How Ueli Steck Met Mountaineering's Oldest Companion: Tragedy

Ueli Steck was one of the finest alpinists in the world. This piece got a lot of flak, and I found myself scouring, word for word, the op-ed for weeks after it ran. I wanted to impart how revolutionary it was to watch Steck perform, and some of my own musings on soloing—which I practiced (at a much lower level than Steck) for years religiously—snuck into the piece.