Ueli Steck, Eiger North Face in 2 hours 47 minutes 33 seconds

© Ueli Steck / Bergsteigen.at.
Switzerland's Ueli Steck has chopped more than an hour off his own speed record for climbing the north face of the Eiger. Steck soloed the 6,000-foot Alpine wall in 2 hours 47 minutes 33 seconds.

Last March, Steck broke the previous solo record, also by a large margin, with a time of 3 hours 54 minutes. The old record had been set by Italian Christoph Hainz in 2003.

Steck increased his speed this year by only occasionally clipping a sling to fixed pieces for protection. Last year he self-belayed three times with a 15-meter cord. Steck also said he lightened his equipment by three kilograms (about six and a half pounds), and that hard training had reduced his weight by five kilos.

Read the extensive report by Dougald MacDonald at Climbing.com.


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14 Feb, 2008
Thats just ridiculous behavior! Amazing!
14 Feb, 2008
Any footage available?
14 Feb, 2008
That is incredible. I wish i could do this face this quickly. It would hardly be as worrying!!!
14 Feb, 2008
It would almost certainly be a lot more worrying. What are you saying?
15 Feb, 2008
I think ridiculous has to be the key word - reminiscent of a style of climbing I saw at a Climbing Comp in Birmingham once, where a couple of Russian & Eastern European Climbers raced each other up two identical sport routes onsight. And they were top roped. Having said that - he must be at the pinnacle of physical fitness, and mental preparation for climbing to achieve this feat, and isn't that what a lot of us aspire to in this community? Brave lad.
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