If Alex would have lived long enough to getting around to writing a book it would have been beautiful and intriguing; he was someone who had a way with words.

This is primarily a book for people who already care about Alex Lowe, Conrad Anker, and the climbing community. Lowe-Anker first tells the story of her adventurous youth by the side of her first love, climbing superstar Alex Lowe.

That alone is a compelling plot, especially if you've been inspired by Alex Lowe's mountaineering feats.

The first few chapters of this book are steeped in the early lives of Alex and Jennifer, whose life together wasn't always smooth. Having suddenly lost her husband, Alex Lowe, in a tragic mountaineering accident, Jennifer Lowe struggled to hold her family together and deal with her grief. I stumbled across it because I am such a huge Jon Krakaur fan, and found that he had contributed to the Forward.She has an artist's ability to really see something, and she's translated it for us, allowing readers to see what she sees, in all its color and movement and fragility. The next morning though, I awoke, to the sun, another beginning, and a more enhanced realization of the preciousness of life. Jennifer Lowe-Anker has combined the landscapes, animals and people of her native Montana with a unique approach to painting. He was the Lance Armstrong of mountaineering, only taller and handsomer and happier, and he was the real deal.