In September 1997, Alex Lowe was in Seattle staying with Jon Krakauer in order to give a presentation at The Mountaineers, the outdoor recreation and conservation club. The day after speaking to the sold-out crowd, Lowe met with Outside Radio host Barry DeVenney and gave the following interview, which vividly captures Lowe's upbeat, positive view of the world.

Outside Radio: Hopefully the world out there is filled with lots of beginning climbers, or people that have just started this journey that you've been on for so long. What kind of tips do you have, the top three or ten things that people ought to do before they commit themselves to a life of climbing?

Alex Lowe: Well, I think climbing is less a sport and more a hobby, and as such, I think everybody's a beginning climber. Basically, I'm going to be as experienced as I will ever be on the last climb I do. And that's what climbing is. You never know everything there is to know about climbing; the mountains are too varied and the weather changes too often. But I think because of that, it's really important for beginner climbers to accept a long and slow apprenticeship toward becoming experienced climbers. Climbing gets so much press, and most of it is about the sort of highest levels of climbing, and people have this great urge to be there now. You know, to be doing the biggest numbers and the biggest peaks and the highest grades. And it's not what climbing's about. That's why I started off by saying it's not really so much a sport as hobby. And it's the journey toward doing these harder climbs that really gives value to the whole activity of climbing. And that leaves beginner climbers with anything ... [to] enjoy the journey toward becoming whatever an experienced and accomplished climber means.

OR: And when you set off on that journey, what are the principal strengths or qualities that you found climbing imparts to an individual? Camaraderie? Leadership? What are the principal things you come away with?

Lowe: Oh, boy. We're talking about something that for me has consumed my life, and so that's a broad question. The depths of the friendships that I've made along the way, I don't think I would've made in many other venues, you know? I mean, the struggles that you share with people develop very, very deep relationships with your climbing partners. So that's a huge part of it for me: the people that I've climbed with and have come to know. And then there's things as simple as just the love of the mountain. To me, that's what's kept me at it for so long. I love pretty, high places .... Why do [I] climb? Well, yeah, "because it's there" is one answer, but there's a simpler answer and that's just because mountains are pretty. And plus, I'm an active person, I like motion, the joy of motion. Very difficult question to answer succinctly.

OR: One of the things that sticks with me is that climbing is such a kinesthetic pleasure. I mean, there is the simple joy of feeling your body move over stone. And it is so much a dance, and something that's not intellectual at all. It's a real visceral thing. Is that part of what it's about for you? Is that kinetic sense?

Lowe: Very much so. That's sort of an intangible concept, and I think that most people, when they start off any activity, any physical activity, are fairly rigid; and it's foreign and it's good. People can give them a lot of verbal input as to how to do it more gracefully and more comfortably, but eventually, anybody that's pursued any activity for long understands the concept -- which is sort of this intuitiveness, this intuition -- taking over. [It's] sort of a feel for where your body is and how it functions and how body placement on the rock becomes important. And that's when it really becomes fun ... it comes from within rather than from without.

OR: Who have your heroes been in the climbing world? Who have you emulated?

Lowe: I think climbing is one of these sports where your mentors along the way are vitally important, incredibly important in shaping how the rest of your climbing career will progress, evolve. I've been very fortunate to have bumped into lots of very talented and patient climbers along the way. And my non-brother, Jeff Lowe -- a lot of people assume I'm Jeff Lowe's brother, but we're actually a different family -- Jeff's been very influential. And Jeff's cousin, George, is a very inspirational person. George is one of these people that I think has found a really enviable balance in climbing in the rest of his life. He's another hard-to-fathom climbing family man with a very technical career ... a very important person in my climbing career.

OR: Very good. The climbing world is rich with the tradition of community, both internationally and locally. Is that something that you see changing or jeopardized at all with the explosive popularity that climbing's enjoying right now? Or is that still very much alive?

Lowe: Oh, it's still very much alive. I think it's becoming just basically a broader community. There's just a whole lot of faces that crop up on the scene now that I don't know. Climbing, when I first started 20, 25 years ago, was a much smaller community. And I think climbers were seen to be sort of iconoclastics of the social misfits, so we all tended to coalesce a little more, maybe, than climbers do today. Now climbing's become more of a mainstream sport. I mean, basically you used to sort of ask somebody if they were climbing, or if they were you had this instant rapport. You know, you probably had been climbing in the same places. Now it's almost unusual to find somebody that doesn't respond in the affirmative when you ask them, "Are you a climber?" Well, sure everybody's climbed in a gym, or climbed at a sport-climbing crag. So in essence, it's hard to find non-climbers these days. The community is huge. But I think the same thread of shared experience runs through that community, especially those that enjoy climbing in the mountains.

OR: I went out this weekend for the first time and now the hook is set, and I want to get started climbing. What do I need to get in what order, without breaking the bank?

Lowe: Well, climbing can proceed in many, many directions. The simplest form of climbing is just to go cragging. Essentially what you need is a rope and a pair of sticky shoes and a harness ... and most people will want a chalk bag, a bag that contains gymnastic chalk to keep your hands from -- of course, your hands are always sweating 'cause you're gripped -- but anyway, to keep your hands from slipping on the rocks. So those are the basics, and hopefully you'll climb with somebody that you're getting some instruction with, [who] will have the other trinkets, like caribbeaners and things. So actually, you can get started cragging for relatively simply and cheaply. Then, of course, from there you can go into high altitude climbing and pay thousands of dollars for good down suits, and go into big wall climbing and purchase these hanging tents called "port-a-ledges" and all that. But that comes much later in your climbing career. So essentially you can start out with some pretty simple gear.

OR: And get started for -- you can get started for a couple hundred bucks, then, it sounds like?

Lowe: Hmm, yeah, yeah, probably. As long as you borrow some gear and go with somebody that's got the pricey stuff.

OR: You've done a lot of climbing up here in the Northwest and indeed, throughout the world. For the family that's getting started, or for young people getting started out there, do you have any hot tips in the Northwest for areas to go to or groups to get hooked up with?

Lowe: You know, I'm always encouraging people to get some professional instruction. There's plenty of opportunity here in the Northwest, numerous really good guide services; there's great resources for finding those places at REI. I'm sure that they have a huge listing of guide services and instructional services. But as far as where to go, you've got a big, great Alpine playground down on Rainier, and great cragging at Mt. Index. And if it's raining there, which it often is, you can go over the hill to Leavenworth. Plenty of places to start cragging here.

OR: Probably the most important just to get out there, huh?

Lowe: Exactly. Yep. Get out and enjoy it.

OR: Aside from being one of the preeminent climbers of our generation, you're also a family man, and balancing the demands of family and children. Talk to us a little bit about how you balance the demands of your training schedule and your travel and what that means to the family.

Lowe: Yeah, I should probably let Ginny answer that question, my long-suffering wife. And maybe she wouldn't even concur that I balance it. But anyway, how I imbalance those things is probably more appropriate. Yeah, climbing takes up a huge amount of my life. And as a result, when I'm home I actually don't do a whole lot of climbing. It's sort of dedicated family time, and then my climbing occurs in big chunks of time away from home.

OR: There's so much talk these days in the media of all varieties of the notion of "extreme" sports, and hairball risk undertaken by people of all walks of life. You, or somebody who's actually out there really pushing the boundaries of, of climbing performance, what's your take on this whole national spin and obsession about adrenaline sports?

Lowe: Well, there's no doubt that climbing is a sport -- or a hobby -- that occurs in a potentially risky arena. I mean, that's part of the appeal. It's what's kept me interested in doing it for all these years. But personally, I -- and I think most of the people that I grew up climbing with -- don't see it as a risk sport. That's not what I'm looking for in the sport. I'm looking for a very simplistic good time in the hills with good friends. There's a fascination and an appeal in doing this in a situation that's potentially risky, but rather than being a risk-taker as such, I consider myself and my climbing peers to be risk-controllers, and we just enjoy being in this situation and keeping risk at a reasonable level. And that requires some explanation, because what we do appears to be very risky to somebody who doesn't know what we're doing. But then to me, so does, you know ...

OR: Crossing the street to get to the studio?

Lowe: Crossing the -- or driving the interstates of Seattle, looks very risky because I don't do it very well. You know, I come from Montana. We don't have roads that big. [Pause.] The guys that are doing the very cutting-edge steep skiing are doing very, very risky things. But as a climber who's hopefully mastered his sport to a certain extent, I know what's going on with those guys. Yeah, it'd be crazy for me to do what they do, and it looks very risky, but to them, they've defined the edge of the envelope so closely and so exactly for themselves, that what they're doing actually is limiting the risk and enjoying, toying, with the edge of the envelope. It's an erroneous representation of climbing as a sport that's looking for risk. We're actually controlling risk and enjoying that game.

OR: When you and your compatriots go out and play with this envelope that we're talking about, what are the principal rewards for you that you take back? What are the things that really resonate with you in playing with that edge of control?

Lowe: I think being in a risky environment wakes up some part of my psyche that lies dormant through a lot of the rest of life, the sort of mundane aspects of life. I don't think you necessarily have to go out and put your life on a line to wake up that part of your subconscious or whatever it is, but however you do that in life, whether it's through risky business or adventurous business or adventurous climbing .... I actually sort of cringe at the word "risk." I'm not looking for "risky" climbing. I'm looking for extremely adventurous climbing. I enjoy the wake-up that gives me, the focus that it allows me to conjure up in myself.

OR: You're visiting with a real moderate-level rock climber and mountaineer who's not done any ice, and you have a resounding representation as really pushing the envelope for the entire climbing community in real extreme ice and extreme mixed-route climbing ... what's the magic for you in ice that you don't find on pure rock routes?

Lowe: Ice climbing, for me .... Well, first of all, I tend to be what I think of as a well-rounded climber.

OR: Absolutely.

Lowe: For whatever reason, a lot of my reputation is associated with the ice climbs I do, but basically I'm a hard core ice climber when it's cold and snowy out, you know? I'm a hard core rock climber when it's warm and sunny out. But I love ice climbing. I think what I like about it is that it's an inherently less controllable environment than a rock climbing environment. Rock tends to stay where it's supposed to, and ice often doesn't. And I like that because it brings a whole lot of other variables into the intellectual process of climbing. People say, well, doesn't that just translate as more risk? Maybe it does. But to me, it translates into more of a challenge to control and to understand and intellectualize that risk -- and avoid it. Basically, avoid the bad consequences while enjoying the challenge of confronting that risk, understanding it, controlling it.

OR: So past a certain point, it seems that the greater the complexity of the challenge, the larger the number of objective hazards, the more challenging that becomes for the mountaineer alpinist?

Lowe: I think so. Now that's a personal opinion ... but there's a vast number of people that are very happy to go out to sunny crags on the weekend and clip huge bolts as they lead their way up rock climbs -- which is essentially risk-free, you know, unless you just make a terrible error and hit the deck. And that's fine for a lot of people. I'm not going to try to speak for every man. I'm speaking for myself. But I'm also, at the same time, trying to assuage some of this infatuation and, I think, misrepresentation of, the importance of the risk aspect of what we do, 'cause I think it's overblown these days.

OR: You got three young boys at home in Montana. What do you see them resonate with, as you start to take them out into the world and the world outside?

Lowe: That's an interesting question. You know, a lot of people jump ahead with that question and say, "Oh, your boys must be budding little climbers." And the truth of the matter is that my oldest, Max, who's 8, is not particularly interested in climbing -- which is fine with me. Well, I should -- I'll be honest. I actually would love it if he wanted to go climbing with me. But I made a promise to myself when I had Max, and now I have two more sons, that I wouldn't push them to climb unless it came from the heart, and [they had] an inner desire to do so. And so far none of them are showing a great deal of interest in climbing, although they love to be out in the woods camping and fishing and all that. And Max is actually a great little fiddler, and we make music and we don't do much climbing together. I guess my desire for them is not so much that they be passionate about climbing, but that they just be passionate individuals about something. And that's really what matters, I think.