Alex Lowe Peak "The best climber is the one having the most fun."

Mick Ryan

25th October, 2005

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Alex Lowe accomplished much. Husband, father to three boys, and an alpine and rock career that was legendary. Two ascents of Mount Everest, numerous hard ice and rock ascents in the Greater Ranges and the USA, especially in Montana. In the Summer of 1999 just before his death he climbed the first ascent of the 6000-foot northwest face of Great Trango Tower (5.11 A4), Karakoram, Pakistan, one of the world's longest big-wall climbs, with Jared Ogden and Mark Synnott. Alex Lowe was killed in an avalanche on Tibet's Shishipagma on October 5, 1999.

According to Outside magazine (December, 1999), “No matter how jaw-dropping his routes, Lowe's real genius grew out of the way he combined physical accomplishments with an indomitable spirit.”

You may remember one of his classic quotes, "The best climber is the one having the most fun."

Now to commemorate him, Terry Cunningham of Bozeman, Montana has successfully proposed that a mountain (Peak 10,031) in the Gallatin National Forest in Montana, near Lowe's home of Bozeman, will be known as “Alex Lowe Peak”. The US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) approved the name this last September. The criteria for naming a mountain after someone is that they have to be deceased five years and have a close association with the mountain. Alex Lowe and Hans Saari climbed up a tremendous north-facing couloir on Peak 10,031 then once atop the peak, they clicked into their ski bindings and attempted the first-ever ski-descent of the nearly vertical snow-filled gash which they nicknamed “Hellmouth Couloir.” The ski required them to rappel over a huge chockstone before successfully completing their descent.

You can read more about Alex at the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation.