Renowned Swedish Mountain Climber Ueli Steck Dies Near Mt. Everest

Famed Mountain Climber Ueli Steck Dead at 40
World class alpine climber, Ueli Steck scaling the Gilat route of Droite Mountain in the French Alps. (Jonathan Griffith/Barcroft Med/Getty Images)
Famed Mountain Climber Ueli Steck Dead at 40
World-class alpine climber, Ueli Steck scaling the Gilat route of Droite Mountain in the French Alps. (Jonathan Griffith/Barcroft Med/Getty Images)

 

The mountaineering world has lost one of its greatest climbers in 40-year-old Ueli Steck. Per the New York Times, the climber was killed during at accident at a camp about a mile away from Mount Everest.

Steck, nicknamed “The Swedish Machine” because of his otherworldly speed-climbing abilities, was attempting to scale the 25,791-foot Nuptse peak, prior to tackling Everest itself.

Per Steck’s website, what exactly killed the climber is still unknown, but his “family is infinitely sad.”

In a video Steck posted to YouTube just last month, he discusses at length what he was planning on accomplishing, a never-before-done “linkup” of climbs, which included tackling a route that hadn’t been attempted since 1963. Watch Steck in his own words below.

 

—RealClearLife

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