UK Edition
Remains of US climbers Alex Lowe and David Bridges found 16 years after they were buried in Tibet avalanche
The bodies of two of the world’s greatest mountaineers have been found in Tibet 16 years after they were buried in a huge avalanche.
The remains of Alex Lowe and David Bridges, both Americans, were found last Wednesday by Swiss and German alpinists. Their bodies had partially emerged from a melting glacier on Shishapangma, the only 8,000m mountain located entirely in Tibet.
Jennifer Lowe-Anker, Alex’s widow, said in a statement: "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."
Ueli Steck, 39, and David Goettler, 37, who found the bodies while scouting a new route up the mountain, called Conrad Anker, who had been on the fateful expedition with Lowe, to confirm their identities.
“He said, ‘We came across two bodies’,” Mr Anker told Outside Online magazine. “They were close to each other. Blue and red North Face backpacks. Yellow Koflach boots. It was all that gear from that time period.
“They were pretty much the only two climbers who were there. We’re pretty sure it’s them.”
Mr Anker later married Lowe’s widow, Jennifer, who had three sons with Lowe. A documentary about their lives, Meru, was shortlisted for the 2016 Oscars.
The family will now travel to Tibet, where the bodies will be recovered from the mountain and given a ceremony in a nearby village.
“It’s never something you look forward to,” said Mrs Lowe-Anker. “To see the body of somebody you loved and cared about. But there is a sense that we can put him to rest, and he’s not just disappeared now.”
Lowe and Bridges were part of a nine-member expedition in October 1999 hoping to achieve the first American ski descent off the summit of the Shishapangma, the world's 14th-highest mountain, when tragedy struck.
Along with Mr Anker, the pair were part of an advance party crossing a glacier at 19,000 feet when an ice ridge broke off 6,000 feet above them, triggering an avalanche.
Mr Anker, who was badly injured, spent two days searching with the other members of the expedition for the bodies, but failed to find them beneath the enormous snow mass.
This spring, like the past three, has been unusually warm and dry in the Himalayas, accelerating the melting of glaciers.
Lowe was frequently referred to as the world’s greatest mountain climber, earning nicknames such as “The Mutant” and the “Lung with Legs” for his speedy ascents of near-impossible routes.
He was also famous for successfully carrying out several mountain rescues, with one climber telling Rock and Ice Magazine that "there should be annual reunions of all the people ever rescued by Alex, complete with picnics and little children playing on the grass.”
Bridges was an accomplished high-altitude climber, cinematographer and two-time US national paragliding champion, who was touted by some as the heir to Lowe’s throne.
Shishapangma is the only 8,000m mountain located entirely in Tibet