Ueli Steck

A timeline of Ueli Steck life

• 1976 - Born on 4 October 1976 in Langnau im Emmental, Switzerland
• 1993 - At the age of 17, Steck achieved the 9th difficulty rating (UIAA) in climbing.
• 1994 - He climbed the North Face of the Eiger and the Bonatti Pillar in the Mont Blanc massif at only 18 years old.

• 2004 - He and Stephan Siegrist climbed the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau Mountains within 25 hours.
• 2005 - Another success was the "Khumbu-Express Expedition", for which the climbing magazine Climb named him one of the three best alpinists in Europe. The project consisted of the first solo climb of the north wall of Cholatse (6,440 m) and the east wall of Taboche (6505 m).
• 2007 - Steck set his first speed record on the North Face of the Eiger Mountain in 2007, climbing it in 3 hours and 54 minutes. The record was lowered by Steck himself to 2 hours 47 minutes 33 seconds the following year.

• 2008 - Climbing Annapurna Mountain, he broke off his ascent due to an avalanche threat, but the next week climbed to assist Spanish climber Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, who had collapsed. Medical help was slow in coming and the Spanish climber died despite Steck's help.
• 2008 - Steck was the first recipient of the Eiger Award for his mountaineering achievements.
• 2008 - Ueli Steck was married to Nicole Steck in 2008.
• 2009 - Ueli Steck was awarded Piolet d'Or for his new route on Tengkampoche north face Mountain with Simon Anthamatten
• 2010 - Ueli Steck was awarded Karl Unterkircher Award for his climbing versatility
• 2013 - Steck soloed the Lafaille route on the South Face of Annapurna Mountain. on the main and highest part of the face; this was his third attempt on the route and has been called "one of the most impressive Himalayan climbs in history", with Steck taking 28 hours to make the trip from Base Camp to summit and back again. The veracity of his claim has been challenged. The face had previously been climbed by the 1970 British Annapurna South Face expedition using siege tactics and taking nearly two months. Steck's was the first solo ascent of Annapurna Mountain, which won him his second Piolet d'Or. Award

• 2014 - Steck and Michael Wohlleben linked up the three north faces of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo/Drei Zinnen Mountains in 16 hours.
• 2015 - In the summer of 2015, he climbed all 82 summits in the Alps higher than 4000 meters in 62 days without the use of motorized travel. Two days slower than the 60-day record, his time included a period when Steck had suspended the tour on July 22, after his climbing partner on the Aiguille de Rochefort, Martijn Seuren, had fallen to his death on this final peak to make him the first Dutch person to climb all 82 4000ers. Later that year Steck set a new record for the North Face of the Eiger Mountain, soloing it in 2 hours 22 minutes and 50 seconds.

• 2016 - Steck and his German mountaineering partner, David Göttler, found the bodies of Alex Lowe and paraglider David Bridges. Lowe and Bridges were killed in an avalanche in 1999 while searching for a route up Shishapangma Mountain to attempt the first ski descent.
• 2017 - Ueli Steck died at the age of 40 while trying to climbing Everest, Nepal without supplemental oxygen.

"The more experience you have, the more you can push those boundaries. Ueli Steck, I’m absolutely certain, had a very strong inner drive to keep pushing. He set very high standards for himself. He was always moving with immense precision and a sense of safety. Still, an element of risk will always remain in climbing a mountain."

--Reinhold Messner (A True Legend of Mountaineering)