Current Progress
Cho Oyu Ascent Wrap-Up
“Miss Hawley told me: ‘If you can’t see Everest, you are not on the Summit!’,” Ueli Steck wrote in an email sent over the weekend from Tibet. “Funny, I just kept thinking of that sentence up there, the words of an old woman…”
News of Steck’s successful ascent, with Don Bowie, of the normal route of Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world, came just 18 days after he made a solo ascent of nearby Tibetan 8,000er Shisha Pangma. “I’m happy,” the thirty-four year old alpinist writes. “Cho Oyu was a beautiful mountain.” Read More
The Turquoise Demon: Ueli Steck on Climbing Cho Oyu
Don arrives with the latest weather forecast. Today is unpredictable. The forecast calls for wind and snow. Sun is not predicted. The weather window is clear for the 4th and 5th of May, but from May 6th on, there may be more moisture moving in. Today’s forecast called for clouds, which ended up being true. There were thick clouds over the summit, but somehow I could not believe the weather report, which is a bad sign, and was surprised that it had come true. Despite what the forecast calls for, the weather will still take place outside and not in an office in Bern. But the office in Bern is a great help! Without those meteorology reports I would not have attempted Shisha Pangma. Read More
Ueli Steck Summits Cho Oyu
On May 5th, Ueli Steck and Don Bowie reached the summit of the sixth highest peak in the world, Cho Oyu (8,201 meters). (Source: Don Bowie) Success on Cho Oyu comes just 18 days after Ueli solo-climbed Shisha Pangma (8027m) reaching that summit in a mere 10.5 hour push. Unstable weather conditions over the high […] Read More
Status Report: Ueli Checks in from Cho Oyu
Ueli checked in over the weekend from Cho Oyu – the sixth highest mountain in the world and the next objective for him on the Tibet portion of Project: Himalaya. “The weather looks great for the 4th, 5th, and 6th, so maybe it will happen over the next few days,” he wrote. “We are waiting now. Everything is ready.” Read More
Ueli Reports on Shisha Pangma Ascent
Shisha Pangma was just great. One of those days when everything works out. I just started to climb, but did not expect to go to the summit. I was just thinking that I am going out to check the conditions up to 7200 meters. But things went well. Perfect Full Moon. Perfect conditions like on Cholatse and I felt great! Read More
Shisha Speed: More Details About Ueli’s Ascent
Over the weekend, Swiss alpinist-extraordinaire Ueli Steck blazed up the South face of Shisha Pangma, the 14th highest mountain in the world, ascending more that 2000 vertical meters of terrain to reach the 8027 meter summit in a mere ten and a half hours. “Our latest weather forecast on the 16th indicated low pressures and high winds would arrive late on the 17th, and the next good weather window would likely not arrive until perhaps the 28th or 29th – if it ever came at all. In other words, the weather forecast was not looking good,” Read More
News Flash: Ueli Solos Shisha Pangma in 10.5 Hours
Ueli left basecamp at 5306m on Saturday April 16th at 10:30pm to solo-climb the southwest face and summit Shisha Pangma in just 10.5 hours. It is reported that just 20 hours after departure Ueli was back at basecamp recovering comfortably from the high alpine assault already thinking about what’s next up in the high mountains […] Read More
Ueli’s Everest Adventure
The weather seems good. We feel the nervousness of the other alpinists. Most of them have been up here for weeks at 6400 meters and they are waiting for good weather. We just arrived and take it quite easy. I don’t make any stress, since I do not know how my body has recovered from the past two 8000 meter peaks. Maybe I am already too exhausted, but I will go for a try. That’s for sure. Read More »