JENNIFER LOWE-ANKER is a successful visual artist and the founder of the Khumbu Climbing School and Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation (see www.

Jennifer and Conrad married; Conrad adopted Alex’s sons and went on to equal, if perhaps never to eclipse, the feats of strength, artistry and spirit on the highest peaks of the world’s wildest places that were the hallmarks of Alex Lowe’s career. This book is well worth the read for any number of reasons: if you climb, if you know someone who climbs, if you know and can't understand someone who is the 12-cups-of-coffee-per-day-can't-sit-still-must-achieve-something type, if you love Bozeman, if you read any and all climbing books, or if you want to read a touching story of two strong people making their way through the world together. Jennifer got together and married Conrad (Alex's best friend and survivor of that fateful climb) less than a year after the accident and married him shortly after that. Lowe-Anker's writing about her late husband is the portrait of an intensely focused person who struggled but mostly found a way to live and love outside of the mountains that kept him sane. I see the film as a way of showing that, even after hardships, you can appreciate what you do have and turn it into something good.I felt myself identifying with the author due to her style of writing and because of her husband's letters. It is her story of love with the late, great climber Alex Lowe, their journeys in climbing and raising a family, and his tragic death in an avalanche in the Himalaya.

The best part of this memoir, is seeing Jennifer's honest, and soul-wrenching perspective, as she recounts their earlier struggles, their beautiful moments together, long-lasting moments of regret, the pain and sorrow of loss, and her rebirth as she struggles to make sense of it all, while honoring Alex's legacy and ensuring her children had the support, love, and strength to carry on without him. The presence of this technology – allowing the outside world to watch –devastated the dynamic of the group.The first few chapters of this book are steeped in the early lives of Alex and Jennifer, whose life together wasn't always smooth. As a reader, I felt strangely honored by Lowe-Anker's candor in so many respects, especially as she narrated when she first met and fell in love with Alex Lowe; on the other hand, I was a little surprised by some of the narrative obscurity towards the end of the book.

In 1999, Lowe was among the world’s best and most experienced alpinists when he was avalanched and killed. Unfortunately – and I think this comes back to the quality of the writing – there wasn’t much self-reflection in this story. You don't have to be a climber or even an outdoors person to like this book, but considering the other reviews I've read, I am seemingly in the minority about the effect this book has on me. A few times, particularly when she was falling in love with Conrad after the death of Alex, she almost got the narration to a place where she was reflecting on the “why,” but never quite did. The dynamics of presenting their trip to the outside world (a necessary for sponsorship), rather than focusing on the core purpose of climbing itself, took away much of the joy of wilderness and nature and instead made it about performance and “me” culture.The story of Alex Lowe in itself makes for an inspirational tale, but what shines in this book is the independent and free spirit of Jennifer. Jennifer Lowe-Anker paints folktales, fantasies and dreamlike reveries, often set against majestic backdrops in the natural world, in a style much like Marc Chagall’s. Having suddenly lost her husband, Alex Lowe, in a tragic mountaineering accident, Jennifer Lowe struggled to hold her family together and deal with her grief. Living in the west, loving the mountains and having been in so many places where this book takes you, I loved this book. I discovered Jenni Lowe-Anker after I watched the documentary Meru, about her third husband Conrad's ascent of a highly technical and previously unsummited Himalayan peak.

Of course she never counted on losing him in such a tragic accident, but it was always in the back of her mind. He is the author of best-selling non-fiction booksInto the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillmanas well as numerous magazine articles. A climber herself, she understands her husband's deep need to push himself in the outdoors, but while motherhood calmed those urgings in herself, Alex was forever caught between his passion for the mountains and his deep love and loyalty to his family.I also have issues with so many people spending such money, not just on climbing, but on seemingly using the Sherpas to further their sport. She clearly draws on carefully kept journals and letters, and this allows her to provide some really precise, immediate memories and descriptions of events.