The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Swiss mountaineer Ueli Steck killed near Everest
Famed Swiss climber Ueli Steck has been killed in a mountaineering accident near Mount Everest in Nepal, expedition organisers said.
Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks said Steck was killed at Camp One of Mount Nuptse.
His body has been recovered from the site and taken to Lukla, where the only airport in the Mount Everest area is located.
It was not clear how Steck died but he was planning to climb 8,850 metre (29,035ft) Mount Everest and nearby Mount Lhotse next month.
He was the first casualty in the spring mountaineering season in Nepal that began in March and will end this month.
Hundreds of foreign climbers are on the mountains to attempt to scale Himalayan peaks in May when there are a few windows of favourable weather.
Steck, 40, was one of the most renowned mountaineers of his generation.
He was best known for his speed-climbing, including setting several records for ascending the north face of the Eiger, a classic mountaineering peak in the Bernese Alps that he climbed in two hours and 47 minutes without using a rope.
In 2013 he achieved the first solo climb of the Annapurna south face in Nepal after almost losing his life in a fall there in 2007.
For that he received the Piolet d’Or, considered the Oscar of mountaineering, the following year.
In 2015 Steck decided to climb all 82 peaks in the Alps higher than 4,000 metres (13,100ft) travelling between mountains by foot, bike and paraglider only.
He completed the feat in 62 days, helping cement his reputation as the “Swiss Machine”.
Steck said in an interview last month with Swiss Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that he considered himself an “outsider” in the mountaineering scene because athletic achievement was more important to him than adventure.