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Storm Over Everest (2007)
Produced and Directed by David Breashears
PBS: Frontline
www.pbs.org
109 minutes
For those interested in the history of human confrontations with the power of nature, Storm Over Everest may very well provide some of the most potent cinematic images ever experienced. This PBS documentary brings viewers back to May 1996, to the worst climbing tragedy in Mount Everest's history, during which eight climbers, including three seasoned guides, perished.
David Breashears, heading an IMAx team on that fateful trip, returned a decade later to re-tell the tragic tale of three climbing teams that were caught in a fast-moving storm (which began as a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal) with hurricane gales and a wind- chill that plunged temperatures to 100 degrees below zero. These brutal conditions, coupled with logjams at critical climbing junctures, such as the Hillary Step, and consequent late arrivals to the summit (where a 1 p.m. turnaround time is the golden rule), made it next to impossible for climbers descending from the summit to find their way back to the safety of their tents at Camp IV. Camp IV is at 26,300 on the Lhotse face and still considered the "Death Zone." Recreations of the now historic "storm" and of stranded climbers huddling together rocking back and forth in torment were shot at the Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah (as noted in Special Features).
The documentary's stunning cinematography, accompanied by original music, composed and produced by Jocelyn Pook, builds with intensity throughout the production, never distracting from the storyline. Sometimes reminiscent of Phillip Glass's masterful ability to marry sound with images, Pook's haunting compositions beautifully illustrate the beckoning but perilous isolation that surrounds Mount Everest.
Breashear's documentary is not his first attempt to sort out these...