In the spring of 1996, 14 groups from 11 countries swarmed Everest’s lower campsite, digging in 17,600 ft. Expeditions charge climbers, often unskilled, up to $65,000 to be walked to the top. Tibet and China, recognizing a moneymaking natural resource when they see one, have thrown the peak open to tourism. In the 44 years since New Zealander Edmund Hillary and a Sherpa climber, Tenzing Norgay, first scaled the peak, more than 700 people have followed them to the top at least 150 others have died in the attempt.ĭespite this fearsome history, Everest is big business these days. The altitude is the same, the 40☏- below-zero temperature is the same, and, most disturbingly, the lung-shredding, brain-addling atmosphere–barely one-third the pressure of sea-level air–is the same. Standing on top of the peak is roughly equivalent to stopping a passenger jet in mid-flight and climbing out onto the wing. As it turned out, two IMAX filmmakers David Breashears and Ed Viesturs were there with cameras.Įverest, as TIME’s Jeffrey Kluger explained, had become a popular destination despite the isolated and challenging environs:Įven under the best of conditions, scaling a mountain like Everest is an act of near madness. The story was also an opportunity to look at how a tragedy in one of the world’s most remote spots ended up so well-documented (including in Jon Krakauer’s 1997 book Into Thin Air). When images and accounts of the 1996 climb on which the movie is based were published in the book Everest: Mountain Without Mercy, TIME examined how the disaster-in which a storm resulted in eight deaths-came to pass. "I think about it all the time and I still have nightmares.The new movie Everest is all Hollywood, with big movie stars meant for a big IMAX screen. Why had he made it out alive? "I wasn't as smart or as strong or as experienced as some of the people who died, so I can only think it was luck," he said.
Ultimately, Beck survived, but Namba and seven others didn't. I mean, I was lying in a tent while Yasuko Namba and Beck were lying out there, 200 yards away." There's a lot of people missing," Krakauer told Kroft. "In the morning, this is when I finally realized that, wait a minute, people are dying out here. Two other climbers, Yasuko Namba and Beck Weathers, also collapsed before they could make it to the camp. One climber, Doug Hansen, a postal employee from Seattle, collapsed coming down from the summit, and Rob Hall, the lead guide, opted to stay with him. In this case, as the group began their decent, a storm moved in, producing triple-digit wind chill and blinding snow drifts. And then there's the weather to contend with.
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