Ueli Steck aims for new climbing high

This summer, Swiss speed climber Ueli Steck is planning to scale all 82 European Alps over 4,000 metres in 80 days. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

The “Swiss Machine” and his climbing partner Michi Wohlleben aim to attack the more challenging routes on peaks in Switzerland, Italy and France.

The two mountaineers will travel by bike or foot between the base camps, and paraglide back down from the summits into the valleys where possible.

They are not the first climbers to attempt all 82 four-thousanders. In December 2006, Miha Valic climbed the 82 summits in 102 days, but drove between mountains in a van.

Steck and Wohlleben are an established team. In 2014, they climbed the three North Face routes on Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Dolomites, the first winter link-up of all three walls, in only 16 hours.

Ueli Steck has been labelled a ‘game changer’ in the mountain-climbing community. In October 2013, he set a new record by solo climbing the South Face of Annapurna, one of Nepal’s most challenging mountains, in just 28 hours.