Ueli Steck
Ueli Steck is a Swiss mountaineer, born October 4, 1976 in Langnau im Emmental (Switzerland) and died April 30, 2017 in Nepal. Nicknamed the "Swiss Machine", it is known for its solo ascents and speed records.
As a child, Ueli Steck played ice hockey. At 12, he discovered rock climbing and joined the Swiss Alpine Club. At the age of 18, he climbed the north face of the Eiger and the Bonatti pillar in the Mont-Blanc massif. In 1998, he soloed the Haston Couloir on the Mönch in 3.5 hours, and in 1999 the Lauper route on the Eiger in 5 hours. In 2001, he made the first ascent of the west face of Mount Pumori with Ueli Bühler. From 2002, he made several ascents with Stephan Siegrist: "The Young Spider" (2002) and "La Vida es Silbar" (2003) on the north face of the Eiger, then they chained the 3 north faces of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in 25 hours (2004). In 2005, he made the first solo ascent of the north face of Cholatse (6,440 m) and the west face of Tawoche (6,505 m).
Ueli Steck is regularly talked about thanks to his speed records. In 2007, he set a new Eiger north face record of 3:54, then in February of the following year he broke his own record with a time of 2:47:33.
In May 2008, in full preparation for their excursion to the south face of Annapurna, Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten set off to rescue mountaineer Iñaki Ochoa de Olza. A rescue helicopter could not be used at such high altitudes, Ochoa died on May 23. Steck will stay by his side until the end.
On January 13, 2009, Ueli Steck completed a record trilogy (Eiger, Grande Jorasse, Matterhorn) on the north face in 1 hour 56 minutes to reach the summit of the Matterhorn via the Schmid route. He received the Piolet d'Or 2009 in technical difficulty for the first ascent of the north face of Tengkampoche (6,500 m) with Simon Anthamatten. On July 9, he managed his first 8000, the Gasherbrum II (8035 m) solo.
In 2011, on April 17, he climbed the south face of Shisha Pangma (8,013 m) in a record time of 10:30 a.m. and 18 days later, on May 5, he climbed Cho Oyu (8,201m) with Don Bowie. On November 18, 2011, he presented Ueli Steck: Speed, his film in Martigny, Switzerland. In August 2012, Ueli Steck created the Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau triptych in less than 12 hours. On October 9, 2013, Ueli Steck added to his list of achievements a solo ascent of the south face of Annapurna. During the summer of 2015, Ueli Steck carried out with Michael Wohlleben the #82summits project of more than 4,000 m in the Alps without the use of motorized means, Ueli reached the end of the project in 62 days.
On November 11, 2015, Ueli Steck and Nicolas Hojac climbed the north face of the Eiger via the Heckmair route in 3 hours 46 minutes, thus beating the roped ascent record. On November 16, 2015, 5 days later, Ueli set a new Eiger record of 2:22:50.
On April 30, 2017, Ueli Steck is training for a combined ascent of Everest then Lhotse in less than 48 hours and without oxygen via the West Ridge route, never repeated. He was discovered dead by rescuers, after slipping on a patch of ice and falling 1,000 meters from one of the faces of Nuptse, during an acclimatization ascent.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.207 |
Birthday | 1976-10-04 |
Place of Birth | Langnau im Emmental, Switzerland |
Also Known As | أولي شتيك, Ули Штек, |
2013
High Tension
8/1
Ueli Steck (Switzerland), Simone Moro (Italy) and Jon Griffith (GB) are not like 95% of the climbers on Everest: they don't use oxygen, altimeters (im...
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High Tension
2016
Explore Mont Blanc
10/1
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Explore Mont Blanc
2010
The Swiss Machine
10/1
Ueli Steck may be the greatest speed alpinist the world has ever seen. In this film he tells the stories of his record-breaking ascents in the Alps, a...
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The Swiss Machine
2013
Ueli Steck - Paraglides Between Mountains In The Swiss Alps
10/1
Famous for his fast solos on the harshest north faces of the Alps, Ueli Steck decided to learn a new sport: paragliding! Not always easy learning, but...
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Ueli Steck - Paraglides Between Mountains In The Swiss Alps
2012
Pura Vida (The Ridge)
7.5/6
On the south face of Annapurna, at 7,400 metres, Iñaki Ochoa de Olza is dying. His rope companion sounds the alarm. And, from the other side of the wo...
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Pura Vida (The Ridge)
2020
Ueli Steck – Auf schmalem Grat
10/1
Deceased but not forgotten. In 2017, Switzerland's most famous mountaineer, "Swiss Machine" Ueli Steck, fell to his death in the Himalayas when he was...
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Ueli Steck – Auf schmalem Grat
2023
Race to the Summit
7/57
Fearless alpine climbers Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold enter into a death-defying rivalry to set speed records on the Swiss Alps' great north faces.
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Race to the Summit
2013
Reel Rock 8
7.8/6
The latest groundbreaking films from Big Up Productions and Sender Films. Featuring Yuji Harayama, Daniel Woods, Hazel Findlay, Emily Harrington, Ueli...
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Reel Rock 8
2010
Reel Rock 5
8.3/3
From death-defying speed link-ups of the wildest faces in the Alps, to Olympian displays of strength and tenacity on the hardest boulders ever climbed...
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Reel Rock 5
2014
The Six Great North Faces of the Alps
10/1
Six big north faces of the Alps. The film consists of six films: "Die Wand der Wände" (Eger by Robert Jasper, Roger Schäli), "Das letzte Wort hat der...
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The Six Great North Faces of the Alps
2011
Ueli Steck - Speed, Der schnellste Mann am Berg
10/1
He climbed solo, without a rope, the north face of the Eigers in 2h47. Below him the rock wall steigen über 1000 Meter ab. Mehr Ueli Steck, the lone w...
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Ueli Steck - Speed, Der schnellste Mann am Berg
2021
The Alpinist
7.6/136
Marc-André Leclerc, an exceptional climber, has made solo his religion and ice his homeland. When filmmaker Peter Mortimer begins his film, he places...
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The Alpinist
2014
On ne marche qu'une fois sur la lune
10/2
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On ne marche qu'une fois sur la lune
2008
Fly High
10/1
Twelve talented young mountaineers, five geologists from the University of Lausanne and four mountain guides take an unprecedented risk in Patagonia....
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