Climbers Alex Lowe and David Bridges’ Bodies Discovered, 16 Years Later

Alex Lowe and Conrad Anker exult after climbing Rakekniven spire, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, on a National Geographic-funded expedition that was on the cover of the magazine in February 1998; Photograph by Gordon Wiltsie The opportunity to once again celebrate the lives of two of the greatest mountaineers who ever lived has presented itself under the most incredible circumstances. 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 April 27. Ueli Steck of Switzerland and David Goettler of Germany, two top-notch mountaineers who made the discovery...