Forget Me Not by Jennifer Lowe-Anker

Author:Jennifer Lowe-Anker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Mountaineers Books
Published: 2008-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

Alex climbed at a pace that stunned his peers. In the summer of 1993, he had traveled to the Tien Shan range in Kyrgyzstan to compete in an alpine speed-climbing contest on a 23,000-foot peak called Khan Tengri. He and Conrad were the first Americans to participate in the international event. Alex won the contest, running to the summit and back in ten hours and breaking the previous fastest-ascent record by more than four hours. “Alex is due in camp in a few days,” Conrad wrote in a letter home. “The folks here think I’m fit (the Brits call me the fit bastard) and the Russians tell me ‘Yes, you strong.’ I tell them, wait until the Fiend pulls into town.” Conrad came in second, but he and Alex forged a partnership amid the goodwill and camaraderie of the Russian climbers who hosted the event.

“Conrad is the most selfless person I’ve ever climbed with,” Alex confided once home. He described Conrad as contemplative and quiet but ready to help wherever needed. Conrad brought watercolors to base camp, Alex told me, and painted lovely sketches of the mountains, then gave them all away. He told me that Conrad had caught a fellow racer who slipped and fell high on the route after becoming fatigued. Had Conrad not made a timely appearance, the man might have suffered a tragic end. Conrad then stopped midrace to make sure the fellow was OK before resuming the climb. “That’s the kind of partner I want,” Alex said, and that’s the kind of partner Alex wanted to be.

In June 1995, Alex was in Alaska with Steve Swenson to try a route on the east face of Huntington but never got a window of weather. When Steve went home, Alex and Conrad had planned to meet at Kahiltna base to climb the Cassin Ridge on Denali, known to most as Mount McKinley. Alex flew into the Kahiltna Glacier at the base of Denali a few days before Conrad and hiked to the rescue camp at 14,000 feet to acclimatize. Feeling strong, he decided to go to the summit with friends Mark Twight, Scott Backes, and Colin Grissom, who were heading up that night. En route, they passed a team of Spanish climbers who were bivouacked on the West Rib.

The next day, after Alex and his friends had summited and were back down to 14,000 feet, the Spaniards radioed for help. A storm had hit and their tent was shredded. Alex, Scott, and Mark were enlisted for a rescue, and a Chinook helicopter was called in to make a dicey landing above the stranded climbers at an elevation of 19,500 feet, the highest ever in a Chinook. Alex was no stranger to helicopters, but he told me it was the scariest flight of his life. The pilot managed to set down on a relatively flat section of the mountain and instructed his rescue team to be back in two hours.

Mark, Scott, and Alex climbed down the technical route to the Spaniards on June 9 and found that one had already fallen to his death.

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