After finishing school, Stephan Keck completed extensive training with his parents plumbing company including a master craftsman exam. However, the temptation for adventure was already strong and during his training he broke out of the run of the mill life again and again. At the young age of 18 he travelled to Peru for his first major mountain expeditions followed by further spells in the Andean countries of South America.

It was here that Stephan Keck’s passion for high altitude mountaineering began and after the end of his first apprenticeship he turned this passion into a profession becoming a certified ski and mountain guide in 2003. In the same year, he founded Alpinist Expeditions and since then, with his team, has been offering expeditions, adventure and winter sport trips worldwide. Just one year later came the the first eight-thousander summit success with the ascent of the Shisha Pangma. Since then he has been on repeated expeditions to the highest mountains of the world from Alaska to Pakistan. In spring 2019 Stephan stood on the summit of Mount Everst. He also offers the equipment necessary for such expeditions in his own web-shop Expeditiongear. In 2014, he founded the Bergkult Productions brand and has since then undertaken ambitious photo and film projects such as the Freeride feature film „Heimschnee“ for cinema and TV. All companies, as well as the installation company, which Stephan Keck has now taken over from his father, are now combined under the umbrella of Keck GmbH.

Today, Stephan Keck completes marathons in under three hours and proves his endurance in terms of social commitment as well. In 2009, he founded the relief organisation STEPZERO.ONE, which is used to finance the construction of schools and hospitals in Nepal and Pakistan. After the severe earthquake in Nepal in 2015 he also immediately took action with his comrades. Together they collected 65 tons of materials that were most needed, brought them to Nepal and actively took part supporting the reconstruction on site. Out of this initiative came the relief action SOS Nepal, which is still supported today by personalities like Franz Klammer, Axel Naglich and Andi Goldberger. Not only did he bring private individuals on board but he was also able to win over numerous companies who took an active part in the campaign.

From skilled craftsman to extreme climber to entrepreneur and inventor of balloon skiing, Stephan Keck is characterised by the courage to put new ideas into practice. Whether it is in the entrepreneurial sense of realising new business ideas or in private life travelling around the world with his wife and children on adventurous explorations in the search for freedom.