Swiss climber Ueli Steck claims 82 Alpine peaks feat

Ueli Steck is a specialist in speed climbing and has won an award for scaling Annapurna in 28 hours

After a 62-day marathon, a climber dubbed the "Swiss machine" has announced he has scaled all 82 Alpine peaks over 4,000m (13,100ft).

Ueli Steck, 39, avoided motorised transport, choosing to cycle or walk between each peak in Switzerland, Italy and France.

Steck and his team set off in June.

His feat was overshadowed by the death last month of one of his climbing team, Dutchman Martijn Seuren, who fell 300m on Mont Blanc.

A spokesman for the German Alpine Club said the achievement was "really quite amazing", adding that while few of the peaks were very hard to climb, the challenge was in scaling all of them in such a short period of time.

Because of the independent nature of Steck's climbs, there has been no official confirmation of his achievement.

Ueli Steck's climbing feat took him through the Swiss, French and Italian Alps

Not all 82 peaks are considered difficult climbs, but the achievement is in climbing them so rapidly

"It was a great experience, a really great trip," Steck said after completing his final climb on the 4,100m Barre des Ecrins in France.

"I am still super psyched, I could move on.... let's see what comes next!" he wrote on Facebook.

A known specialist at speed climbing, Steck won an award for climbing the southern face of Annapurna in Nepal in just 28 hours.

He is not the first climber to have scaled all 82 peaks. Slovenian alpinist Miha Valic did in 2007, but drove from one mountain to the next.