UELI STECK : LITTLE BIG MAN
Little Big Man. Ueli was an overflowing ball of energy in his small athletic body. His arched legs had no doubt taken on too many knee bends whilst using crampons. Zero error and total commitment: that was his lifeline. Yes he took risks, calculated ones as well as stupid ones too no doubt, but he always got away with it. There is a Madonna for celestial tightrope walkers.
It was on Everest that he found his footholds less powerful this time, the ground slipped away underneath his crampons, a heinous plaque of ice: his body was discovered near Camp 1 at an altitude of more than 6000m.
The ambitious (or risk-taking?) project entailed reaching the summit of Everest by the unrepeated West Ridge/Hornbein couloir route, a diabolic and interminable slope of 8OOOmeters that can reach angles of 60°. A route climbed only once in 1963 by the man who it was named after, the American climber Tom Hornbein. This death corridor was where Marco Siffredi lost his life and soul snowboarding on 8th September 2008.
From the top of Chomolungma, Ueli wanted to reach the southern pass by the normal route and continue towards the Lhotse. A prolonged and risky stay in the death zone… A very ambitious undertaking, which might have swept aside the polemic of the Annapurna, where disbelievers suspected he had not conquered. His fast ascension of 28 hours up to 8091 meters was something to ruffle feathers due to its maestria, speed and difficulty beyond the reasonable. It is from this steel that the greatest mountaineers are forged. His critics reproached him for not taking pictures, as is often the case with the Swiss guide. They were probably expecting a complete photo report at over 8000 meters…
Ueli was not a “machine” like the media likes to refer to him. He was an imprint of the likes of Escoffier, Profit, Lafaille, Boivin…those who turned traditional mountaineering into a race against the clock. Going fast to beat records, climbing at the speed of light to be less exposed to the elements, flying like an eagle and becoming tougher and tougher. Ueli was above all an athlete. Food, training and kit; nothing was left to chance. We were awestruck to be alongside him when he took part in the OCC, one of the UTMB® races. He was one of the precursors in crossover sports, like Kilian Jornet.
Ueli will always remain the man who broke records on the north face of the Eiger, his secret garden that he explored the most for racing against the clock. His expeditions in the Himalayas (Shisha Pangma, Annapurna) cemented him into this very closed circle of the world’s best mountaineers. He who was held by a thin thread, metaphorically and literally, during his climbing has tragically left us at only forty years old.
Franck Oddoux
Photos : David Goettler
Transamericana avec Rickey Gates
