Remains of climber Alex Lowe, cameraman found 16 years after they were killed by an avalanche

Climbers making their way up the Shishapangma mountain in Tibet have found the bodies of famed mountaineer Alex Lowe and cameraman David Bridges, who died in an October 1999 avalanche.

Lowe, 40, and Bridges, 29, planned to climb up Shishapangma, the 14th-highest mountain in the world, then ski down it. At 19,000 feet, as they scouted routes, they spotted snow falling down from 6,000 feet above. Their friend, elite climber Conrad Anker, survived the avalanche. In a statement, Lowe's widow, Jenni Lowe-Anker, said the remains were discovered in a partially melted glacier, and after the climbers described to Anker the clothing and backpacks found with the bodies, he concluded they were Bridges and Lowe. The pair were "captured and frozen in time," Lowe-Anker said. "Sixteen years of life has been lived and now they are found. We are thankful."

Lowe was seen as the world's greatest mountain climber at the time of his death, and he twice reached the summit of Mount Everest and scaled Nepal's Kwangde and Kusum Kanguru. Lowe-Anker and Anker married in 2001, and run the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation from Montana. Anker told Outside magazine that he has not seen any photographs of the remains, but is convinced they belong to Lowe and Bridges.

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