There's doubt that Beckham is the Netflix project on everyone's lips right now, but another sports doc dropped earlier this week that is more than worthy of your attention.
The Race To The Summit is a tragic true story following the extreme exploits of two Swiss speed climbers, Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold, and their adventures on the alps. The two – who often climbed solo, without equipment – began a rivalry back in 2011, when Arnold broke Steck’s record for climbing the Eiger mountain. That sense of competition went on to spark more duels, as they each battled to break records.
Ueli Steck’s backstory
Steck was born in Emmental, Switzerland, and began climbing at a young age, quickly earning himself the nickname “The Swiss Machine.” His professional career started at the age of 18, when he climbed the north face of the Eiger and the Bonatti Pillar in the Mont Blanc massif, followed by other peaks in the European Alps. By 2005, Climb magazine named him “one of the three best Alpinists in the world”.
Focusing on the Eiger, Steck set a speed climbing record in 2007, climbing it in 3 hours 54 minutes, then he shaved almost an hour off this time a year later.
However, the perils of these dangerous ascents often made themselves known. In 2007, climbing Annapurna in Nepal, Steck was struck on the head, became unconscious and fell down. A year later, he attempted to save the Spanish climber Iñaki Ochoa, who had a stroke on the mountain, but who died.
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Dani Arnold enters the fray
Arnold was born in the Uri Mountains, Switzerland, and also became interested in free solo ice climbing from a young age as well. By 2011 he had progressed to climbing the same peaks as Steck, and in this same year, he beat Steck’s record for climbing the north face of the Eiger. He completed it in 2 hours and 28 minutes, making him 20 minutes faster than Steck, who then went on to beat Arnold's time in 2015 by 6 minutes.
In 2013, Steck completed an ascent of a new route on the south face of Annapurna. According to The Guardian: “He climbed alone, doing the hardest section at night in a situation of unimaginable peril”, but he lost his camera and failed to keep a GPS track. However two Sherpas who spotted him were able to verify his climb and he was given his second Piolet d’Or award. The publication added: “Steck’s achievement was hailed as a landmark in mountaineering history.”
Steck went into turbo mode in 2015, when he climbed all 82 peaks in the Alps over 4,000m and cycled, ran and paraglided between the range, and managed to complete the heroic challenge in just 62 days.
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Steck’s death
In April 2017, Steck travelled to Tibet to attempt to climb the Hornbein route on Everest, without the help of additional oxygen. He had visited the area many times before and climbed Everest previously, telling Outside Magazine about the great appeal it held: “Of course I climbed Everest without oxygen, but it’s not the end of the story for me. The summit itself is not what counts. It’s how’d you get there, what’d you climb, and there are really great opportunities to climb on this mountain. It’s a beautiful place.”
On April 29, however, after his climbing partner suffered from frostbite, he decided to climb the peak of Nuptse instead.
Setting off at 4.30am on April 30, Steck eventually found himself 300 metres from the summit, but tragically fell down an estimated 1,000 metre drop. His body was recovered from the camps below, and it’s still not known what caused the fall.
His body was transported back to Kathmandu, where he is buried now, and he is survived by his wife, Nicole.
Arnold still climbs to this day, and he holds the speed record for climbing the Mont Blanc massif, taking the record from Steck. But while Arnold holds two of the three speed records on the great north faces of the Alps, Steck still holds the it for the Eiger.
The Race To The Summit streams on Netflix from 4 October.
Laura Martin is a freelance journalist specializing in pop culture.
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