Ueli Steck and a Fateful Return to Everest

When the sad news reached me this morning that Ueli Steck, probably the most accomplished mountaineer of his generation, had died near Mt. Everest, I was surprised to hear that he had returned to a place he disdained for its crowds and its bitter base-camp politics. Steck was forty. He reportedly fell on Nuptse, an adjacent peak, which he was climbing in order to acclimatize to the altitude. He was in Nepal for another attempt at a route—one connecting the summits of Everest and Lhotse—that he’d had to abandon in 2013, after being attacked by Sherpas.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

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