Sixteen years ago, renowned mountain climber Alex Lowe and NBC Sports photographer David Bridges were in Tibet filming a documentary when they were buried in an avalanche. Their bodies were not found despite searches at the time. But now, according to the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation website, the bodies of Lowe and Bridges were found in a thawing glacier by two men who were climbing in the same region where Lowe and Bridges went missing.

Lowe and Bridges were part of an expedition in 1999 when an avalanche occurred according to NBC News:

Lowe, 40, and cameraman David Bridges, 29, were part of an expedition that set out to film a documentary series for NBC Sports when they were buried under cascades of snow on the 26,335-foot-tall Shishapangma mountain — the 14th-highest in the world — on Oct. 5, 1999.

A third member of the team, Conrad Anker suffered head injuries and a broken rib in the avalanche. He later married Lowe’s widow, Jennifer and adopted her three sons. She wrote:

“Alex will melt out of the glacier one day … and I do not look forward to it”. Jennifer says today, “Alex and David vanished, were captured and frozen in time. Sixteen years of life has been lived and now they are found. We are thankful.”

The three men were hoping to ski down the mountain and document it for NBC when the avalanche occurred:

Lowe, Anker and Bridges — a respected climber himself — were seeking to become the first Americans to ski down from the summit of Shishapangma for an episode of an NBC Sports documentary series called “The North Face Expeditions,” hosted by the musician Sting.

Anker told NBC News’ Tom Brokaw in 2000 that he was very close to Alex Lowe and that calling Jenni Lowe from the campsite was the hardest phone call he had ever had to make.

The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation asks for privacy for the family and says if people want to remember Lowe, to browse alexlowe.org.

[NBC News/Photo courtesy alexlowe.org]

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.

He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.

Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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