the French route of 1995, but to which, in the upper part mountains (above 5900 meters) added his version. Uli himself described this route as "very difficult and at times very dangerous". The key points of this route were rated 5+ M6 90 degrees on the ice slope.
Uli reached the top of the mountain after 37 hours of assault climbing.

The second goal in this program was the East Face of Mount Tawoche (Tawoche, 6495 m), which Uli came after only a week of rest after Cholatze!
Tavoche, namely its Eastern Face, remained impregnable for seven years, despite many attempts by climbers to pass it. But for Uli, this was not a reason to retreat, on the contrary, the Swiss literally ran this huge 1500-meter wall in a record 4.5 hours!
It is worth noting that Uli climbed in a free-solo style, without insurance and a partner, having with him 20 meters of 5 mm Kevlar cord, three ice screws, two ice axes. In the lower part of the route is a mixed difficulty of M5 and the upper section is vertical ice cliffs.
The assault ascent began half an hour before midnight and already at 8 am next day Uli was drinking tea at the base camp!

The third peak according to Uli's program was the "icon of the Himalayas" - namely the "Strauf Belak Memorial Route" in memory of Strauf Belak, which was first opened by the Slovenian team Furlan - Humar.
Unfortunately, on this ascent, Uli had to leave the route at around 5900 meters due to heavy snow.

However, this "Himalayas trilogy" was highly acclaimed by the international mountaineering community and as proof of that, Uli was nominated for the world's most prestigious mountaineering award: .

It should be noted that until now this "trilogy of the Himalayas" has not been passed by anyone to the end.

Uli spent the beginning of 2006 in solo ascents in the Alps, where in January, for five days, he was able to repeat his route "The Young Spider" on the Eiger North Face. But this time, Uli essentially "did the impossible", not only is this line considered the most difficult on one of the most difficult walls of the Alps, he climbed it in solo climbing and even in winter!

In March 2006, Uli sets a new speed record for climbing the Bonatti route on the North Face of the Matterhorn.

And in July 2006, the young Swiss discovers his first eight-thousander: he goes to Karakorum, where he joins the team of Hans Mitterer and Cedric Hählen to climb the eight-thousander Gasherbrum II.
In this expedition, the team opens a new route, passing along the northern ridge of the eastern shoulder with access to the minor peak Gasherbrum II East (7772 m)!
And although the main goal of the team was never achieved: they did not climb the main peak of the eight-thousander due to difficult weather conditions, their route became significant in this mountain range, especially since the ascent itself, which was originally planned as a quick, sporty exit, took place in very difficult conditions. In the first assault, which took place on July 5, the conditions on the mountain were so bad that the team even fell under an avalanche that descended in the area of ​​the third high-altitude camp.
Fortunately for them, everything went well, and already on July 10 a second assault was scheduled, which ended with the ascent to the top.

This was the first ascent from the Chinese side to the summits of Broad Peak, Gasherbrum and Hidden Peak!

2007 was an amazing year in the history of mountaineering: in 3 hours 54 minutes, Uli was able to surpass the achievement of Christoph Heins by 30 minutes and set a new world record in the speed climb on the Eiger North Face! But this record did not last long, and the very next year, having spent the strongest and most focused training, Uli surpasses his own achievement, setting new record at 2 hours 47 minutes and 33 seconds!
This record remains unsurpassed for the Eiger North Face free climb option.

Uli about himself:

"It all started with the Eiger North Face, which I first climbed in 1995 with my friend Marcus. In 2004 - after several ascents - I climbed it solo for the first time, in 10 hours. Thomas Bubendorfer - 4 hours 50 minutes and Christoph Heinz - 4 hours 30 minutes. incredible results! It took me twice as long. Since then, I began to seriously work on myself.
In the following years I climbed a lot "solo", and although I had no idea how to break the record, I didn't really care - I just wanted to climb faster. The result of 3 hours and 45 minutes gave me strength. However, I was still far from my limit. I trained for a whole year and reduced the time to 2:47.
"

Video from Ueli Steck's 2008 speed record climb on the Eiger North Face:

From the Editor:

The history of solo ascents on the Eiger North Face was discovered in 1963 by the Swiss Michel Darbelet.

• In 1974, Reinhold Messner set the climbing speed record at 10 hours.

On February 13, 2008, Swiss Uli Steck reached the summit in 2 hours 47 minutes on the north face, breaking his previous record of 3 hours 54 minutes, set a year earlier.

On August 6, 2008, the famous climber soloed the Eiger North Face alone without insurance, using a base jumping parachute in case of a breakdown, and after climbing, Dean jumped with a parachute.

For his approach to mountaineering and his willingness to abandon his own plans in order to save a like-minded person, as well as for his achievements in sports, Uli was awarded the prestigious Swiss "Eiger Award".

route "Paciencia" 8a on the Eiger North Face

It is noteworthy that Uli and Stefan started working on this route back in 2003, but then they were only able to pass it up to the "Rote Fluh" mark, above which they used the AID technique.

In 2009, Uli climbed his first eight-thousander - Gasherbrum II, and although the ascent took place on a standard route, Uli did it in high-speed style and without any outside help. Uli used this ascent as a launching pad for his next project: the ascent of the eight-thousander Makalu in the autumn of the same year.

It is noteworthy that Uli came to Gasherbrum II together with his wife Nicole, with whom he spent a honeymoon on the rocks of Yosemite (USA), climbing in pairs 41 rope classic routes "Golden Gate" on El Capitan just a month before leaving for Pakistan .
In the ascent of Gasherbrum II, Uli planned to climb to the top with Nicole, however, due to unstable and bad weather, he decided to go on the assault ascent alone, Nicole was waiting for him to return to the high-altitude camp.

In the autumn of 2009, Uli climbs the classic route to his second eight-thousander -.

Uli about himself:

"There is always a risk, but I won't climb a route if I'm not sure I'm 100% ready. But even in this case, I'm not immune from failure. It all depends on skill."

In the following years, Uli concentrated his forces on the eight-thousanders and mountains of the Himalayas. In other matters, he did not forget about his home Alps, so in 2010 Uli passes in a high-speed ascent, setting a record of 2 hours 8 minutes, the northern face of Mount Les Droites (Les Droites).

In 2011, Uli returns to the Himalayas with an ambitious project: climbing three eight-thousanders in one expedition: Shishapangma, Cho-Oyu Everest!
As an acclimatization before these ascents, Uli, together with Freddie Wilkinson, climbs the peaks of Cholatse and Lobuche.
In climbing Shishapangma, Uli sets a solo ascent record by climbing the standard route in just 10.5 hours!
The next eight-thousander was Cho-Oyu, Uli climbed it in tandem with Don Bowie also on the standard route.
However, the third peak - Everest - did not submit to Uli: being only 150 meters from the top, he was forced to abandon the ascent, due to the risk of frostbite.

The following year, 2012, Uli climbs his fifth eight-thousander: Everest, the ascent takes place along the standard route from the southern, Nepalese side, and his climbing partner is the Nepalese Sherpa Tenji Sherpa, who will become his constant partner in the Himalayan ascents.

After returning from Nepal, Uli decides to try another type of high-speed mountaineering: climbing and paragliding along the route of the Alps trilogy: Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger.
Together with Markus Zimmerman, he manages to complete this path in just 12 hours and 15 minutes.
You can read more about this Uli project in our article:

2013 began for Ueli Steck with a very unpleasant event, which turned into world news, shocking the entire climbing community!
The reason for this was the conflict on the highest mountain in the world - Everest, to which Uli and his partners came with the aim of high-speed ascent along a new route.

On April 27, 2013, leaving the second high-altitude camp, the three climbers came into conflict with a group of Nepalese Sherpas, who were fixing the climbing route. The result of this conflict was a terrible and even life-threatening situation for climbers.

"The moment I realized that the Sherpas wanted to kill me, the whole world collapsed for me"- with these words, the famous Swiss climber Ueli Steck described his sad experience on the slopes of Everest in 2013 in the pages of his new book: "The Next Step".
"After that, my view of the world changed ... I decided to leave Everest because I could no longer trust anyone" Uli said.
However, after a couple of years, Uli could not overcome his craving for the Himalayas and returned to Everest, as it turned out, his last grief in his life...

From the Editor:

Recall that you can read in detail about the incident on Everest that occurred in the spring of 2013 in our articles:

2. An emotional account by Jonathan Griffith:

And numerous interviews, one of which we gave on our website:

In addition, a few months later, an interview with one of the Sherpas who participated in the conflict was published: we cited this interview in the article:

And only six months after the unprecedented events,.

In the fall of 2013, Uli returns again, for the third time, in his long-standing goal: an attempt to climb the Annapurna eight-thousander.
And on October 9, the famous Swiss climber soloed the South Face of Annapurna.
It was an outstanding ascent in world mountaineering - Uli Steck became the first person in the world to climb the southern slope of Annapurna Peak alone!

Note that the ascent of Uli Steck was not met with unanimous recognition from the climbing community, some critics said that Uli's foot did not set foot on the top of Annapurna.
You can read more about this criticism in our article:
This ascent of Uli was so unique and outstanding in the history of mountaineering that it was trumpeted by all the media.
Some climbers began to have doubts about the successful ascent of Uli.
It is worth noting that criticism of Ueli Steck is not the first time, earlier he was reproached for the "Olympic" approach to mountaineering, when not the spirit of mountaineering but the sprint is put at the head, for which, by the way, Uli Steck got his nickname "Swiss Machine".
This criticism was mainly made by journalists, mountain guides and German climbers.

In 2017, a month before tragic death Ueli Steck, criticism of Ueli Steck's ascents in the Himalayas has flared up with renewed vigor in the international mountaineering community.
So, quite recently, international level, as part of the 25th ceremony of presenting the most prestigious mountaineering award: a kind of Oscar in the world of mountaineering: "Golden Ice Ax" (Piolets d "Or 2017), the question was raised about the lack of evidence of Uli's ascent to the peaks of eight-thousanders.
You can read more about this in our article:

Ueli Steck, nicknamed "The Swiss Machine". After climbing Annapurna

Climbing Annapurna, despite the criticism, has become legendary in mountaineering history and it is not surprising that for him

In 2014, Ueli Steck and German climber Michi Wohlleben made the first-ever high-speed winter ascent of the three North Faces of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo mountain group in the Italian Dolomites.

Their ascents took place on three routes (one for each of the walls) in total in just 16 hours!

The year 2014 was overshadowed by great tragedy for Uli, when he, together with Benedikt Bohm, tried to climb the eight-thousander Shishapangma.

September 24, 2014, 6:55 a.m. local time: Five climbers climb 7,900 meters to the top of the eight-thousander Shishabangma (Shisha-Pangma, 8027m) when an avalanche forms under their feet...

Injured climbers Sebastian Haag and Martin Maier from Germany and Italian Andrea Zambaldi were blown several hundred meters down the slope by the avalanche.
Two other climbers, German Benedikt Böhm and Swiss Ueli Steck narrowly escaped the avalanche by staying on the side of the mountain.
In this tragedy, 36-year-old Sebastian Haag and 32-year-old Andrea Zambaldi died, Martin Mayer was able to miraculously get out of the avalanche and descend to the high-altitude camp on his own, where Sherpas and climbers from other expeditions took up his rescue.

Benedikt Bohm and Uli Steck, having avoided the impact of the avalanche, descended to the high-altitude camp on their own.

The moment of the avalanche on Shishapangma: who was where

In 2015, Uli again comes to his mountain - the Eiger North Face, on which he climbs the Heckmeier route in high-speed ascent, setting a new speed record: 2 hours 22 minutes and 50 seconds!

Uli about himself:

"It's much more convenient for me to run to the top at a fast pace than to trudge for several days, this pace gives me new challenges. And I would like to complete this path. After all, we all live in a crazy world, a world where immediately after an outstanding ascent you are asked: what's next?
I myself will ask and answer this question, perhaps to calm the rest for a while. Today I no longer need to collect a collection of all the eight-thousanders of the world, first of all I am interested in difficult walls, new routes."

In his 2016 interview, Uli talked about the risk of climbing eight-thousanders:

In the spring of 2016, Ueli Steck and German climber David Göttler set an ambitious goal: .
The descent from the summit was planned along the North side of the mountain, that is, a new route had to be created with a complete crossing of the peak of the eight-thousander.

However, their goal was never achieved, the team stopped at around 7800 meters, then bad weather prevented them from reaching the top. Moreover, in their first attempt they climbed the Spanish route of 1995 "Corredor Girona" to the mark of 7800 meters, the next time they climbed the British route of 1982 to the mark of 7600 meters.

You can read more about this expedition in our article:

Recall that this pair of climbers set themselves an ambitious task: . The descent from the summit was planned along the North side of the mountain, that is, a new route had to be created with a complete crossing of the peak of the eight-thousander.

2017 was to be no less significant for Uli than previous incredible ascents.
About his project: the traverse of the eight-thousanders Everest - Lhotse, he mentioned in an interview in the fall of 2016, after he returned from the Indian Himalayas, where he climbed with his wife to the top of Mount Shivling (this 6543-meter peak with difficult climbing relief lies in northern India) as a wedding anniversary.

In December 2016, Udi already revealed the details of his plan, saying that the expedition would take place in alpine style and without the use of oxygen tanks.

From the Editor:

It should be noted that for the first time the traverse of the peaks of Everest - Lhotse was passed by the Swiss expedition in 1956. You can read more about this story in our article:

In his expedition, Uli invited his friend - 24-year-old Nepalese Sherpa Tenji Sherpa, who had already climbed to the top of Everest in 2012 and made this ascent without the use of oxygen cylinders.

"Tenji belongs to a new generation of Nepalese Sherpas, for whom climbing to the top is not only a business, but to a greater extent - mountaineering." Uli said "I'm looking forward to starting the expedition when I can climb with Tenji"

Before this difficult expedition Uli has trained extensively in the Alps and in Nepal, and as an acclimatization he covered a total of about 250 kilometers with a total climb of 15,000 meters.

From the Editor:

For more than 10 years, Simon Thrashel has been the compiler training program Uli Steck, working in parallel as a coach professional teams By cross-country skiing. For Uli, who trains like an Olympic champion, Simon developed a special program that combines trail running, strength development, freeride, mountaineering and rock climbing. Simon explains that "the program provides a high workload for endurance development, but more recently it also includes a decent amount of specific strength building workouts."
Uli trains non-stop, with the precision of a Swiss Machine. Uli told L'Equipe magazine about his preparation before leaving for Everest: "I need to know that my body is strong, otherwise I'm out of my element." For his current project, Steck trained for 1200 hours in the last year alone: ​​80.000 meters vertical drop, 848km of running and 296 hours of special training to increase the strength of his arms and legs.While he was in the Khumbu Valley to acclimatize, in 13 days the Swiss covered 236km with a drop of 16,200 meters.

The key to the new adventure is stamina, which, however, does not exclude less important components like speed and accuracy. The goal justifies the training.

Uli spoke about his training and preparation for Everest in his last interview, which you can read on our website:

Death of Ueli Steck

First of all, before reviewing the tragedy, we will quote the appeal of the Ueli Steck family:

"The climber's family has already said that they are in endless sadness in connection with his death and that they ask to abandon any speculation and speculation related to the circumstances of his death and that the relatives and friends themselves are not ready to provide any additional information at the moment. "

So, Everest 2017. A few days before the tragedy, Ueli Steck and Tenji Sherpa were finishing their acclimatization program, climbing both the neighboring peaks and the standard Everest route.
During one of these exits, Tenji got frostbite on his hands and was forced to leave the Everest base camp for a while and go down to the Khumbu valley to restore strength and health.

Left alone, Uli continued to run and a couple of days before the tragedy he made an easy and quick ascent along the standard climb route to a height of 7000 meters on Everest.
About this he wrote his last post on Facebook:

"Speed ​​climbing from Base Camp to 7000 meters and back in one day! I love these mountains, they are huge here. I still believe in an active acclimatization program, it is much more effective than spending long nights in high-altitude camps"- Uli wrote on April 26, 4 days before his death.

April 30 in the morning (around 8-9 am local time). Uli went on an acclimatization climb in the early morning, according to him, which he shared the day before this climb, the mountain was in good condition: not too much snow and not as cold as it could be.
The accident itself occurred at around 7200 meters, where the route goes to a rocky area. As a result of the accident, Uli fell down the slope for 1000 meters.
Several people saw Uli fall, and soon his body was found just below the second high-altitude camp, at around 6400 meters along the route of climbing Nuptse.

By unanimous decision of the entire Uli family,

Ueli Steck was a man who mercilessly pushed himself forward all the time, and he was perfectly aware of this. That is why he devoted so much time to insurance and safety issues, and he did not make the main bet at all on hooks, ropes and carabiners.
He was sure that in the mountains, and indeed in life, the human factor comes first, and that is why he tirelessly polished, honed and improved all his already almost superhuman abilities.

All this turned him into an outstanding athlete and a shining benchmark for a whole generation of young super-climbers, who have long been trying to conquer not even the mountains, but themselves.

Ueli Steck was afraid of death, given that he had already had a couple of opportunities to look into her pewter eyes. And then ... Who would have thought that the brilliant racer Michael Schumacher would become a victim of a seemingly routine ski trip? And who would have thought that Ueli Steck was in for a similar blow of fate?
He knew that sooner or later, simply by the laws of statistics, a serious misfortune would happen to him. But the death on the slope of Mount Nuptse last Sunday? This he did not plan and died, making the most common ascent.

He was an outstanding Swiss and a great mountaineer.

Chronology of Ueli Steck's major ascents:

• 1995 Eiger, North Face, "Heckmair" route (1800m ED).
• 1998 Mönch, "Huston's couloir" solo in 3.5 hours (1000m ED-).
• 1999 Eiger by "Lauper", solo in 5 hours (1800m, ED-).
• 2000 Eiger, North Face, second ascent of the Yeti route (7c/A0).
• 2001 Mönch, North Face, first ascent of Diretissima (1000m, M5/Wi5).
• 2001 Pumori, first ascent with Uli Buhler, new route on the Western slope (1400m, M4/80°).
• 2001 Grand Joras on the route "Walker", winter climbing (1200m, ED).
• 2001 Eiger, first ascent, new North Face route: "The Young Spider" (1800m, M7/Wi6; 7a/A2).
• 2002 Mount DeKay, Alaska, first ascent (1700m, M7+ AI6 5.9/A1).
• 2002 Attempted first ascent of a new route on the North Face of Janou in a pair with Erhard Loretan.
• 2003 Another attempt on the North Face of Jean with Erhard Loretan.
• 2003 Punta Geron, Patagonia.
• 2003 Redpoint on the route "La vida es silbar" on the Eiger North Face (900m, 7c).
• 2004 Trilogy "Eiger-Moench-Jungfrau" in pair with Stefan Siegrist, in one day.
• 2005 "Khumbu-Express" solo first ascent of Tavoche East Face (6515m) and Cholatze North Face (6440m).
• 2006 solo ascent of the North Faces of the Matterhorn, Eiger and the first winter ascent (solo!!!) of the route "The Young Spider" on the Eiger.
• 2006 First ascent of the North Face of Gasherbrum II (7772 m).
• 2007 Eiger North Face, absolute speed record 3:54. Solo!
• 2008 Eiger North Face, new absolute speed record 2:47:33. Solo!
• 2008 North face of the Grand Joras, the absolute speed record of the route "Colton-McIntyre" 2:21. Solo!
• 2009 Matterhorn North Face, absolute speed record 1:56. Solo.
• 2009 Solo ascent of Gasherbrum II (7772m)
• 2009 Makalu, classic.
• 2010 Droit North Face, absolute speed record, Zhina route 2:08. Solo!
• 2011 Shishapangma, south face. 10:30. Solo
• Cho Oyu, NW (classic). Solo 18 days after solo on Shishapanshma
• 2012 Everest from the south according to the classic, anoxic
• 2013 Annapurna, south face. 28 hours. Solo
• 2014 First winter ascent of the three northern faces of Tre Cime in one run with Michi Vohleben
• 2015 Eiger North Face, absolute speed record: 2:22:50! Solo!
• 2016 Shivling, Indian Himalayas, summit climb with his wife Nicole

Ueli Steck's awards and prizes:

• 2008: Eiger Award for mountaineering technique.
• 2009: Golden Ice Ax Award for first ascent, paired with Simon Anthamatten, of a new route on the north face of Tengkampoche].
• 2010: Karl Unterkircher Prize (ital. Karl Unterkircher) for versatile mountaineering achievements.
• 2014: Second Golden Ice Ax Award for solo ascent of Annapurna via south face.
• 2015: National Geographic Adventure Magazine Award.

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Great north faces of the Alps), for which he received the nickname "Swiss Machine".

He died on April 30, 2017 in the Himalayas during an acclimatization exit in preparation for the high-speed passage of the Everest-Lhotse traverse without the use of additional oxygen.

I grew up near mountains and started climbing at the age of 12. I discovered them for myself, and it was an omen. Climbing is perfect way learn to think and learn at the same time. The rules are simple and obvious. If you haven't brought a sleeping bag, you will be cold. If you are not strong enough, you will not be able to climb...

Already at the age of 17, Uli climbed the east ridge to (30-pitch route with a difficulty of 5.10 on the YDS scale), and a year later (in 1995), together with Markus Iff (Eng. Markus Iff), he passed in two days in alpine style The North Face of the Eiger (according to the classics, which later, in total, was passed more than three dozen times, including along new routes). Over the next few years, he honed his skills on classic alpine routes. In 1998, Uli soloed along the 1000-meter Heston couloir to the top of Mönch (TD + (fr. très difficile) - “ extremely difficult”on the French scale), in 2001 in the winter he climbed Pointe Walker (Grand Joras) along the rib of the same name (eng. Walker spur) (an extremely difficult route with a length of more than 1200 meters) and in the same year made the first ascent in the Himalayas (from) to western wall on Pumori (1400 meters, M4 [on the M scale]). A year later, in Alaska, he, along with Sean Easton (eng. Sean Easton) laid a new route Blood from stone (Blood From the Stone(5.9-A1-M7-AI6+, 1600 m) on what is considered one of the most impressive first ascents in this region in the first decade of the 21st century.

Steck's focus has always been on the north face of the Eiger. By the beginning of the new millennium, Uli had climbed it along almost all previously laid routes. On October 15, 2001, together with him, he climbed to the top along his own new route along the center of the northern wall - The Young Spider (young spider), 1800 meters, A2, W16/M7 . In 2003 (after two unsuccessful attempts to climb the north face of Jannu) on June 29-30 - in two days Steck, together with Siegrist, redpointed along it (“clean” climbing without using stationary belay points) route La Vida es Silbar(900 meters, 7C, V [through the Red Rock]).

Having already made a name for himself in the climbing scene, Steck gained his most notoriety in 2004 after free-climbing (without ropes) an extra-difficult alpine route up the ridge. Excalibur(5.10d) (the ascent was filmed from a helicopter by his friend and professional photographer Robert Boesch, and these pictures were later covered by the largest Swiss media). Uli did not fail to capitalize his skyrocketing popularity with sponsorship from the most famous brands such as Wenger, Scarpa, Petzl, Mountain Hardwear and others, and since then his name has become a brand of the same name associated with new mountaineering achievements. Regarding such impressive sponsorship, Steck stated: “ I want to live from mountain climbing... I don't want to live in a pickup truck» .

In June of the same 2004, together with Siegrist, he passed the northern walls of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in just 25 hours (it took them nine hours to complete the route Heckmire on the Eiger, three hours on the route Lauper on Mönch and five hours on the route Lauper on the Jungfrau - on the last of the total time they spent three hours passing only the last 150 meters). A year later, Uli took part in the Khumbu-Express expedition (eng. Khumbu-Express Expedition), during which he made the first solo ascents on the north face (6440 m) and east wall (6505 m), and in the winter of 2006 (from 7 to 11 January) passed for five days, but already solo, his own route to the Eiger young spider .

A year later, on February 21, 2007, Uli Steck set a world speed record for climbing the Eiger north face (along the classical route), climbing to the top in 3 hours 54 minutes, improving the previous speed record set in 2003 by 36 minutes (according to statistics this was Steck's 22nd wall climb, and by that time he had spent 48 days of his life on the wall) . In the spring, Steck made his first attempt to solo climb the Annapurna South Face, which ended on May 21 with a fall from a 300-meter height, and only by a miracle did the climber survive (he was swept off the wall by a rockfall and then managed to get to the base camp on his own).

2008 was the culminating year in the career of the Swiss. On February 13, he broke his own Eiger climbing speed record, improving his time to 2 hours 47 minutes 33 seconds. On April 24, together with Simon Anthamatten, he made the first ascent in alpine style on the northwestern face of Teng Kang Poche (6.487 m, VI, M7 + / M6, A0, 85 gr., 2000 m ), for which the bundle was awarded the highest award in mountaineering - the Golden Ice Ax award (2009). In May (together with Antamatten), he made a second attempt to climb the South Face to Annapurna, but it was unsuccessful - instead of a solo program, Uli participated in the rescue of a Spanish climber who had pulmonary edema at a height. The stack with medicines at an accelerated pace, despite the high avalanche danger, climbed from the base camp (3000 m below) to 7400 m in three days and tried to save him, but the efforts were in vain, and the Spaniard died in his arms. After this tragedy, Uli admitted that he would need time to return to the mountains again. However, already at the end of the year, on December 28, he made the fastest ascent in the history of Grand Jorass along the North Face (to Pointe Walker Peak) along the route Colton - McIntyre(Colton-MacIntyre Route, M6, WI6, 1200 m) - 2 h 21 min bolts and four carbines, but he did not need this arsenal either). Two more weeks later - January 13, 2009 - Steck set an absolute record in passing the first three, passing 1000 meters vertically in 1:56 ( Schmid Route along the North Face of the Matterhorn. On May 30, 2008, Ueli Steck in Grindelwald became the first laureate of the Eiger Prize established in the same year (Eng. Eiger Award), awarded for " popularization of mountaineering due to their own achievements» .

The Swiss devoted the next few years of his career to climbing the Himalayas. In February 2011, he launched his ambitious Project Himalaya (sponsored by mountain hardwear), during which it was planned to make high-speed ascents to three eight-thousanders, including Everest, within one season (April - May). On April 17, in just ten and a half hours, he solo climbed the southwestern face from the base camp to Shisha Pangma (8027 m) (20 hours up / down). 18 days later, on May 5, together with the American climber Uli, in less than a day, climbed from the foot to the top of Cho Oyu (8188 m) - the sixth highest peak in the world, and on May 21, together with Bowie, made an attempt to climb to the top of the world, however, due to the risk of frostbite of the legs, he was forced to interrupt it a hundred and a few meters from the final goal. "" [K 3] The following year, on May 18, 2012, Uli, together with Sherpa Tenji Sherpa, climbed Everest along the classic route from the south, and he became the fifth eight-thousander in his career.

... I'm not going to sacrifice any of my fingers to Everest ... So it's better to go down. Everest will remain, but I can return!

In the same 2012, the "Swiss Machine" Ueli Steck performed in an unusual role for him. On August 18-19, together with Markus Zimmerman (German Markus Zimmerman), he completed in less than 15 hours " climbing and paragliding crossing» along the Jungfrau-Mönch-Eiger route. The partners started on paragliders with a tailwind from observation deck restaurant at the top of the Schilthorn, after 6 km of flight they landed on the other side of the valley, climbed 1000 meters in height to the shelter, where they spent the evening, " enjoying the beautiful sunset". At 3 o'clock in the morning, the couple began to climb the Rottalgrat ridge (German Rottalgrat), and already at 8 in the morning they flew from the top of the Jungfrau in the direction of Mönch, the foot of the northern wall of which Uli reached after 27 minutes of flight (Zimmermann was blown away by the wind on the other side of the mountain). In 1 hour 55 minutes climbing the route Lauper to the summit, Steck flew in the direction of a shelter on the eastern ridge of the same name of the Eiger. Having safely reached it, Uli climbed it at 15:13 to the last peak of the famous trio, “v”. Having descended a little along the western ridge, Uli again paraglided down and landed at exactly 17.00 in the parking lot of the village, where a car was waiting for him.

another, countless times, but still an exciting and special moment for me

In April 2013, Uli Steck and his team (Simone Moro and high-altitude cameraman Jonathan Griffith [ Jonathan Griffith]) found themselves at the center of an international climbing scandal. As part of the planned implementation of the Everest-Lhotse traverse project, the Uli group, during the acclimatization exit along the classical route from the south, due to the inconsistency of their actions with the Sherpa guides [K 4], who hang ropes between high-altitude camps on the eve of the start of the season, after descending to Camp II, was subjected to physical attack by the latter because of an allegedly dropped piece of ice from above. This incident, as a real threat to the life and health of Steck and his partners, not only led to an unscheduled end of the expedition (despite the “world peace” signed later), but also to a comprehensive discussion of the conflict in the mountaineering community and, of course, media coverage. However, already in the fall, Ueli Steck returned to the Himalayas to try to climb the South Face to Annapurna for the third time, and this time his attempt was successful - on October 9 (in 28 hours to climb / descend from the base camp) Steck was the first in the world to climb solo one of the most technically difficult walls on the eight-thousander (along the unfinished route of 1992), for which in 2014 he became a two-time winner of the Golden Ice Axe. After the ascent, Uli declared: "" [K 5] .

I think I've finally found my altitude limit, if I climb anything harder than that, I'll definitely kill myself. But I really wanted to go through something technical, like this

Not stopping there, on March 17, 2014, Uli, in conjunction with a German climber, for the first time in winter, in a record 15 hours 42 minutes, passed all three northern faces of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo massif (along the route Cassina on Chima-Ovest, Komichi on the Cima Grande and Innerkofler on Cima Piccola), and at the end of 2015 he broke the record for the speed of climbing the north face of the Eiger for the third time, climbing it alone in 2 hours 22 minutes and 50 seconds, thus becoming the absolute record holder for high-speed ascents along the great northern walls of the Alps (Uli's previous record for the fastest ascent of the Eiger in 2008 was broken by the Swiss on April 20, 2011, his time was 2 hours 28 minutes).

In the same 2015, in just 62 days, Steck climbed all 82 Alpine peaks over 4,000 meters high, although according to the original plan, he allotted 80 days for this project. Of these, 31 were completed solo, and 51 with various partners, including his own wife Nicole, Michi Voleben and others. This brilliant achievement, however, was overshadowed by the death of the Dutch climber Martijn Soren (Dutch. Martijn Seuren) as a result of a breakdown in the Mont Blanc massif.

In the spring of 2016, Ueli Steck, together with the German climber Dafid Göttler (German: David Göttler) intended to climb a new route along the South Face to Shisha Pangma, however, due to weather conditions, it was not successful. As part of this expedition, climbers discovered the remains of an American bunch and David Bridges (We all tend to talk about more modest intentions, but if something more ambitious can be achieved, why not report it. The horseshoe is extremely difficult, no one has climbed it. But if who was capable of this - it was only Ueli Steck ... He was the one who made the impossible possible

Despite his impeccable reputation, the facts of climbing Shisha Pangma 2011 and Annapurna 2013, for which Uli Steck received his second Golden Ice Axe, were questioned by the climbing community, since Uli could not, in the first place, provide only direct (photo, video) evidence of being on the peaks, but even indirect - GPS data, hand-held altimeter, etc. The main accuser of Steck in falsifying these achievements was the French journalist Rodolphe Popier (fr. these facts, drew attention to many other factors. Among them are discrepancies in the readings of Uli himself, the unevenness of the rhythm during the ascents (on the most high-altitude and difficult sections of the ascent, Uli's speed increased significantly compared to the simpler sections of the route), the inconsistency of the testimony of outside observers with those presented by Steck. One of the weighty arguments “against” Annapurna was the fact that ten days later a French team went up to Annapurna along the Steck route and found no trace of Uli above his bivouac. However, according to the French themselves, in the 10 days that separated the ascents, a half-meter layer of snow fell on Annapurna, which, of course, hid all traces.

The arguments of the critics, reflected in the reports of Rodolphe Popier, were considered at the International forum on proof in mountaineering under the auspices of Piolets d'Or. As of 2017, there is no question of the inconsistency of Ueli Steck's claims regarding the ascents of Shisha Pangma and Annapurna.

Uli Steck was married to Nicole Steck (Eng. Nicole Steck) . He spoke French, English and Italian.

His achievements were not the result of a combination of only natural physical and emotional qualities with motivation. Back in 2007, after climbing the Eiger, being, in his own opinion, at the peak sportswear, Uli was examined by the Swiss Federal Institute of Sports Magglingen, which, based on the results of the examination, issued a brief verdict: “ Not in unsympathetic form My main source of inspiration is the thirst for learning. Knowledge gives freedom. To acquire this knowledge, you need to study. To be free, you need to be calm, and to be calm, you need long and painful training. To achieve mastery highest level, you need to fully immerse yourself in the sport, you need passion, but at the same time you must accept, feel that you are just starting out, like a student, and continue to learn. This is important to understand if you want to be a professional and strive for success.

Ueli Steck (German Ueli Steck; October 4, 1976 - April 30, 2017) - Swiss mountaineer, two-time winner (2009, 2014) of the Golden Ice Axe.

Ueli Steck became interested in mountaineering at the age of twelve and already at eighteen, possessing outstanding physical and, above all, psychological qualities, he was climbing the most difficult climbing routes in the Alps. Ten years later, he was part of the elite of the world mountaineering community, and since 2004, when the world's leading media and sponsors drew attention to him, his name has become a symbol of new sports records in mountaineering, and he maintained this status until his death. Among his unique achievements include numerous ascents of the most difficult, including new, routes in the Alps, as well as a number of world records for high-speed ascents of the Himalayan eight-thousanders and the Great north faces of the Alps, for which it was nicknamed the "Swiss Machine".

He died on April 30, 2017 in the Himalayas during an acclimatization exit in preparation for the high-speed passage of the Everest-Lhotse traverse without the use of additional oxygen.

If you try to list on the fingers of one hand the most outstanding climbers of our time who create history here and now, then, undoubtedly, the name of the Swiss Uli Steck will be in this top ten. Anyone interested in what is happening in mountaineering, this name is familiar. It rattles with sensational headlines both in the near-alpinist and in the wide European press.

The main motive of Uli Steck's whole life was not at all the constant hunt for meters and records.
He just liked to work on himself, set goals for his body and come up with ways to achieve them. To do this, he endlessly improved both his purely physical form and climbing technique. He especially liked fitness classes, for which he adhered, for example, to a strict diet, completely restructuring his system of burning fats and carbohydrates in order, as it seemed to him, to qualitatively increase his athletic performance.
There was nothing new in this, but in the end he really managed to widen the horizons of the possible, and this was the best fit for his nature, because Ueli Steck bowed to the seemingly endless possibilities of the human body to the same extent, in which he admired the mountains, which, as you know, can only be better than mountains that he has not yet been to!

And so, step by step, he began to conquer such peaks and conquer such spaces that were already beyond common sense and rational human reason. This attraction was high-speed climbing, which turned into his distinctive brand, into his brand, which became his “horse”. Many simply shook their heads in bewilderment, considering Ueli Steck's speed records as an expression of his vanity, narcissism and even eccentric selfishness.
Many believed that in doing so, he violated the philosophy that initially underlay the relationship between Gore and the Swiss, and the main principles of which were calmness, work, inspiration and respect for the eternal peaks, against which any, even the most "significant" person involuntarily looks small and lost.
Ueli Steck, on the other hand, did not particularly pay attention to all these commandments, turning the legendary North Face of Mount Eiger into a distance that, it turns out, can be overcome in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

Ueli Steck was born in Langnau im Emmental to the coppersmith Max Steck and his wife Lisabeth, the third of their sons. Both of his older brothers played hockey, one of them professional level, and in his youth, Uli followed in their footsteps. In addition to hockey, Uli also went skiing with his father, but the real passion for the mountains swept him after an ordinary ascent, together with family friend Fritz Morgenthaler, on the Schrattenfluh - the "ordinary" peak of the Swiss Alps in the Emmental Valley. After that, he began to intensively engage in rock climbing (at first on artificial climbing walls) and after a short time he achieved impressive results in this sport, not only thanks to the amazing physical qualities but also internal willingness to take risks. “I grew up near mountains and started climbing at the age of 12. I discovered them for myself, and it was an omen. Climbing is the perfect way to learn to think and learn at the same time. The rules are simple and obvious. If you haven't brought a sleeping bag, you will be cold. If you are not strong enough, you will not be able to climb ... ”In the professional field, in addition to mountaineering, Ueli Steck received the profession of a carpenter, which he did until the end of his life.

At the age of 18, Uli climbed the Eiger and two peaks of the Mont Blanc mountain range - Bonatti Pillar and Aiguille du Dru.

Ueli Steck was a man who mercilessly pushed himself forward all the time, and he was perfectly aware of this. That is why he devoted so much time to insurance and safety issues, and he did not make the main bet at all on hooks, ropes and carabiners. He was sure that in the mountains, and indeed in life, the human factor comes first, and that is why he tirelessly polished, honed and improved all his already almost superhuman abilities. All this turned him into an outstanding athlete and a shining benchmark for a whole generation of young super-climbers, who have long been trying to conquer not even the mountains, but themselves.

swissinfo.ch: Your latest project is quite ambitious - trying to climb three difficult Himalayan peaks (Taboche, Cholatze and Ama Dablam) before climbing Everest. Doesn't it bother you that you can covet a piece that you can't swallow?

Ueli Steck: That's right, a busy program, and although my main goal is to reach the summit of Everest without oxygen, I would rather climb other peaks than sit idle for two months at base camp. Even if I manage to climb at least one peak out of three, it will be something.

swissinfo.ch: You call your project “Khumbu Express”, which makes it look like you're running up and down the mountain without taking the time to enjoy it.

W.Sh.: I probably enjoy the mountains more than most of you here. Climbers going to Everest go up and down several times to acclimatize. I go to other peaks, where I admire different things (landscapes). Some people think that I take on too much, but I prefer to climb mountains rather than sit around doing nothing.

swissinfo.ch: How important is it to you to climb Everest without oxygen?

W.Sh.: To climb Everest on the classic route is definitely not the most outstanding achievement in my career. On the other hand, this is the highest point on the planet and reaching the top without oxygen and the help of Sherpas is a serious challenge. There are a few things on my climbing list that I would love to do, and Everest is one of them.

In 2012, Steck had already climbed Everest without an oxygen tank, and in 2015 he conquered all 82 Alpine peaks above 4,000 meters in 62 days.

Ueli Steck has set several records for ultra-fast solo ascents on classic routes.

He also helped popularize mountaineering through adventure films based on his ascents.

2007 could have ended in disaster for Ueli Steck. While solo climbing the Annapurna South Face, he was hit by a rock. The insensible climber rolled down the wall for a full 200 m. Uli survived thanks to the helmet, which shattered after the impact, and the rocky ledge that stopped the slide. As a result, the Swiss escaped with a concussion and several bruises.

The sad incident did not diminish the athlete's desire to conquer Annapurna, and a year later he again finds himself at the foot of the Himalayan giant. However, Ueli Steck was not lucky this time either. He was forced to stop his ascent, leave the route and come to the aid of the dying Spanish climber Iñaki Ochia, who died some time later. For his deed and achievements in sports, the Swiss was awarded the honorary prize “Eiger Award”.

In 2004, he achieved another impressive result, in the same bundle, together with climber Stefan Siegrist, in one day, he passed the northern walls of Mönch, Jungfrau and Eiger.

After several attempts, Ueli Steck set the Eiger north face speed record in 2007. He climbed this route in solo style, resorting to insurance in just three short sections. And no one was particularly surprised by this. Naturally - after all, the mountain is located almost at the threshold of his house (30 minutes drive to it). Having climbed the north face solo for the first time in 2004, having spent 10 hours on it, then he steadily, centimeter by centimeter, moved towards this record and by 2006 had almost halved the passage time. The very first Eiger north face speed record was set by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler in the famous 10-hour sprint ascent in 1969. Typically, such often-tested records are broken by only a few minutes or even seconds, Ueli Steck ahead of the previous record holder (Italian Christoph Heinz, record 2003) by 43 minutes with a new time of 3 hours 54 minutes.