12 June 2024
Conrad Anker, the legendary American climber, has been accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment. In a video uploaded to YouTube less than 24 hours ago, a young woman named Rose Wilde details repeated incidents of unwanted sexual advances by Conrad Anker, including one during which the climber allegedly exposed himself to her on camera. The victim describes her interaction with Conrad Anker as "humiliating" and "dehumanizing."
Conrad Anker X Bart Simpson. Courtesy of Rose Wilde.
Rose contacted me with her story and stated that Outside magazine had rejected her proposal to go public with her account. She also stated that she documented all of her interactions with Conrad Anker by recording their calls and taking screenshots of their messenger conversations. "I have the video of him exposing himself," the victim wrote, adding that she has "a huge folder of video footage and messages."
Conrad Anker has continued to support Nirmal Purja after several women made detailed allegations against the Nepal-born celebrity mountaineer in the summer of 2023. Since then, a New York Times article brought to light allegations by two more women who say they were abused by Purja.
Conrad Anker had also betrayed Garrett Madison to Nirmal Purja by going against a gentleman's agreement that he not tell Purja that Garrett Madison was deeply concerned about the possibility of being killed by Purja for revealing searing details about an incident involving Purja with another victim. Thanks to the courage of Rose Wilde, Anker is now beginning to sense how Nirmal Purja must have felt when he was first exposed.
Conrad Anker (screenshot of Rose Wilde's YouTube video)
Around the same time Rose Wilde uploaded her video, one of Nirmal Purja's victims related her distressing experience in a telephone conversation with Reinhold Messner, the world's greatest mountaineer.
I had asked the victim for a follow-up meeting after an initial hours-long meeting, during which she detailed the shocking and traumatizing experience she had with Nirmal Purja. During the follow-up meeting, which lasted three hours, the victim described in disturbingly graphic detail an incident which she experienced with Nirmal Purja. "I said no over and over again, but he wouldn't stop." The victim's experience was far more troublesome -and criminally relevant- than the two accounts given in the New York Times article. After the victim finished describing the incident, I asked her if she could tell Reinhold Messner what she had just confided in me. I felt it was important for Reinhold to hear directly from a victim, and not just get periodic briefings on the subject from me, or read about the allegations in the press.
A few minutes later, we called Reinhold. The victim recounted her jarring experience and explained that she did not want any publicity, money or favors. She simply -and anonymously- wanted to add her voice to the growing chorus of victims of Nirmal Purja.
Reinhold was surprised. "You don't want to speak on the record," he asked. "No, I don't want my name associated with this scandal in any way," the victim said resolutely. She had been contacted by Jenny Vrentas of The New York Times in March of this year and didn't reply to the email.
"I have broken with Nirmal Purja," Reinhold said. "I put out a statement. It is anonymous and doesn't mention any names. But it is clear who is meant."
Reinhold's public statement, which was published on his Instagram account two days ago, had been vetted by his lawyers to such a degree that it lost both clarity and purpose. It was so general that even a number of American journalists asked me about it. "Maybe something got lost in translation," one journalist suggested.
After the call ended, the victim and I agreed that Reinhold sounded guarded during our call with him. "He is simply very uncomfortable talking about this subject. He's an old-fashioned gentleman. The word sex doesn't cross his lips, except in a very intimate setting. Locker room talk is out of the question for him," I said. The victim said she understood. "I have always admired Reinhold Messner. He's my idol. I actually can't believe I got to speak with him." I felt bad for the victim and for Reinhold. They were both well outside their respective comfort zones. I was also grateful to them -to the victim for her incredible courage, and to Reinhold for continuing to take my calls despite the increasingly graphic details of Nirmal Purja's behavior with which he was being confronted.
In her initial YouTube video, Rose Wilde describes being "starstruck" by Conrad Anker. This dovetails with the way Nirmal Purja's victim described herself when she met the famous mountaineer. She said she froze and didn't know how to react when he started what she describes as being "a nightmare."
I shared the video with one of Nim's victims, a young woman whom I met the day before and who, after a 3-hour-long deposition, phoned Reinhold Messner to explain what had happened to her. The victim responded that in her video, Rose described exactly how she was feeling. Soon, I received information from Rose Wilde that indicates clearly that the cases of Nirmal Purja and Conrad Anker have much more in common.
Screenshot of Nirmal Purja's victim's response to Rose Wilde's video.
Rose Wilde sent me emails with countless screenshots of messages between her and Conrad, as well as videos in which Conrad can be seen masturbating in front of the camera during several FaceTime sessions. During a telephone call, Rose explained that Conrad Anker had initiated their contact. Like Nirmal Piurja has done with several victims with whom I've spoken (and who provided similar evidence as Rose had emailed), he wrote to her on Instagram and soon thereafter sent intimate pictures of himself.
Rose Wilde stated that she is a lifelong "mountaineering history buff" and was both surprised and confused by Conrad Anker's initial message. Why was she being contacted by someone so famous and powerful, Rose wondered. During their first message volley on Instagram, Conrad Anker unexpectedly sent a picture of himself in which his hand can be seen reaching into his boxer shorts. Rose indicated to Anker that it seemed a little rushed for him to be sending pictures of this nature. When I asked Rose Wilde how he reacted, she said that Conrad Anker "kept saying relax, it's our private conversation every time I expressed doubt," and that this continued throughout the following two years. I asked Rose Wilde why she continued being in contact with Conrad Anker after he had made her feel uncomfortable during their initial chat. She stated that the next day Conrad Anker had messaged her an apology and was "behaving like a complete gentleman."
Soon, however, Conrad Anker took things much further. After asking that their conversation move to WhatsApp. Shortly threafter, in a FaceTime call, Conrad Anker completely exposed himself to her and pleasuring himself in front of the camera. According to Rose Wilde, she again expressed her discomfort. After finishing, Conrad said "okay, goodnight," and ended the call abruptly. According to Rose Wilde, after this incident, Conrad again acted like "a complete gentleman." Wilde stated that this cycle left her feeling confused. At 22 years of age, she had had boyfriends and, now single, was occasionally going on dates. She stated that she never experiened anything like what Conrad Anker was doing.
Rose Wilde states that as an avid reader of climbing magazines and mountaineering books, as well as watching climbing documentaries, she felt both attracted and repulsed by Anker. "I geek out when I meet famous climbers," she says. In Boulder, Colorado, Wilde had run into a few stars of the climbing world.
At 61 years of age, Anker is 39 years her senior. Rose Wilde states that she wasn't sexually attracted to Conrad Anker. "It's not like he looks like Johnny Depp. If Johnny called me out of the blue and said he wanted to have sex with me, I'd react differently."
Rose Wilde's follow-up video.
After I forwarded Nirmal Purja's victim's response to her, in which the victim expressed feeling the same way as Rose, Rose Wilde published a follow-up video. In the video, she repeats what she told me during a 2-hour-long telephone call. According to Rose Wilde, Conrad Anker had continued to support Nirmal Purja even after I had exposed him. I called a journalist who is working on a story about Nirmal Purja and, after sharing the information I'd gathered, asked if perhaps Nirmal Purja and Conrad Anker had a similar relationship as Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew. "It's quite possible, yes. It would explain why Conrad kept supporting Nims."
Perhaps, if some of the mountaineering world's biggest stars were more old-fashioned like Reinhold Messner, then the community wouldn't now be rattled by its own MeToo moment.