What Are Your Favorite Alex Lowe Quotes?
Alex Lowe (December 24,1958 – October 5, 1999) was an American alpinist who excelled at all aspects of mountaineering. He was a member of The North Face climbing team and earned the American Alpine Club’s Underhill award for outstanding mountaineering achievements in 1995.
Lowe’s climbing resume includes first ascents on Great Sail Peak in Baffin Island, Rakekniven in Antarctica, the Northwest Face of the Great Trango Tower, and the list goes on and on. He also made first ski descents of the Hellmouth Couloir on Alex Lowe Peak, northwest Couloir on Middle Teton and the Enclosure Couloir on the Grand Teton. See more of his climbing resume on Wikipedia.org.
To put Lowe in perspective… David Hahn once said “There’s Alex Lowe up here, and then there’s the rest of us down here. The guy’s just really that much better than everybody else.” Conrad Anker one said “We’re all at this one level, and then there’s Alex.”
Unfortunately, Lowe died in an avalanche while attempting to ski 8013-meter Shishapangma in October 1995 with Conrad Anker and David Bridges. Lowe’s body was found on 27 April 2016 by Ueli Steck and David Gottler as it emerged from the glacier.
Today, Alex Lowe has been honored with his own peak, named Alex Lowe Peak in the Gallatin Range of Montana. His legacy also lives on through The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation. Make a donation today.
Below you’ll find a selection of the best Alex Lowe quotes:
- The best climber in the world is the one having the most fun!
- Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
- There are two kinds of climbers, those who climb because their heart sings when they’re in the mountains, and all the rest.
- Inspiring passion in family and friends has more enduring value than just staying alive for them.
- Identifying and overcoming natural fear is one of the pleasing struggles intrinsic to climbing.
- Climbing is a journey without culmination
- When you remove the risk, you remove the challenge. When you remove the challenge, you wither on the vine.
- I think climbing is less a sport and more a hobby, and as such, I think everybody’s a beginning climber.
- It’s the journey toward doing these harder climbs that really gives value to the whole activity of climbing.
- I often start into these trips knowing that there’s an underlying purpose that transcends merely climbing a peak.
- It’s the journey toward doing these harder climbs that really gives value to the whole activity of climbing.
- It’s wonderful to be back. Back among the mountains that remind us of our vulnerability, our ultimate lack of control over the world we live in. Mountains that demand humility, and yield so much peace in return.
- Climbing, for me, is all about solving the magnitude of the problem. The best projects are the ones with big question marks hanging over them.
- When I’m 70 or 80, I’m still going to be doing good climbs. It’s going to be fun to the bitter end.
- I’ve definitely got lists of things I’d love to accomplish as a climber. But let’s face it: The world’s full of climbers, and the realm of unexplored, unclimbed peaks is shrinking rapidly.
Which of these Alex Lowe quotes is your favorite? Did we miss any quotes that we should add to the list? Tell us in the comments below.
To read more about Alex Lowe, visit Wikipedia.org.
See Also:
- 40 Mountain Quotes For Outdoor Enthusiasts
- Warren Miller Quotes
- John Muir Quotes
- Reinhold Messner Quotes
- Yvon Chouinard Quotes
- George Mallory Quotes
- Edmund Hillary Quotes
- Ernest Shackleton Quotes
- Edward Abbey Quotes
- Henry David Thoreau Quotes
- Ansel Adams Quotes
- Anatoli Bookreev Quotes
- Daniel Boone Quotes
- Walter Bonatti Quotes
- Aldo Leopold Quotes
- Hans Gmoser Quotes
