May 2017
Tribute to Ueli Steck, “The Swiss Machine”
EIGER International would like to pay tribute to Ueli Steck, one of the world’s greatest alpinists who died on 30 April 2017 in an accident, after he fell during a solo acclimatizing climb near Nupse Face on Mount Everest. The 41 year-old legendary climber had the plan to attempt to climb Mt Everest by never been taken West Ridge/Hornbein Couloir route without using supplemental oxygen.
The “Swiss Machine” was famous for his extraordinary ascents without assistance, his agility and his speed records. In 2008, he won first the Eiger Award for his remarkable achievements in the Alps. In 2007 he set his first speed record on the North Face of the Eiger, that he lowered himself in 2008, then for the third time down to less than 2 hours 30 minutes in November 2015. He also won two Piolet d’Or awards in 2009 and in 2014, for the first Annapurna South Face solo ascent.
Steck was a carpenter by training and has become a professional rock climber and mountaineer by passion. Fitted with exceptional physical and psychological capacities and coached by a top team, he continuously trained intensively. Steck showed the values of a high performance athlete – taste for hard work, courage, tenacity, humility, the desire to constantly push back his limits, search for new challenges – and embodied the EIGER International values of team spirit and passion for excellence.
The “Swiss Machine” was famous for his extraordinary ascents without assistance, his agility and his speed records. In 2008, he won first the Eiger Award for his remarkable achievements in the Alps. In 2007 he set his first speed record on the North Face of the Eiger, that he lowered himself in 2008, then for the third time down to less than 2 hours 30 minutes in November 2015. He also won two Piolet d’Or awards in 2009 and in 2014, for the first Annapurna South Face solo ascent.
Steck was a carpenter by training and has become a professional rock climber and mountaineer by passion. Fitted with exceptional physical and psychological capacities and coached by a top team, he continuously trained intensively. Steck showed the values of a high performance athlete – taste for hard work, courage, tenacity, humility, the desire to constantly push back his limits, search for new challenges – and embodied the EIGER International values of team spirit and passion for excellence.