Famous Swiss climber Ueli Steck, popularly known as "Swiss Machine," died on Sunday as he fell to the foot of Mount Nuptse, Nepalese officials and an expedition organizing company said.

Steck, 40, was heading toward camp 2 from camp 1 of Mt. Qomolangma. The camp also serves as a base for climbing the 7,855-meter high Nuptse and is on one end of the passage where he slipped 1,000 meters down to the foot of the mountain, Khem Raj Aryal, an official at the mountaineering division of Nepal's Department of Tourism (DoT), said.

The incident took place at an altitude of 6,400 meters above sea level at around 8 a.m. local time (0215 GMT), according to the Seven Summits Treks company that organized Steck's expedition.

"He skidded off about 1,000 meters from (Mt Nuptse) camp," said Dinesh Bhattarai, Director General at the Department of Tourism.‍

After the incident, his body was brought to Lukla Airport and later moved to Kathmandu by helicopter. "His body now has been kept at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for the postmortem," Nivesh Karki, Manager of the Seven Summits Treks, told Xinhua.

The accomplished alpine climber sought to pioneer new routes throughout his mountaineering career, earning the nickname "Swiss Machine" for his solo record ascents in the Alps. He was attempting to achieve another first this year by connecting a series of rarely climbed routes to summit both Qomolangma and Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain, all without the use of supplemental oxygen.

Steck is the first climber to have died in this spring season in the Qomolangma region, according to officials of the DoT. Hundreds of climbers gather at Qomolangma base camp during the March-May climbing season as they prepare to climb the 8,850 meter high (29,035 feet) summit.

(Source: Agencies)