Mountaineer recalls record-setting climbs
Posted By Shawn Slaght, shawn@thecrag.ca
Posted 3 months ago
Photo by Robert Boesch. Ueli Steck during one of his record setting climbs on the Eiger North Face. Steck talked about climbing three classic north faces in the Alps Friday night at the Banff Centre as part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival.
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Swiss mountaineer Ueli Steck always strived to be the best climber possible, and he talked about his record-setting solo climbs of three north faces in the Alps Friday night as part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival at the Banff Centre.
Steck, who was born in Emmental, Switzerland, said he started climbing at the age of 20 but he had always been a competitive person.
"I really grew up with sport," said Steck.
One of the things that drew him to climbing, though, was the history, stories, emotion and impressions that come with the sport.
In December 2004, Steck made his first solo climb of the Eiger North Face, which is considered one of the most difficult climbs in the Alps.
He said people started to scale the Eiger North Face in the 1930s, but many of the attempts were unsuccessful.
"There were many people trying and a lot of those people died," said Steck.
The Eiger North Face became such a problem that, in 1937, the Swiss government forbade anyone from climbing the north face because it was too dangerous.
"This actually brought more climbers," laughed Steck.
The first person to ascend the north face was a Swiss mountain guide in 1963. When Steck did his first ascent in 2004, it took him 10 hours.
"For me, it was a big step," he said. "But when I looked into the history, 10 hours wasn't a big deal."
The first recorded record for climbing the north face was in 1983 and it took four hours and 50 minutes.
That record was broken in 2003 at four hours and 30 minutes.
"That was half the time I used," exclaimed Steck.
Steck returned to the Eiger North Face in 2007 when he was climbing with his girlfriend. On Feb. 20, 2007, he decided to climb the north face again and break the speed record.
"I knew the conditions were very good," he said. "There were tracks on the face and I had to give it a try."
He climbed the Eiger North Face solo with ropes for safety equipment. He said the temperature was about -2 degrees Celsius so there was no need for gloves during the rock climbing.
"In February that is the usual temperature and it helped me a lot to climb faster," he said.
After one hour and 47 minutes Steck reached his usual stopping point on the north face, but instead kept going. At this point he started to believe that he could be the first person to climb the Eiger North Face in under four hours.
After reaching the summit, Steck quickly hit the button on his watch and looked down to see it read three hours and 54 minutes. His vision came true, as he became first person ascent the north face in less than four hours.
"For me, I knew I was fast enough to do it in under four hours, but I didn't expect to do it in my first run," said Steck.
Two weeks later, he started to think about his ascent and realized that he didn't push himself to his personal limit. He felt there was more potential and he could go a lot faster.
This time it took Steck one year to prepare for the ascent. He worked on his speed and endurance. He realized that using a rope was slowing him down, so he started practicing free solo, both of ice climbing and rock climbing, and decided he would climb the Eiger North Face that way.
Not only did he want to go without a rope, but he also felt he cheated during his climb in 2007. He thought true mountaineering means you scale a mountain face with no tracks, so he wanted to do it during those conditions.
In 2008, Steck started his ascent up the Eiger North Face once again.
This time he was nine kilograms lighter from lost body weight and less equipment. He smashed his old record by climbing the north face in two hours and 47 minutes. This would be his last record climb at the Eiger North Face.
"Climbing, like life, you have to move on," he said.
His next step was the classic north face climb of the Matterhorn where he set a record of one hour and 56 minutes and the north face of the Les Grandes Jorasses where he set a record of two hours and 21 minutes.
