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May 2, 2016 · The remains of American mountaineers Alex Lowe and David Bridges, who were swept away in an avalanche on Shisha Pangma (8,027 meters/26,335 feet) in Tibet on October 5, 1999, were discovered on ...
- 1 min
- Andrew Bisharat
May 6, 2016 · On April 27, climbers David Goettler and Ueli Steck reported finding the bodies of Alex Lowe and David Bridges on Shishapangma in Tibet, according to a statement by the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation. More than sixteen years earlier, on October 5, 1999, Lowe and Bridges perished in an avalanche while on a ski expedition with Conrad Anker, Mark Holbrook, Kris Erickson, the late Hans Saari and ...
- Overview
- What a crazy call to have received this week, huh?
- How does this development make everyone feel?
- What are the plans?
- Do you have a favorite memory of Alex that you could share?
- Have you been back to Shisha Pangma since the accident in 1999?
- Was there one particular climbing achievement Alex was most proud of?
- More About Alex Lowe
Conrad Anker shares the impact Lowe had on him as a climber and friend.
“We knew it was going to happen one day. We just didn’t think it would be right at this point,” says alpinist Conrad Anker about learning that the bodies of his friends Alex Lowe and David Bridges had been discovered, still frozen inside a glacier at the foot of Shisha Pangma, an 8,000-meter peak in Tibet. “You can never anticipate these things, but then the call comes, and there it is.”
On October 5, 1999, Alex Lowe and David Bridges were swept away by an avalanche on Shisha Pangma during an attempt to ski a first descent of the mountain. Lowe, 40, was arguably the finest mountaineer of his era. Bridges, 29, was also an extraordinary athlete, mountain lover, and photographer.
Anker was there with them, traversing an open snow-covered slope, when the mountain came to life and unleashed its full fury. Miraculously, Anker survived. When the dust settled, however, Lowe and Bridges were gone.
To Anker, it seemed that his friends had simply vanished into a billowing cloud of snow.
Following the tragedy, Anker stepped in to become a father to Alex’s three sons—Max, Sam, and Isaac—and support Lowe’s widow, Jenni. Conrad and Jenni fell in love and married in 2001.
We’ve been expecting it. In the past, Max and I have talked about going over to Shisha Pangma to start checking it out, because of the state of the glacier, which has been rapidly moving. Given the location of where the accident happened, it was not a question of if, but when. We knew it was going to happen at some point.
I think that for the boys it brings up a lot of emotions from 16 years ago. Max knew Alex the best. He was ten at the time. Sam was seven, and Isaac was three.
On the one hand, all these emotions come up, and it’s like we have to go through all of this again. But on the other hand, at least for me, it’s like, “Wow, Alex really did die.” Because for me, there was just this big cloud of snow dust, and then he was gone. There was never a body to verify it. So now there’s this sense of closure to it. I think this is where we all want to be with it.
We will go over there and retrieve the bodies. They’re not completely out of the ice, but I think things might change in the next five or six weeks before we can get over there. We’ll put on crampons, and go up the glacier, and retrieve the bodies. Then, we’ll find a place to have a cremation, a pyre according to local customs. This is what both Al...
Gosh … It was always those moments, right at the beginning of the day, when you’re anticipating a day out in the mountains with Alex. For me, that was always the most special time. The possibility of the day ahead was a big deal. Getting up, and just get a ton of energy going, like, “Yeah, let’s go drink coffee!”
He was also super dedicated to his family, and that was his real struggle. I mean, anyone who is in this game and has a family, it’s sort of like, How do you balance both? It was definitely a challenge for him.
No. I’ve been to Langtang, and looked over at the mountain from a distance. But this will be good to go back to that base camp and see the area.
There was the Great Trango Trip. That was the beginning of bringing media into the mountains, and it was a time when big-wall aid climbing was at the forefront of climbing.
You know, he always spoke about soloing Kusum Kanguru, which is a 6,000-meter peak in Nepal. He hiked up and over it after guiding Everest. It was the most amazing thing.
He was so gifted. He free-soloed the Naked Edge [a very famous 500-foot 5.11 rock climb in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado] back when it wasn’t a common, everyday thing. He climbed Supercrack when only five or ten people in the world had done it. He was such a highly motivated individual, a gifted climber, and a great person.
And now, I get to see those same traits every day in the boys. This Friday, Sam is graduating from Montana State. Alex would be psyched about that.
Though more than 16 years have passed, the memory of Alex, who inspired a whole generation of climbers and explorers with his uncontainable enthusiasm, legendary training routines, and significant ascents of rock climbs, ice climbs, and mountains all over the world, live on through many of Lowe’s more famous quips.
“The best climber in the world is the one having the most fun,” he routinely declared.
He also once said, “There are two kinds of climbers: Those who climb because their heart sings when they’re in the mountains, and all the rest.”
As mountaineering’s era of exploration and first-ascent peak bagging came to a close, climbers became much more specialized: pushing limits on the rock or on technical ice climbs or in the mountains. But they weren’t often so adept at all three. Lowe was the consummate all-arounder. No matter what the climb’s medium, no matter how difficult or dangerous it was, it seemed that if there was one person in the world who could get up that climb, it was Alex Lowe.
“”We’re all at this one level,” Anker once observed. “And then there’s Alex.”
In the 1980s, he flashed (meaning, he climbed it on his first try) the Supercrack of the Shawangunks in New York at a time when the route was still considered one of the hardest in the U.S. In Colorado, he nabbed the first ascent of the Fang, a perilous 120-foot free-standing column of ice in Vail, Colorado.
Alex Lowe on Annapurna III in 1996. Stewart Alexander Lowe (24 December 1958 – 5 October 1999) was an American mountaineer. He has been described as inspiring "...a whole generation of climbers and explorers with his uncontainable enthusiasm, legendary training routines, and significant ascents of rock climbs, ice climbs, and mountains all ...
Sep 20, 2024 · Bridges said on Lowe's podcast, Sirius XM's "Literally! With Rob Lowe." When a Southern California wildfire threatened Jeff Bridges and wife Susan's home, they fled, but found themselves in an even more harrowing situation. The Old Man actor explained on Thursday's episode of SiriusXM's Literally! With Rob Lowe, that while he was asleep in the ...
- 55 sec
- Raechal Shewfelt
Feb 4, 2022 · The Lowe-Anker family in Tibet, after the bodies of Alex Lowe and cameraman David Bridges were discovered in 2016. Credit: Courtesy of the Lowe-Anker Family. The discovery of Lowe’s body and the ...
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The bodies of a renowned mountain climber and an accomplished expedition cameraman have been recovered 16 years after their deaths.
