Yet he was surrounded by constant reminders of the man he replaced. He was a hands-on and loving figure, adventurous but dependable. Credit:Gordon WiltsieĪnker raised Lowe’s sons as though they were his own. “But our love was forged under duress and loss, and we were both in the grieving process.” It was a love, he continues, “that just happened”.Īlex Lowe hanging from a cliff edge in Antarctica the year before his death: his strength and stamina had earned him the nicknames “the Mutant” and “Lungs with Legs”. “People have their views one way or another,” he says slowly. While Anker admits that the “optics” of their relationship and the speed at which it unfolded caused some people to rush to judgment, their own families and the mountaineering community in general were entirely supportive. Within a year, Anker had moved into the Lowe family home. Within three months of the avalanche, the two of them had begun to fall in love. He became a regular presence, a steady, phlegmatic figure for a family who were grieving and disorientated.Īnd then one day, Max walked into a room to find his mother and Anker kissing. He accompanied them on a trip to Disneyland. And so in December 1999, he drove from his home in California to Montana to spend Christmas with the Lowes. The only thing that gave him any sense of purpose was a promise he had made to Jenni that he would do whatever he could to support her and her boys. Because his life was worth more than mine.” This, combined with the post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered following the avalanche, left him feeling suicidal. “Like it should have been me instead of Alex,” he says. In the weeks that followed, Anker was haunted by feelings of shame and worthlessness, feelings he would later learn were caused by the psychological phenomenon of survivor’s guilt. She, in turn, did her best to explain to her three young sons – Max, Samuel and Isaac – that their father was gone. It was Anker who telephoned Lowe’s wife, Jenni, to break the news.
It was as though they had been erased by the sheer physics of what had happened. Anker would lead a desperate search for them, but they couldn’t be found. But when he resurfaced, he was alone on a silent mountainside. And though he was left buried under snow and ice and had suffered head wounds, broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder, he managed to dig himself free. Instead, a shock wave preceding the avalanche hurled Anker 30 metres through the air. For Anker, it seemed oblivion was the only possible outcome.
It bore down on the exposed men at hideous speed. “We looked up and we saw that an avalanche had triggered,” remembers Anker. The three men on the glacier had no time to escape the 150-metre-wide wall of snow and ice that was suddenly cascading towards them. As it tumbled downhill, it caused an avalanche. The three men were crossing a glacier when a serac – a huge column of ice – collapsed approximately 1800 metres above them.
On October 5, Lowe, Anker and a cameraman named David Bridges left base camp and set off on an exploratory trek, scouting for a route up the peak. Lowe and Anker would climb to the 8000-metre summit before skiing down the south-west face in a smooth, seemingly endless run that would be captured by a camera crew from the American NBC network. The plan of the Shishapangma expedition was simple but audacious. So when you have it, you support each other.” The two men loved each other and they loved climbing together. Despite his mild, almost professorial appearance, the 40-year-old had developed a rock-star reputation for his daring and virtuosity, and was known within the profession as “the Mutant” or “Lungs with Legs” on account of his remarkable strength and stamina.Īnker, though a gifted climber himself, had spent most of his career in the shadow of his best friend. Lowe, in particular, was a celebrity within the world of climbing and mountaineering. Their names were Alex Lowe and Conrad Anker, and they were experienced professionals. In September 1999, a pair of American climbers travelled to Mount Shishapangma in the Himalayas. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size
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