Swiss mountaineer Erhard Loretan, one of the few climbers to have summited all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet), died in a climbing accident on Thursday, his 52nd birthday. 
 
 The Associated Press reported that Loretan was leading a Swiss client up the summit ridge of the Gruenhorn, in the Bernese Alps, when the pair fell for unknown reasons at a height of 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) up the 4,043 meter (13,264-foot) peak. Police from the Swiss canton of Valais said that Loretan died at the scene, while his 38-year-old client was flown to a hospital in serious condition. 
 
 Loretan, originally from the canton of Fribourg, began climbing at age 11. He ascended his first 8,000-meter peak, Pakistan's Nanga Parbat, in 1982. It took him 13 years to climb the other 13, summiting the Himalayan peak of Kangchenjunga in 1995. 
 
 Loretan was the third person, behind Italian climber Reinhold Messner and Polish mountaineer Jerry Kukuczka, to summit all the 8,000-meter peaks. 
 
 Loretan was also renowned for his 1986 ascent of Mt. Everest in only 40 hours, climbing by night without the use of supplementary oxygen. 
 
 Loretan's acclaim was marred by the tragic 2001 death of his 7-month-old son, who was killed when Loretan shook him to stop his crying. Loretan pleaded guilty to negligent manslaughter and was given a four-month suspended sentence. The case's notoriety led to new research showing that infants can die from being shaken. 
 
 -- Kelly Burgess 
 
 Twitter.com/latimesoutposts 
 
 Photo: Erhard Loretan in 1998. Credit: Associated Press / Keystone / STR 
 
 ||||| Image caption Loretan began climbing aged 11 
 
 Renowned Swiss climber Erhard Loretan has died in a climbing accident in the Swiss Alps on his 52nd birthday. 
 
 Swiss police say Loretan was leading a client up the summit ridge of the Gruenhorn, in the Bernese Alps, on Thursday afternoon when the pair fell. 
 
 The climber died at the scene, while his Swiss client was flown to hospital in a serious condition. 
 
 Loretan was one of the few people to have reached the summits of all 14 mountain peaks above 8,000m (26,247ft). 
 
 But his career was blighted by a family tragedy just before Christmas 2001, when he killed his own infant son by shaking him to death to stop him crying. 
 
 The two climbers fell for unknown reasons at a height of 3,800m, up the 4,043-m peak, police from the Swiss canton of Valais said. 
 
 It was a fall of 200m, according to Swiss newspaper La Tribune de Geneve. 
 
 Manslaughter conviction 
 
 Loretan, originally from the canton of Fribourg, began climbing at the age of 11. 
 
 He scaled his first 8,000-m peak, Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, in 1982. 
 
 Over the next 13 years, he climbed the other 13. 
 
 His 1986 ascent of Mount Everest, without bottled oxygen, by night and in just 40 hours, stunned the mountaineering world. 
 
 That same year, he climbed 38 Swiss peaks in 19 days, La Tribune de Geneve reports. 
 
 He told L'Objectif magazine in 1995 that he had an "extreme fear of death" but his fear kept him crucially alert when climbing. 
 
 For the manslaughter of his son of seven months, Loretan was convicted and given a suspended sentence of four months in 2003. 
 
 He said he had shaken the child for just a couple of seconds to stop him crying, then put him to bed and the crying had stopped. He later called an ambulance. 
 
 The case's notoriety led to new research showing many parents were unaware that infants can die from being shaken for only a few seconds, because of weak neck muscles, the Associated Press news agency recalls.
– One of the world's top mountain climbers fell to this death today, reports the BBC. Switzerland's Erhard Loretan—one of a relative handful of climbers to have scaled all 14 world peaks above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet)—fell after a climbing accident in the Swiss Alps. Loretan was known for another incident that marred his acclaim: He pleaded guilty to negligent manslaughter in 2001 after shaking his 7-month-old son to stop his crying. The death led to research highlighting the dangers of shaken baby syndrome, notes the Los Angeles Times.