Conrad Anker: From One Summit to the Next

Mountainfilm in Telluride invited Conrad Anker to town in mid-March, and he spoke to a packed room about his recent summit of Meru, a highly technical peak in India that has eluded many top-notch climbers for decades. Anker had been "obsessed" with the peak for 20 years, and his last unsuccessful attempt in 2008 with Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk was chronicled in Samsara, which won Mountainfilmin in Telluride's 2009 Charlie Fowler Award. The three men went back last fall, an effort that will be the subject of a new film, called House of Cards, that will premiere at Mountainfilm May 2012.

Meanwhile, Anker keeps moving. After his Telluride visit, he is headed for Nepal and another Everest climb, this time up the West Ridge. He will follow the same route that was made famous by Thomas Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld in 1963. His partner will be Cory Richards, who directed and starred in the 2011 film Cold, another Charlie Fowler Award winner.

We hope Anker returns in time for Mountainfilm in May, but as he would say, the mountain will make that decision — not him.