BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Alex Lowe just climbed the world's highest rock wall. Outside magazine called him the best climber in the world. On his next adventure, he intends to be on the first American team to climb up and ski down a mountain over 8,000 meters.
But that's not what Lowe was most excited about in a recent interview. He was proudest of climbing a mountain he's ascended more than 100 times.Lowe was thrilled because this time, he reached the top of the 13,700-foot-high Grand in Grand Teton National Park with his son, Max, 10.
It was the first time Alex Lowe and his son had climbed a peak together.
"I haven't pushed him," Alex Lowe said. "I was waiting for a spark of interest."
That spark came when Max told his mom he wanted to climb the Grand with a friend and his dad.
"Taking Max out was a benchmark," Alex Lowe said. "I hope he maintains an interest."
Max's mother, Jennifer Lowe, wasn't worried about her son's climb up the mountain. "I had complete trust in Alex's ability to guide him up there," she said.
That's not a surprise. She understands the mountain because she's ascended it herself. Alex Lowe and mountaineer Jack Tackle of Bozeman made the first winter ascent of the north face of the Grand in 1984. Years later, Alex Lowe soloed the mountain in one day.
Alex Lowe's latest achievement was the first-time ascent of the northwest face of 20,618-foot-high Great Trango Tower in Pakistan, a vertical slab of granite.
Alex Lowe returned to his home in Bozeman Aug. 11. He leaves Sept. 11 for Tibet, where he plans to climb up and ski down Shishi Pangma, a 26,400-foot mountain in the Himalayas with four other men, including two from Bozeman.
Alex Lowe had only four weeks between expeditions to be with his family, Jennifer, and sons, Max, Sam, 6, and Isaac, 3.
That's not nearly long enough, he fretted midweek in an interview in the Lowes' roomy home on Bozeman's south side. His wife agrees.
"I accused Alex the other day of being a workaholic, but I'm a workaholic, too," said Jennifer Lowe, who creates popular Western paintings with cattle markers.
"We're happy workaholics," her husband said. "We're pursuing our passions. We're very lucky."
Right now Alex Lowe, 40, may be the hottest climber in America. He is capitalizing on that, welcoming the opportunity to use various media to spread the good word about climbing.
The adventure up Great Trango Tower was an Internet extravaganza sponsored by Quokka Sports and North Face.
The site allowed Net users to come along on a virtual climb via digital photos, voice messages and e-mail journal entries.
The public logged on and watched Alex Lowe, Mark Synnott and Jared Ogden on their computer screen making their way up the high spire. Alex Lowe produced a daily e-mail diary. Many people sent emotional e-mail messages of support in return.
Alex Lowe -- who some have called "The Lung With Legs" -- was well known before Great Trango Tower. He could be seen on posters, in magazines such as National Geographic and on television leading the way up intimidating slabs of granite.
But now that he's back from Great Trango Tower, he's famous. Thousands of people went online to hear, see and read about his adventures. He's in demand, fielding incessant phone calls, many offering sponsorships for future trips.
He and four other climbers are planning a rapid, alpine-style ascent up the steep, south face of Shishi Pangma in Tibet.
He'll climb with Conrad Anker, a partner on many of Alex Lowe's ascents; Kris Erickson, of Bozeman, who will photograph the trip; and Hans Saari, also of Bozeman; Andrew McLean; and Mark Holbrook.
Alex Lowe described the traditional route as "not extremely difficult." But his team will take a steeper, more unconventional route up the mountain's south face.
And they're planning a never-before-accomplished all-American adventure.
They intend to ski down the 26,400-foot mountain.
"If successful, it will be the first time Americans have skied off an 8,000-meter peak," Alex Lowe said. He described his competency as a skier as "good enough to do that."
"I've grown up skiing and ski as much as I climb, really," he said.
The Shishi Pangma climb is sponsored by MountainZone.com, North Face and NBC. The adventure can be tracked on the Internet at www.mountainzone.com. The public will be able to see digital images of the ascent, hear voice dispatches and read e-mail messages. A documentary will be made by American Adventures Productions of Aspen, Colo.
Alex Lowe was raised in Missoula and was first introduced to climbing in the hills by his dad. He credits a good friend for teaching him and his high school friends to climb in the Tetons.
He earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Montana State University in 1988 and completed the coursework toward an MSU master's degree in engineering mechanics in 1989.
After college he managed to juggle climbing with earning a living. His first job was as a field engineer with a well service in Casper, Wyo.
His climbing career spans 25 years. He's logged alpine climbs in France, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Canada, Nepal, Pakistan and Antarctica. He's summited Mount Everest twice.
Alex Lowe is a member of The North Face's "Dream Team" -- the best-known climbers in the country. He is under contract to test and promote the sale of North Face clothing, camping and climbing products in various locations.
He was called the best climber in the world in a March 1999 cover story in Outside magazine. His own climbing companions often call him the best.
But Alex Lowe grimaces at the label.
Getting to mountain summits depends so much on factors outside the climber's control -- the weather and climbing companions among other factors -- as well as ability, he said.
"I'm just the world's most dogmatic climber, hardheaded, very focused on the goal," Alex Lowe said.
Photographer Gordon Wiltsie of Bozeman, who has climbed and taken pictures of Alex Lowe from Antarctica to the Baffin Islands, says Alex Lowe has the experience to know where and how to move efficiently, has a body built for climbing and has the good judgment to know when to keep going and when to back off.
"Alex may be the fittest person I've ever met," Wiltsie said. "He works out constantly in a gym when he's not climbing."
Alex Lowe is "incredibly upbeat," but is a person "who doesn't suffer fools easily," Wiltsie said.
"He's usually the driving force in any group he's involved with. He pushes the hardest and is a fountain of energy. He's passionate about climbing in a way I've seen in few other people."
Tackle, his friend and climbing companion for 15 years, agrees.
"Alex is the best in terms of his climbing skills, and his drive and his intuitive sense of making good decisions," Tackle said. "He climbs at an extremely high level in all disciplines -- rock and ice climbing and winter and summer ascents. He deserves the credit."
Still, Tackle pointed out that climbing is a subjective activity that is impossible to measure. "It's not like the Olympics," he said.
Tackle also said Internet technology has allowed certain kinds of climbs to be photographed and marketed, especially big-wall ascents where the climbers move slowly. Climbing has become interesting to a broader segment of the population, and some companies unconnected with the activity are using it as part of their marketing images, he said.
Alex Lowe is uncomfortable with the concept of fame.
"The media loves a hero," he said. "Fame doesn't associate itself with mountain climbing. Climbing is a recreational activity."
However, he called the Quokka broadcast of the Great Trango Tower climb on the Net a positive event.
"It's important that climbing be exposed in a positive, genuine fashion," he said. "It's a good way to communicate climbing."
Alex Lowe isn't apologetic about reaching out to sponsors for his climbs. For example, he said he knew people working for Quokka and "sold them on a climbing project."
"It doesn't bother me that my name and what I'm doing have use for somebody," Alex Lowe said.
"The things I'm doing have integrity. There's nothing wrong with making money at what I love to do.
"But the important thing is staying true to the original motive for doing it: Love of the pursuit itself rather than the rewards."