Khan Tengri, Kyrgyzstan (August 1993), solo ascent in 10 hours and 8 minutes (broke the former speed climbing record by four hours)

But Max doesn’t want to hang his hat on Torn. He’s not going to let this singular drama define him any longer. The real question is: Can he apply the raw talent on display in that film to stories other than his own? You’ve done as good a job as I could have ever imagined,” says Max. “And we all really love you for it.” I’ve spent much of my life in the mountains as both a climber and as a professional photographer. I always wanted to make a film that gave an audience the visceral experience of going on a difficult alpine big wall climb. I hoped to give people a glimpse of the stakes, the risks and sacrifices involved.In mountain towns, an early-autumn snowstorm is a nuisance and a lure. It runs some people out of the high country but draws others in. During the first week of October, 2017, a foot or more of snow fell in the peaks south of Bozeman, Montana. Before dawn on the fifth, a group set off from a parking lot in Hyalite Canyon, a popular outdoor playground, just outside town. The man at the head of the group was spooked by the new snow. To minimize exposure to avalanches, he made sure that everyone ascended with caution, keeping to the ridgelines and bare patches, away from the loaded gullies. This was Conrad Anker, the famous American alpinist. It is often said that there are old climbers and there are bold climbers, but there are no old bold climbers. So far, Anker, at fifty-four, was an exception.

Gosh … It was always those moments, right at the beginning of the day, when you’re anticipating a day out in the mountains with Alex. For me, that was always the most special time. The possibility of the day ahead was a big deal. Getting up, and just get a ton of energy going, like, “Yeah, let’s go drink coffee!” Alex Lowe and David Bridges were swept away by an avalanche in 1999, during their attempt to scale the world’s 14th highest peak, Shishapangma. Following the tragedy, Anker stepped in to become a father to Alex’s three sons—Max, Sam, and Isaac—and support Lowe’s widow, Jenni. Conrad and Jenni fell in love and married in 2001. Unlike the remains of climbers that are sometimes found high on Everest, the bodies of Lowe and Bridges are in a place where they can be recovered. (The body of guide Scott Fischer, a casualty of the 1996 storm on Everest that spawned Into Thin Air, remains on the mountain in line with the wishes of his family.) Although we weren’t biological brothers, we were certainly both brothers of the same passion,” says Conrad, now 59, of Lowe. “I just felt so sad . . . [I thought], ‘What could I do for Alex? What could I do to take care of him, and what would it be?’ ”In 1995, Lowe received the American Alpine Club's Underhill Award for outstanding mountaineering achievement, the highest honor in U.S. mountaineering. He climbed for nearly 10 years with The North Face professional climbing team. After Lowe's death, Outside Magazine posthumously declared him "the world's best climber," adding, "No matter how jaw-dropping his routes, Lowe's real genius grew out of the way he combined physical accomplishments with an indomitable spirit." Lowe climbing Great Sail Peak, Baffin Island, Canada, in 1998. Photograph: Gordon Wiltsie/National Geographic/Getty Images Off the wall climbing, Lowe was something of a polymath, according to friend Gordon Wiltsie. In the American Alpine Journal, Wiltsie wrote in his obituary that We reached out to Anker to hear his thoughts the recent discovery of his lost friends and climbing partners. What a crazy call to have received this week, huh? Chin, his longtime climbing partner and close friend, says Anker’s judgment is what still sets him apart: “There is a reason why Conrad is still here with us. There is climbing skill, sure, but it’s the capacity to assess and manage risk that makes him a great climber. That’s his brain; that’s the way it works.”