Ueli Steck

He looks forward, not back. “I will never forget what happened on Everest in 2013,” the Swiss top climber Ueli Steck tells me. “But I believe I will have absolutely no problem with it. It’s over. I’m very motivated and I’ll go with a very good feeling.” In spring 2013, a Sherpa mob had attacked Steck, the Italian Simone Moro and the Briton Jonathan Griffith and had threatened them with death. This spring, Ueli will return to the highest mountain on earth. His goal: the traverse of Mount Everest and Lhotse. The 40-year-old will climb with Tenji Sherpa, with whom he had already scaled Everest without bottled oxygen in 2012. The 24-year-old belongs to “a new generation of Sherpas, who really enjoy climbing and are not only interested in doing business,” says Ueli. “I’m really looking forward to being en route with him.”

As reported, Steck had completed an intensive training camp with the German David Goettler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse in the Khumbu area in February. Subsequently, Ueli returned to Switzerland for a few weeks. He will set off to Kathmandu on 8 April.

Ueli, during the training Camp in Nepal in February you ran and climbed a total of about 250 kilometers with 15,000 meters in elevation. How much has been added since then?

Mountain run in the Khumbu region (down Cho La to Gokyo,  in the background Gokyo Ri)

I am not quite sure. I have no longer made such a large scale, but focused on intensive training. However, last week I made another 10,000 meters in elevation. So probably a total of 25,000 meters have been added.

What does this intensive training look like?

Mainly, I do interval and threshold training. These are relatively short units of physical stress, but with a high pulse frequency. This is to push the maximum pulse.

How is your current physical condition?

If you ask me today, it’s actually perfect. I can not change many things anymore, it is only fine-tuning. I can not manage a big increase in performance before I leave. But at the moment I am in top form, my performance parameters are actually sensational. Very likely, I will now do it this way every year.

Ueli (l.) and Tenji on the summit of Island Peak

How will you continue your acclimatization in Nepal?

I will go straight to Everest Base Camp. As I see it, I might ascend to Camp 2 [at 6,400 meters] on the second day after arrival and spend some time there. For me, it is also important that I have slept two nights on the South Col at almost 8,000 meters before it really starts. But for sure, I will also climb up to the West Shoulder during acclimatization to see how the conditions are.

Do you still prefer doing the traverse via the West Shoulder?

It would be the most elegant if we are able to traverse the summit ascending via the Hornbein Couloir, then descending to the South Col and up to the summit of Lhotse. That would be my dream. But I am also realistic and experienced enough to know that it can only work if very, very much matches: There must be perfect conditions and the weather must be good and stable. I think it’s important to have ideas, but in the end you have to decide on the mountain what is possible and impossible.

Everest (l.) and Lhotse (in the centre)

The Everest-Lhotse traverse has never been achieved without the use of supplemental oxygen. How high do you assess the chance of success?

There must something be going quite wrong, so that the traverse via the normal route turns out to be impossible. But we’ve seen it last year on Shishapangma: If the weather doesn’t fit, you have just no chance. You never know beforehand how high the chance really is. But I believe I am able to succeed.

Many expect a record spring season on Everest, meaning that the mountain will be really crowded. This doesn’t sound like ideal conditions for an ambitious project such as a traverse.

It doesn’t have any influence how many people are on the mountain. It doesn’t matter if the people get stuck in a traffic jam on the fixed rope. You do not need to use it and can climb on the side.

Could it be your tactics to schedule the summit attempt as early as possible in the season?

Early in the season, there is often the problem that it’s still very cold. If you go without bottled oxygen, however, it should be relatively warm. Therefore, it’s most likely not an option to set off early. I’ll go rather late. Let the first weather window pass by, then most climbers have already been on the summit, and it will become calmer on the mountain. I think, this is the more likely option.

Barmasse, Steck, Tenji Sherpa and Goettler (from l. to r.)

What a high-caliber training group! The Swiss Ueli Steck, the Nepalese Tenji Sherpa, the German David Goettler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse have been preparing themselves for their expeditions in spring in the village of Chukhung in the Everest region for ten days. Steck and Tenji Sherpa plan to traverse Mount Everest and Lhotse. No one has yet managed to do this without bottled oxygen. Goettler and Barmasse want to open a new route via the Shishapangma South Face in Tibet. In the course of the training, mountain running was at the focus. “I ran three times from Chukhung (4,730 meters) to Island Peak (6,180 meters),” writes Ueli. He had climbed and run a total of about 12,000 vertical meters over a distance of around 150 kilometers. “My body and my soul feel great,” says Steck. “I really enjoy being here in Nepal with such good friends. Just climb and run and nothing else.”

“Personal experiment”

Ueli (l.) and Tenji on the summit of Island Peak

Currently, the four climbers are continuing their training program in the area around Namche Bazaar, the 3,440-meter-high main village of the Khumbu region. They will then return to Europe for four weeks. An unusual form of preparation. “It is a personal experiment of us all,” answers David Goettler to my concerns that acclimatization effect could get lost in the meantime. “At home we want to sleep as often as possible as high as possible or to climb.  We are almost sure that it will lead to a faster acclimatization when we’ll return for our actual expeditions in April. We’ll see whether the plan works out.”

Hervé’s dream

Training for Shishapangma South Face

In spring 2016, David and Ueli had been stopped by bad weather in their attempt to open a new route via the Shishapangma South Face. “The South Face really fascinated me, and I just want to go back there,” writes Goettler. “Hopefully we will have better weather this year!” Due to his Everest-Lhotse project, Steck was not available as climbing partner this time, so David has teamed up with Hervé Barmasse. The 39-year-old is a very experienced climber who has made headlines in recent years especially with new routes on his home mountain, the Matterhorn. Hervé has also succeeded spectacular first ascents in the Karakoram and in Patagonia. Barmasse had two major surgeries last year. “He is back in the game,” writes David about the Italian, who has so far never stood on top of an eight-thousander. “It remains my dream to climb my first eight-thousander on a new route,” Hervé had told me in November 2012. This may not have changed.

Ueli Steck

The experience on Mount Everest in spring 2013 has changed Ueli Steck. “The moment when I realized that the Sherpas wanted to kill me, a world came crashing in,” the 40-year-old Swiss top climber wrote in his new book “The Next Step”. “After that, my look at the world was a different one. I withdrew because I did not trust anyone anymore.” In spring 2017, Ueli will return to Everest – to try to traverse the highest mountain on earth and the 8,516-meter-high Lhotse. I talked to Steck about Everest.

Ueli, what does Mount Everest mean for you personally?

Everest is the highest mountain in the world. If high altitude climbing is your thing, it is, with an altitude of 8,848 meters, a dimension of its own and therefore the most interesting and exciting mountain.

Everest, Lhotse and Makalu (from l.)

In 2013, you had – as you describe in your new book – a traumatic experience, when a Sherpa mob seeked to kill you. Do you feel that you have come to terms with this story?

Come to terms? Such things shape you for your whole life. I’ll always carry it with me. But I think I can handle it now. The story has found a place in me.

Did you draw lessons from this incident for your visit next spring?

For sure. I have talked to many people. You can meet bad people all over the world, you just have to accept that. This also applies to Everest.

Do you believe that you will be able to avoid such conflicts in the future?

I think I’ll distance myself much more. This is the only solution. But there are also many good Sherpas or other good locals and only a few odd people. You just have to avoid these people. It’s like being in a big city, where you also have to ensure that you don’t enter the wrong district.

Ueli at the IMS in Bressanone

You want to do the Everest-Lhotse traverse – climbing up the West Shoulder, as already planned in 2013?

This would, of course, be the most beautiful, the perfect option. It’s my big dream if it works that way. But we have to look at the conditions. You can not say yet how they will be. Maybe I have to do the traverse via the normal route, and then, only in the next step, via the West Shoulder. I see that very realistically.

You will climb with Tenji Sherpa, with whom you have been traveling a lot, i.a. in 2012 on Everest. Is he as a climber the equal of you?

As a climbing partner certainly not, but surely as a high-altitude mountaineer, because he tolerates the great height. For a partner, it is not just a question of how good he is. It’s also very important that the team works. For me, it’s also a big part of the project to climb together.

But if you pick up pace, many others can not keep up with you.

Sure. If it does not work, it’s just like it is. But it can also tilt to the other side, in the sense that I am tired and someone else climbs on.

After the successful 2016 season, Everest Base Camp as well as the normal route will probably be crowded again in 2017. Is this a problem for you?

If you’re a good climber, you’ll just climb off the track. This is absolutely no topic for me.

Training with David Goettler on Aiguille Verte

How do you train for Everest?

I have already increased the volume considerably. I have some ideas on how I can train differently, also in terms of altitude training so that it becomes possible. So far, no one has ever been able to traverse Everest and Lhotse without supplemental oxygen. It’s a big challenge. I believe that I am able to do this, but I have to be prepared optimally. I am climbing many vertical meters, so my body is getting used to it.

You have already scaled Everest without bottled oxygen in 2012. Thus you know that you are able to handle the altitude. Does this knowledge help you?

Yes sure. That’s what I have just said. If I am on Everest and realize, hej, it’s a too big challenge to climb via the west flank and traverse the summit, I will try it first via the normal route. In climbing you have to do it step by step and you must be realistic. It’s crucial to accumulate knowledge so that things become quite normal.

Last question: What will you do at Christmas?

I’ll spend Christmas with my and Nicole’s family (Nicole is Ueli’s wife). And then we’ll go climbing for a few days.