Fearless alpine climbers Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold enter into a death-defying rivalry to set speed records on the Swiss Alps' great north faces.
Marc-André Leclerc, an exceptional climber, has made solo his religion and ice his homeland. When filmmaker Peter Mortimer begins his film, he places his camera at the base of a British Columbia cliff and waits patiently for the star climber to come down to answer his questions. Marc André, a little uncomfortable, prefers to return to the depths of the forest where he lives in a tent with his girlfriend Brette Harrington. In the heart of winter, Peter films vertiginous solos on fragile ice. He tries to make appointments with the climber who is never there and does not seem really concerned by this camera pointed at him "For me, it would not be a solo if there was someone else" . Marc-André is thus, the "pure light" of the mountaineers of his time, which marvel Barry Blanchard, Alex Honnold or Reinhold Messner, interviewed in the film. An event film for an extraordinary character.
Deceased but not forgotten. In 2017, Switzerland's most famous mountaineer, "Swiss Machine" Ueli Steck, fell to his death in the Himalayas when he was just 40 years old. Three close friends travel again to the Everest region where he died. His family in Emmental has to deal with premature death.
Six big north faces of the Alps. The film consists of six films: "Die Wand der Wände" (Eger by Robert Jasper, Roger Schäli), "Das letzte Wort hat der Berg" (Matterhorn by Michael Lerjen, Jorge Ackermann), "Selig, wer in Träumen stirbt" (Grandes Jorasses by Felix Berg, Robert Steiner), "Licht und Schatten" (Piz badile by Hansjörg Auer), "Grenzen der Felskletterei" (Drei Zinnen by Alexander Huber) and "Der zerfallene Berg" (Petit Dru by Steve House, Andy Parkin).
Ueli Steck (Switzerland), Simone Moro (Italy) and Jon Griffith (GB) are not like 95% of the climbers on Everest: they don't use oxygen, altimeters (improperly called Sherpas), or fixed ropes. In 2013, the trio aims to repeat the arduous Western Spur. The Sherpas have the mission to equip the mountain with fixed ropes on this famous day, up to Camp 3: ropes without which customers of commercial expeditions could not climb Everest. An argument ensued, insults were hurled from both sides. The confrontation at Camp 2 degenerated: a Sherpa water bottle physically attacked the trio of Europeans. Blows and stones were thrown and threats led the trio to flee the mountain. The Réel Rock film crew, which is part of the climbing team, films this chaos without complacency.
Famous for his fast solos on the harshest north faces of the Alps, Ueli Steck decided to learn a new sport: paragliding! Not always easy learning, but useful learning, and Ueli didn't take long to perform under one wing. Paragliding allowed him to complete the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau trilogy in one day climbing the three peaks solo and depending on the paragliding faces from the peaks....
On the south face of Annapurna, at 7,400 metres, Iñaki Ochoa de Olza is dying. His rope companion sounds the alarm. And, from the other side of the world, the biggest rescue attempt in the history of the Himalayas gets underway. For four days a dozen men including some of the best mountaineers in the world, from ten countries, set out to try to rescue their stricken comrade. Even beyond his peaks Iñaki is an exceptional man. As exceptional as the rescue attempt itself and the men who risked their lives to save him. Exceptional because their one driving rule is to live. To live in the only way possible: with pure intensity and honesty.
He climbed solo, without a rope, the north face of the Eigers in 2h47. Below him the rock wall steigen über 1000 Meter ab. Mehr Ueli Steck, the lone wolf, does not lose his temper. For a year, Steck has meticulously prepared this record of less than three hours. The portrait of an extraordinary man who takes us on a journey to the most beautiful and challenging peaks in the world.
Ueli Steck may be the greatest speed alpinist the world has ever seen. In this film he tells the stories of his record-breaking ascents in the Alps, accompanied by stunning aerial footage of him racing up 8,000 foot alpine faces. Ueli joins Alex Honnold in Yosemite to attempt speed records there. His ultimate goal: take his one-man alpine speed game to the largest, highest walls in the world.
Ueli Steck is a Swiss mountaineer, born October 4, 1976 in Langnau im Emmental (Switzerland) and died April 30, 2017 in Nepal. Nicknamed the "Swiss Machine", it is known for its solo ascents and speed records. As a child, Ueli Steck played ice hockey. At 12, he discovered rock climbing and joined the Swiss Alpine Club. At the age of 18, he climbed the north face of the Eiger and the Bonatti pillar in the Mont-Blanc massif. In 1998, he soloed the Haston Couloir on the Mönch in 3.5 hours, and in 1999 the Lauper route on the Eiger in 5 hours. In 2001, he made the first ascent of the west face of Mount Pumori with Ueli Bühler. From 2002, he made several ascents with Stephan Siegrist: "The Young Spider" (2002) and "La Vida es Silbar" (2003) on the north face of the Eiger, then they chained the 3 north faces of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in 25 hours (2004). In 2005, he made the first solo ascent of the north face of Cholatse (6,440 m) and the west face of Tawoche (6,505 m). Ueli Steck is regularly talked about thanks to his speed records. In 2007, he set a new Eiger north face record of 3:54, then in February of the following year he broke his own record with a time of 2:47:33. In May 2008, in full preparation for their excursion to the south face of Annapurna, Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten set off to rescue mountaineer Iñaki Ochoa de Olza. A rescue helicopter could not be used at such high altitudes, Ochoa died on May 23. Steck will stay by his side until the end. On January 13, 2009, Ueli Steck completed a record trilogy (Eiger, Grande Jorasse, Matterhorn) on the north face in 1 hour 56 minutes to reach the summit of the Matterhorn via the Schmid route. He received the Piolet d'Or 2009 in technical difficulty for the first ascent of the north face of Tengkampoche (6,500 m) with Simon Anthamatten. On July 9, he managed his first 8000, the Gasherbrum II (8035 m) solo. In 2011, on April 17, he climbed the south face of Shisha Pangma (8,013 m) in a record time of 10:30 a.m. and 18 days later, on May 5, he climbed Cho Oyu (8,201m) with Don Bowie. On November 18, 2011, he presented Ueli Steck: Speed, his film in Martigny, Switzerland. In August 2012, Ueli Steck created the Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau triptych in less than 12 hours. On October 9, 2013, Ueli Steck added to his list of achievements a solo ascent of the south face of Annapurna. During the summer of 2015, Ueli Steck carried out with Michael Wohlleben the #82summits project of more than 4,000 m in the Alps without the use of motorized means, Ueli reached the end of the project in 62 days. On November 11, 2015, Ueli Steck and Nicolas Hojac climbed the north face of the Eiger via the Heckmair route in 3 hours 46 minutes, thus beating the roped ascent record. On November 16, 2015, 5 days later, Ueli set a new Eiger record of 2:22:50. On April 30, 2017, Ueli Steck is training for a combined ascent of Everest then Lhotse in less than 48 hours and without oxygen via the West Ridge route, never repeated. He was discovered dead by rescuers, after slipping on a patch of ice and falling 1,000 meters from one of the faces of Nuptse, during an acclimatization ascent.
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