It’s a tough day for mountain climbers everywhere, as word of Ueli Steck’s death near Mount Everest spread around the world. Ueli was just 40 years old when he slipped and fell into a crevice as he was acclimatizing near basecamp. Just hours before he had posted on Facebook the joys of being on the mountain.
For those who love the mountains, dying on one doesn’t seem nearly as bad as living a life where you can no longer climb.
Among Steck’s many accomplishments were “speed climbing”–such as ascending the north face of the Eiger in the Alps in two hours and 47 minutes without using a rope. He also climbed all of the peaks in the Alps that were over 4,000 feet, traversing from peak to peak using only a bicycle, a paraglider and his own two feet. That took him 6 months, and earned him the nickname “The Swiss Machine.”
Fox news reported that in an interview last month with the Swiss publication Tages-Anzeiger, Steck said when he was on Everest, he could “stop at any point.”
“The risk is therefore quite small. For me it’s primarily a physical project,” he told the daily. “Either I get through, or I don’t have the strength for the whole traversal.”
“Of course I want to climb Everest and Lhotse,” Steck told the paper when asked about his measure of success. “But that’s a very high goal. Failure for me would be to die and not come home.”
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The question of whether society pushes men to take greater and greater risks is one we talk about on The Good Men Project all the time.
At The Good Men Project, we write articles, yes, of course—but we also discuss by phone some of the greatest issues and topics of our time. We do so with the intention of honoring the life of people like Steck, while also being able to process his death together. Find out more here.
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