Body of climber found in ice?
Body of world-class climber may have been found 16 years later
Story highlights
- Climber Alex Lowe and cameraman David Bridges were presumed dead after avalanche in 1999
- Their bodies may have been found in a Tibetan mountain, says Lowe's widow and friend
(CNN)Sixteen
years after Alex Lowe, a world-class climber, and David Bridges, a
cameraman, were struck by an avalanche in a Tibetan mountain, their
bodies may have been found encased in blue ice.
Alex
Lowe was a world-renowned alpinist -- many regarded him as the world's
best climber at the time. He climbed Mount Everest twice, the Matterhorn
and also scaled El Capitan in Yosemite 16 times.
In
October 5, 1999, Lowe and Bridges were on a hike to check out a
possible location they had hoped to ski on Shishapangma, the 14th
highest mountain in the world, according to Outside Magazine.
But
that day, a massive avalanche struck and swept them away. Their
companions on the hike, including climber Conrad Anker, searched for the
pair, but never found them.
Sixteen
years had passed when last Wednesday, Anker received a call from two
climbers who were on the south face of Shishapangma. The climbers, David
Goettler and Ueli Steck, had come across the frozen remains of two
people that were "beginning to emerge from the glacier," according to a
statement from the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation.
One
of the climbers described the clothing and the pack on the two bodies
to Anker, who "concluded that the two were undoubtedly David Bridges and
Alex Lowe," according to the statement.
Anker
had married Lowe's widow, Jenni Lowe-Anker in 2001 and adopted Lowe's
three sons. He said in a statement that the discovery "brings closure
and relief for me and Jenni and our family."
Lowe-Anker said the whole family planned to make a pilgrimage to Shishapangma.
"Alex
and David vanished, were captured and frozen in time. Sixteen years of
life has been lived and now they are found. We are thankful," she said
in a statement.
Lowe-Anker
established the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation in 1999 in the memory of
her first husband. The foundation fosters projects such as the Khumbu
Climbing Center that offers technical training for local Himalayan
mountain workers.
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