Both shared a deep love of the outdoors, rugged athletic pursuits, the serenity of being close to nature, and the support of enduring and intimate friendships they developed with colleagues, neighbors, and family members.

She has seven pieces in the corporate offices of Patagonia in Ventura, CA and several paintings in private collections of such luminaries as Pater Fonda, Michael Keaton, Jeff Bridges and Nion McEvoy of Chronicle Books. In moving in with Jennifer, as a father figure who had survived the avalanche that killed the boy's father, Conrad would be shouldering the responsibility of a lifetime. He was the Lance Armstrong of mountaineering, only taller and handsomer and happier, and he was the real deal. The couple, who wed in 2001, have, understandably, been protective of their private lives ever since. Jennifer did a good job of telling her story for all to enjoy so one does not need to be a climber to understand some of the terminology used in climbing.I became interested in their story when I saw documentaries about Lowe and Conrad Anker (Lowe's best friend). I felt myself identifying with the author due to her style of writing and because of her husband's letters. Lowe-Anker is president of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation which is known for launching the Khumbu Climbing School in Nepal. The next morning though, I awoke, to the sun, another beginning, and a more enhanced realization of the preciousness of life. This book is well worth the read for any number of reasons: if you climb, if you know someone who climbs, if you know and can't understand someone who is the 12-cups-of-coffee-per-day-can't-sit-still-must-achieve-something type, if you love Bozeman, if you read any and all climbing books, or if you want to read a touching story of two strong people making their way through the world together.

By the same token, if you're big especially into reading about mountaineering, I'd recommend this book very highly.

At the same time Alex's best friend, famed climber Conrad Anker, was dealing with the terrible loss as well as feelings of survivor's guilt. Then eventually it grows into something blazing, which fixated me, and I was unable to step away from it. I was simply overwhelmed (in a good way) by Jennifer's captivating voice, her beautifully descriptive passages of the beauty in her surroundings, her meticulous record-keeping to reconstruct the past, and her frank, introspective view of the meaning of it all. A few times, particularly when she was falling in love with Conrad after the death of Alex, she almost got the narration to a place where she was reflecting on the “why,” but never quite did.