KATHMANDU, Nepal — A Swiss climber acclaimed for his rapid ascents — including scaling dozens of peaks in the Alps in a little more than two months — died Sunday in a mountaineering accident near Mount Everest in Nepal, expedition organizers and officials said. The "Swiss Machine" was acclimatizing himself as he planned to ascend 8,850-meter Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse next month, Mingma Sherpa, an official with expedition organizer Seven Summit Treks said. He always seemed happy and he seemed chilled.”

Expeditions organisers said Steck’s body has been recovered from the site and taken to Lukla, where the only airport in the Mount Everest area is located. In 2013, Steck and two other climbers attempted to climb the Everest and nearby Mount Lhotse but a fight broke out between the climbers and a group of Sherpa guides. His death is the first casualty of this year's spring mountaineering season in Nepal, which is expected to involve 365 registered climbers from 39 teams, officials said. In 2016 Steck and fellow mountaineer David Goettler discovered the frozen remains of world renowned climber Alex Lowe, and cameraman David Bridges, on the Tibetan mountain of Shishapangma. He’ll go down as one of the greatest ever.”

Mr Hinke said Steck - known as the Swiss Machine - was famous for doing technically difficult climbs very fast and solo - including classic Alpine routes like the north face of the Eiger, which he completed in two hours and 47 minutes without using a rope. In 2013, Steck completed the first solo climb of the Annapurna south face in Nepal after almost losing his life in a fall there in 2007, earning him the Piolet d’Or - considered the Oscar of mountaineering. 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. On his return this year, he aimed to perform a quick climb of Everest and Lhotse, including an overnight stop at more than 8,000 meters, an altitude that’s known as the “death zone” because the dangerously thin air reduces the human body’s performance to 20 percent of its normal rate. "The risk is therefore quite small. Either I get through, or I don’t have the strength for the whole traversal.”

Asked what he would consider to be success on his expedition, Steck told Tages-Anzeiger: “Of course I want to climb Everest and Lhotse. “Failure for me,” he said, “would be to die and not come home.”

So it came as a shock to the climbing world Sunday when Nepalese officials announced that Steck, a man nicknamed the “Swiss Machine” for his unparalleled athletic abilities, had died.
Swiss mountain climber Ueli Steck dies in a mountaineering accident near Mount Everest.