Tomaz Humar, the Slovenian mountaineer, who died attempting a solo ascent of a difficult new route in the Himalayas, belonged to an elite of climbers who pushed the boundaries of what is humanly possible in high-altitude mountaineering.

Humar was at the vanguard of a revolution in Himalayan mountaineering in which a new generation of younger climbers make fast alpine-style ascents solo, with little safety equipment. He was the latest of these climbers to perish on the mountains, after Jerry Kukuczka, Jean-Christophe Lafaille and Pierre Beghin.

Humar’s achievements placed him among the world’s leading climbers and many regarded him as the finest mountaineer of his generation. His record of about 1,500 ascents included 70 new routes, many of them climbed solo. He described himself as a something of a fatalist who dared to tackle such difficult climbs solo because he believed that the “Gods were smiling on him” and that the Himalayas were “fond of him”.

Humar came to prominence in 1999 with an astonishing solo ascent of the south face of Dhaulagiri (8,167m), the world’s seventh-highest peak and one of the most dangerous in the Himalayas with a 40 per cent fatality rate. The ascent also marked the first time that such a climb could be followed step by step on the internet via a webcam. In the same year Humar visited Yosemite valley in California and made a solo ascent of Reticent Wall on El Capitan, a 1,300m sheet of vertical rock. In South America he also pioneered a new route to the summit of Aconcagua (6,962m), the highest point in the Andes.

Humar was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia — then part of Yugoslavia — in 1969. He started to climb seriously as a teenager and one of his first Himalayan ascents in 1994 was of the Ganesh V (6,989m) in Nepal. His ascent of the Ama Dablam (6,828m) in 1996 was the first time he climbed a “virgin face” solo in alpine style. These were followed by his scaling of Bobaye (6,808m) and what he called his Himalayan trilogy in quick succession: the 6,119m Lobuche, the 7,165m Pomuri and the 7,742m Nuptse.

In 2005 he enhanced his reputation with a solo attempt on the Rupal flank of Nanga Parbat (8,125m) by a direct line up one of the world’s longest mountain walls. After six days on the avalanche-swept wall he ran out of food. He was saved after the crew of a Pakistani military helicopter spotted him and lifted him to safety in a hazardous rescue. The two flyers were decorated later by Slovenia for their bravery.

In October 2007 Humar reached the Eastern summit of the 8,091m Annapurna 1 via a route at the far eastern end of the South Face. The ascent was first climbed in 1970 by a British expedition led by Chris Bonnington but Humar got up and down solo with no helmet, rope or harness in treacherous conditions.

He said in his diary: “I climb very light carrying just two litres of juice which freeze within the first hour. With each passing hour, the wind grows stronger. As I climb higher the risk of avalanche becomes more extreme. I was very tired and it has been a long time since I have been able to eat or drink. It is completely dark . . . I am lost, but in my soul I know that God is with me. My headlamp is not working and I have to wait for the moon to rise before continuing.”

On his last adventure, the 40-year-old climber had been attempting a solo ascent of a new route on Langtang Lirung (7,227m) in Nepal when he contacted his base camp by satellite phone last Monday to say he had broken his leg in a fall and also had back injuries. Contact was made the following day as a helicopter rescue was mounted from Kathmandu and a second call from the injured climber sounded weak. Humar’s last words to his base camp were: “This is my last.”

The first rescuers landed by helicopter at the 6,000m base camp had searched the area where Humar was thought to be but had found no sign of him and further searches were held back for two days by heavy snow fall. A further search on Saturday spotted his body by air at a lower level than expected, which suggested that after his accident Humar had attempted to reach his base camp alone.

Satellite phones and helicopters able to operate in the thin air of the Himalayas have increased the pressure on mountaineers to attempt increasingly difficult climbs with the confidence that help may be at hand. Humar was one of the climbers thus enboldened. His achievements were all the more remarkable given that he was told by doctors that he would never climb again after falling backwards into a hole while building his own house in Slovenia. He broke his right thighbone and crushed his left heel. After many operations, which left one leg 2.5cm shorter than the other, he recovered, albeit handicapped by a left ankle that was virtually immobile. Within two years Humar returned to mountaineering.

Contemporaries said of Humar that he was never a man to be bound by rules. As a member of an expedition to the north face of Annapurna 1 in 1995 he determined to reach the top alone against the orders of the leader. He decided early on in his life that his story with the mountains would be his alone and that his journeys would be set by nobody but himself. He rejected classical Himalayan expeditions where one had to follow the rules of the leader. He became instead “the master of his own destiny”.

He is survived by his wife and two children.

Tomaz Humar, mountaineer, was born on February 18, 1969. His was found dead in the Himalayas on November 14, 2009, aged 40