Steck mesmerises the audience at KMF
Last weekend saw another successful Kendal Mountain Festival take place, and among the many highlights was the appearance of the world’s leading alpinist, Ueli Steck, who mesmerised a packed audience in Kendal leisure centre during the Saturday evening session, which was sponsored by Ueli’s sponsor, Mountain Hardwear.
Ueli seemed to be everywhere during the day: first he joined runners in an early 10k run in the hills around Kendal, then in the afternoon he appeared in the Base Camp marquee where he met KMF visitors, posed for photos, and – most importantly – met up with the Trek & Mountain team and reader Christian Shaw who’d won our competition to interview Ueli and win a Mountain Hardewar Torsun Jacket!
Local lad Christian was thrilled to meet Ueli, the man who had inspired him to take up mountaineering, and he presented the Swiss Machine with a photo he’d taken in the hills around Kendal as a memento of his visit to the Lakes. Ueli promptly asked Christian to sign the photo and was clearly chuffed with this unexpected present!
T&M reader Christian Shaw, Ueli Steck, T&M Editor Chris Kempster and Mountain Hardwear’s Cat Sutherland
We then sat down and chatted for an hour, with Christian asking Ueli his own, competition-winning questions plus some of the best questions sent in from other Trek & Mountain readers. During a great interview, Ueli revealed a great sense of humour and humility as well as the love of the mountains and dedication to his sport that he is so well-known for. You can read the interview in the Dec/Jan edition of Trek & Mountain, so don’t miss that!
Ueli’s talk itself on Saturday evening was alternately hilarious and gob-smacking, as he showed videos and images of some of his incredible feats such as setting the modern speed record on the North Face of the Eiger, and climbing the South Face of Annapurna in an incredible 28 hours.
Sharing a joke with the Swiss Machine
It will be interesting to see what plans Ueli has for the coming year (he told us he’s planning to do ‘something in the Alps, and something in the Himalayas’) but for now we’d like to thank Ueli for his time and Mountain Hardwear for arranging for us to meet Ueli at KMF.
RELATED LINKS
www.mountainhardwear.eu
www.uelisteck.ch