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Dec 6, 2021 · When Alex Lowe, one of America’s most celebrated alpinists, died with fellow climber and cameraman David Bridges in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999, he left a wife and three kids behind. In the weeks and months following Lowe’s death, his friend and climbing partner, Conrad Anker, who had narrowly survived the very avalanche in which ...
- Alpinism
They were on one of the world's highest and most difficult...
- Alpinism
- 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.
Dec 22, 2021 · Within a year, Conrad Anker—Lowe’s feral and boisterous climbing partner, who narrowly survived the deadly avalanche—moved in with Jennifer. They married, and Anker helped raise the...
- Grayson Schaffer
Miraculously surviving the avalanche was Alex’s best friend and climbing partner, renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker. After the tragedy, Anker and Alex’s widow, Jennifer, fell in love and married,...
Feb 27, 2022 · In 1999, Alex planned an ambitious climb with close friend Conrad Anker and a small documentary team. The plan was to climb the 8,013 meter peak of Shishipangma in Tibet, and descend on skis . They aimed to become the first American team to ski down from any peak over 8,000 meters.
Jan 24, 2022 · Caught amidst the tragedy were Lowe's best friend and climbing partner Conrad Anker, who survived the avalanche. And back home in Montana, his wife Jennifer and three young boys: Max, Sam...
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In September 1999, Lowe, Conrad Anker and David Bridges (a two-time US national paragliding champion) traveled to the 26,291-foot (8,013 m) Himalayan giant Shishapangma, the 14th highest peak in the world, as part of the 1999 American Shishapangma Ski Expedition.
