Adventurer Conrad Anker emphasizes importance of outdoors

Conrad Anker’s kids look like they’re having about as much fun on outdoor adventures as he did at their age. That is to say: Not much.

But Anker grew up looking forward to spending 18 days on a mountainside with 10 days of food. At a Wednesday night talk to a couple of hundred outdoors enthusiasts, he reminded them of an old Buddhist proverb: Enlightenment doesn’t come on a full stomach.

It does seep in when you’re doing things like climbing around Mount Everest in a felt fedora and silk shirt like George Mallory did in 1924. Anker was on the team that searched for and found Mallory’s remains on the world’s tallest mountain in 1999. He later tried making the climb using the same gentleman’s hiking gear and primitive oxygen tanks that his hero took.

In “Forget Me Not,” Lowe-Anker recalls Alex’s climbing enthusiasm and her efforts to memorialize that by founding the Kumbu Climbing School. It teaches residents around the Himalayas essential guiding skills like ropework, first aid, English and other talents that make them more successful in the region’s mountain tourism business.

The Endless Knot http://www.seracfilms.com/web_trailers/qt/tektrailer.html

The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation http://www.alexlowe.org/

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/10/23/news/local/news05.txt

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Montana State University architecture students help design school at the top of the world in cooperation with the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation. http://matr.net/article-31118.html