In doing so, he became the first person to complete a solo climb up Annapurna’s main south face, perhaps the most technically challenging climb in the world, and notched one of the most impressive conquests in the history of mountaineering.However, the challenge didn’t end when Steck returned to base camp. After overcoming one of the most difficult feats in his sport, Steck had to overcome doubters, who claimed that he had no proof of his climb. Steck didn’t have a photo of the summit; his altimeter had broken during his ascent; and he hadn’t used a G.P.S. tracker, all of which are accepted means of documenting such a climb. All the climbing world had for proof was Steck’s word.
Despite the controversy, last Saturday evening in Courmayeur, Italy, Steck, 37, was awarded the Piolet d’Or, mountaineering’s highest accolade, which honors the most impressive mountain climbs of the previous year. Ian Welsted, 42, and Raphael Slawinski, 47, of Canada, also won the award for their first ascent of K6 West in Pakistan.
What made Steck’s feat particularly remarkable was the manner in which he climbed Annapurna, largely considered the most dangerous mountain in the world to climb, with a 38 percent fatality rate.
Early in the ascent, Steck’s partner deemed the face too risky, so he left Steck to continue up the mountain alone. In his final push, Steck carried only a pocketful of energy bars, a bottle of water, a headlamp and a rope strapped to his back to supplement his ice axes and crampons. (He used the rope only to rappel down sections of the descent.) He didn’t sleep. He didn’t employ supplemental oxygen, commonly used when climbing over 25,000 feet. Nothing affixed him to the mountain, meaning one small misstep would have most likely meant death.
“That’s an incredible amount of tenacity and skill to pull something like that off. That guy changed the game with that ascent,” said Mark Allen, 35, of the United States, who was also nominated for the Piolet d’Or, along with his climbing partner, Graham Zimmerman, 28, of New Zealand and the United States, for the route they pioneered on the east face of Mount Laurens in Alaska.
To put Steck’s accomplishment into perspective, two weeks after his climb, the French team of Stéphane Benoist and Yannick Graziani repeated Steck’s route up Annapurna’s south face with a few variations. It took them eight days round trip. Benoist lost all of his toes and the tips of several fingers to frostbite, and both men had to be evacuated by helicopter.
As tremendous as Steck’s accomplishment was, it was also mired in controversy. Steck didn’t have a photo of the summit, he says, because his camera was knocked out of his hand by a small avalanche that nearly swept him off the mountain during his ascent.
Christian Trommsdorff, chairman of the Piolet d’Or organizing committee, received several emails from “Swiss-German and German alpinists and journalists” questioning the veracity of Steck’s feat and his Piolet d’Or nomination.
Ultimately, the other Piolet d’Or nominees and judges had no doubt that Steck had accomplished what he said he did. He gave a detailed description of his route to the judges, which was corroborated by Benoist and Graziani. Photographers at the base camp tracked his progress until nightfall with a telephoto lens, and sherpas reported seeing the glow of his headlamp just below the summit.
“It’s not an issue,” said Allen. “I think it happens a lot. People lose images. There’s a lot of integrity in the climbing community, and there are very few examples of people who didn’t achieve what they claimed to achieve.”
Steck was not surprised by the controversy that had enveloped him.
“There’s a lot of jealous people. It’s the downside of fame, of being successful.”
Other jury members weren’t pleased with Steck’s decision to leave his partner and continue on the climb alone. Team spirit, or “the brotherhood of the rope,” as it’s called in American climbing circles, is a central tenant of mountaineering.
As a result of the controversy surrounding Steck’s climb, the Piolet d’Or committee is contemplating modifying the criteria for selecting the nominated and winning climbs.
“A bit more verification and emphasis on brotherhood of the rope would be my suggestions for improving the list of criteria,” said George Lowe, the president of the 2014 Piolet d’Or jury and a prolific American mountaineer.
Despite the controversy, the nominees and judges ultimately agreed that Steck’s ascent had been a stunning accomplishment in the world of mountaineering and that he deserved the honor.
“His ascent of Annapurna is, in terms of speed, commitment, moving light and fast on a very big mountain face, on an 8,000-meter peak, it’s an extremely significant ascent,” said Zimmerman.
This was not Steck’s first brush with controversy. In May 2013, he was involved in a much-publicized altercation with local sherpas on Mount Everest. Steck and his team was accused of offending the sherpas while climbing. When they descended to camp, an angry mob gathered and began attacking the team. Believing their lives in jeopardy, the Westerners fled down the mountain. As a result of the incident, police officers will be stationed at Everest’s base camp this year for the first time.
With his solo speed climbs of the north face of the Eiger and the Matterhorn in Europe and now Annapurna, Steck embodies an emerging trend in climbing called “fast and light” alpinism, a style of mountain climbing that promotes rapid, technical ascents using a minimal amount of gear and support.
Proponents of this fast-and-light style say that it minimizes exposure to risk because a climber spends less time on the mountain. Advocates say it is a cleaner and purer style of mountaineering because equipment isn’t left on the mountain and because high-altitude porters or supplemental oxygen are not used.
Steck, who is defined by his penchant for daring feats, said he likes risky climbing “too much.” He has spent some time in the months since his climb on Annapurna reflecting on his feat and has decided to modify his approach to climbing.
“If I keep going like that, I’m going to kill myself,” he said. “So I really have to change my approach a little bit, find different objectives, projects which are maybe not as risky, but maybe are more physical.”
“Projects,” he continued, “that aren’t super dangerous, but are still hard to climb.”
He wouldn’t give exact details about his next project, but he did say that he has his eyes on the north face of K2, a 28,251-foot-high peak in the Himalayas that sits on the border of China and Pakistan.
