He’s no Deepok Chopra or Will Ferrell (USC), Oprah Winfrey (Smith College) or Mark Zuckerberg (Harvard), or even Starbuck’s Howard Schultz (Arizona State), but when he takes the podium this Thursday, May 4, for the 2017 University of Utah commencement address, there’s no better representative of the outside world than Conrad Anker.

The famous mountaineer, filmmaker, author and U alumnus has built a career scaling the most demanding terrain in the world. It’s not the proverbial climb but the real ones he can attest to. Oh, let the metaphors fly.

“I want graduates to live in the moment,” Anker said in the U’s press release. “(and also) what responsibilities do we have today that were not present in 1988? What opportunities do we have the good fortune to explore?…Students should do the right thing for the people who will live 200 years from now.” Anker says he’ll focus on how the world has changed since he graduated with – of course- a degree in rec and leisure in 1988.

Conrad Anker’s Challenges

Even in college, Conrad Anker had a head for business; helping to start Utah’s Alfwear (Kühl) clothing company where they could make hats and later clothes for ski bums. He sold his part of the company just after graduation to pursue dreams of summitting the world’s highest peaks. He topped Mount Everest three times, once without supplemental oxygen. But the most well-known of the three was when his team retraced George Mallory and Sandy Irvine’s fateful path when they were lost in 1924. Anker and team found Mallory’s frozen, preserved body in 1999 but still the mystery of who summitted Everest first – Mallory or Sir Edmund Hillary lasts.

Anker has lost friends, suffered critical injuries, failed to summit on expeditions and even survived a heart attack while hanging from rock and ice on the tallest unclimbed mountain in Nepal, just last year. “I admire Conrad for his personal qualities as much as his professional achievements,” said Daniel Dustin, professor in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism program. “He understands life’s challenging nature, and he understands how reacting to adversity tells us more about a person’s character than when things go right.”

Anker, however, says he won’t spray about himself in his commencement speech. He wants to motivate graduates to think about the future as they move into the workforce; to be creative and intelligent, and consider the generations who will follow them.

“Conrad Anker, like so many of our students, was attracted to the natural beauty of this state,” said U President David W. Pershing. “We are grateful he chose the University of Utah, and we are proud of him as an alumnus. His extraordinary achievements and strength of character are inspiring.”

The May 4th commencement begins at 6:30 pm in the Jon M. Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus. It will also stream live on utah.edu or online via kuer.org. If you miss those, set your DVR to KUED, channel 7, Saturday, May 6, at 5:30 p.m. MDT.

More than a thousand comments poured onto Ueli Steck’s Facebook page this morning as news of his death on Mt Everest spread. The 41-year-old “Swiss Machine”, as he was known throughout the mountaineering community, was reported killed in a climbing accident near Camp II on Mt Everest Sunday morning.

The death has been confirmed.

Six rescuers discovered Ueli Steck’s body near the Nuptse Face of Everest. Peers had seen him climbing the icy Mt Nuptse alone at around 4:30 am. Nepal’s tourism officials say the experienced Everest climber slipped from a slope and fell into a crevasse at around 6,600 meters. They’ve airlifted his body to Lukla, the closest airport to Everest.

Ueli Steck’s Expedition

Steck and Tenzing (Tenji) Sherpa headed to Khumbu region to attempt to climb Mt Everest by the never-repeated West Ridge/Hornbein Couloir route. They were trekking without using supplemental oxygen, training to acclimatize themselves. The plan was to descend to the South Col, climbing the direct route just below the Lhotse Face. Steck was going to ascend 8,850-meter Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse next month. He had posted these photos on Facebook just last week.

“Just spent two nights in Camp Two. Beautiful weather and warm. I was taking the chance to go and have a look towards the west shoulder. Conditions are great so far. But you never know it can change until in one month! So far we having a good time! Hopefully Tenjing Sherpa frostbite getting better soon so we can be together on the mountain again. Right now it looks like we have to stay again camp two. Expedition weather forecast again very strong winds for the next days. After we keep going getting acclimatized, I stick to the route to move on the mountain and not spending too many nights in camps. Like this we stay in shape and get used to the altitude!

Joy is the essence to the success.

Swiss Alpinist’s Records

Steck was known for his speed records; climbing the north face of the Eiger in 2 hours and 47 minutes in 2008 in his early 30s. He had first climbed the Eiger and the Bonatti Pillar in the Mont Blanc massif at 18. When Swiss climber, Dani Arnold, beat Ueli Steck’s record, the Swiss Machine returned in 2015, clocking in at 2 hours 22 minutes (and 50 seconds). He won the Piolet D’or award in 2009 for his first ascent of Tengkampoche north face (6500m), Khumbu Valley, Nepal, and then again in 2014 for a solo ascent of the South face of Annapurna (8091 m) in Nepal. In 2015, Steck earned another record, summitting 82, 4,000-meter peaks in 80 days.

Ironically, in 2016, Steck and fellow mountaineer David Goettler discovered the remains of world renowned climber Alex Lowe and cameraman David Bridges, on Shishapangma in Tibet. An avalanche struck and killed them in 1999.

Steck’s family learned of his death today. He is survived by his wife Nicole who is also a climber. They married in 2007 and honeymooned on the North Face of the Eiger. Steck’s death is the first casualty of this spring’s mountaineering season in Nepal. There are 365 registered climbers from 39 teams scheduled to depart, according to officials. Hopefully, everyone stays safe. Last year, six climbers died on Mount Everest.