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Article snippet: KATHMANDU, Nepal — Ueli Steck, a renowned mountain climber nicknamed “the Swiss Machine” for his rapid ascents of some of the world’s most imposing peaks, died in an accident on Sunday at a camp near Mount Everest, Nepali officials said. At the time of his death, Mr. Steck, 40, was trying to climb the 25,791-foot Himalayan peak of Nuptse in preparation for an ambitious ascent of Everest, said Dinesh Bhattarai, the director general of the Nepal Department of Tourism. A message on Mr. Steck’s website said that the exact circumstances of his death were unknown, and that his family was “infinitely sad.” His was the first recorded death of the Everest climbing season, Mr. Bhattarai said. Mr. Steck said in a video published on YouTube earlier in April that after scaling Nuptse he would follow part of a route up Everest pioneered by the American mountaineers Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld in 1963, which had yet to be successfully repeated. He was then planning to traverse peaks, from Everest, the world’s highest mountain, to Lhotse, its fourth highest. That transfer had been completed only once before. “I think it’s possible, but we don’t know,” Mr. Steck said of the route. “That’s exactly the challenge, that’s exactly the interesting thing. Nobody has done that before.” Maurizio Folini, a pilot with a local helicopter company who brought Mr. Steck’s body to Kathmandu, said that it had been windy on Sunday and that Mr. Steck had fallen more than 3,280 feet. Tenji Sherpa... Link to the full article to read more