For the past three decades, mountaineering legend Conrad Anker has stood out as one of the world’s most accomplished alpinists and among the strongest climbers of his generation.
He’s scaled peaks from Alaska to Antarctica and has summited Everest three times without supplemental oxygen, prompting doctors with the Mayo Clinic to study his physiology in order to learn more about the impacts of high-altitude climbing on the human body.
Last fall, Anker, 54, a Bozeman resident, suffered a heart attack while climbing in the Himalaya, roped to an ice wall at 20,000 feet during an attempt to summit the second-highest unclimbed mountain in Nepal.
The eye-opening experience humbled him, but it didn’t slow him down.
While most climbers with such an impressive resume would be content to sit back and retire with distinction, Anker is something of an outlier, eager to continue pushing the cutting edge of alpinism while promoting a strong appreciation of outdoor values and ethics in the face of looming threats to his beloved mountain environment.
Tapped as a keynote speaker at the upcoming Western Governors’ Association annual meeting in Whitefish, Anker took time to talk about his climbing pursuits, as well as the suite of issues facing the West that will be discussed at the June 26-28 conference.
Flathead Beacon: Where are you in the world? How’s your health and fitness?
Conrad Anker: I’m in Bozeman, just getting ready to go climbing. I am getting back at it. It’s a humbling experience for a guy who has always been physically fit and sort of taken it for granted. The upside of it is being exposed to our amazing medical community. I’d been working with the Mayo Clinic for the past five years to study the effects of hypoxia. They wanted to study someone in his 50s who has the physiology of someone younger, and to learn more about whether extreme altitude and hypoxia can cause heart attacks, or lead to health benefits. And then in a stroke of irony I had a heart attack while climbing.
Beacon: Your friend and fellow climber Alex Honnold just accomplished a major athletic feat in the Yosemite Valley, becoming the first person ever to climb El Capitan without ropes and sending the climbing community reeling. Any epic upcoming adventures or expeditions on your horizon?
Anker: First of all, just complete respect for Alex. It’s been a 10- or 15-year dream for him, and it was a project that he worked up to and trained for with just incredible discipline. I have so much respect for Alex for realizing that dream. When you know Alex and what his body is capable of, it’s not as crazy as someone who is not a climber might think. Given his conditioning and intimate knowledge of the route, he was able to minimize the risk. On April 20 I climbed the route with Alex to get him familiar with it, and then I climbed it again last week. I’m feeling pretty good. In December I’m going to Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, to climb the Rakekniven spire that I climbed with Alex (Lowe, Anker’s former climbing partner and best friend who died in an avalanche in 1999). So that will be a special trip.
Beacon: You’ll be speaking to a unique group of western governors who wield a lot of executive power, as well as to members of industry, government, education, outdoors and recreation. What messages do you hope to convey while you have the ears of these folks, and what do you hope strikes a chord?
Anker: I’m going to keep it inspirational and aspirational and sort of feel-good. I have been specifically asked in writing not to talk about climate change, which is something that I care deeply about and advocate for stronger climate science because I see its effects in the mountains. I have a very science-based understanding of climate change that I like to tie into my personal experiences in the mountains and what the mountains are telling us. Certainly you see those changes in Glacier National Park. But I’ll respect their wishes on that.
Montana is very much an energy state, and if we could do more to tap into hydro, wind and solar, we’d make strides. It’s a very complex issue and a very emotional one. Whenever I post on social media about climate it sets off huge debate, and I’m a big advocate for civil discourse.
Beacon: Your brand of activism is an optimistic one, and you’ve frequently employed your motto “Be Kind, Be Good, Be Happy” to synthesize your philosophy. Is it really that simple?
Anker: I have to believe it is. If I were to give up on that, I think I would just be devolving and not working toward a solution based on that principle. I am always leaning toward, “Let’s have a conversation, look at the data and come up with a solution.” I think the prism that I look at things stems from my decision-making in the mountains and from trying to be the best I can as a human living in America. I think about what impact my actions are going to have in seven generations or 2,200 years down the line. In our generation, we know that to not take action is to not be responsible. We have a great thing going here on our planet. When I think about the challenges our society faces, I look at it the way I look at getting up a big mountain. I think about how are we going to get up it, and I remain flexible and open to a variety of opportunities. But it’s imperative that the students and the children of today realize that they have a personal responsibility to do something.
Beacon: What challenges do you foresee advocates of recreation and public access facing?
Anker: Having public lands taken away from us is a very real threat, and in Montana, just like most Western states, it would only serve to hurt our economy. It’s going to affect the places we cherish, which are the reason that we have talented innovators and medical professionals coming to our state to live and work.
I think the 27 national monuments that were set aside by the Antiquities Act that are up for review — and this is under Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s purview, and he will be at the Western Governors’ Association meeting — I don’t see any reason why those protections should be taken away. The Bears Ears National Monument in Utah is a great example. Here we have this culturally and ecologically precious place, and the majority of the people in the local communities support it.