This National Geographic film is not a history of the climbs on Mount Everest from 1953 to 2003. It is rather a 2003 retrospective on 1953 expedition--the first to reach the summit, which asks: How has the mountain changed in this time? Did these years "tarnish an icon"?
To answer these questions, the film tells how three men, Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing Norgay (whose fathers, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, were the first climbers to reach the top of Mount Everest), and Brent Bishop (whose father, Barry Bishop, was a member of the first U. S. team to reach Everest's summit) join an expedition led by Pete Athans, returning to confront the mountain. After climbing Everest at the time of the 1996 disaster, Jamling Tenzing Norgay had promised his family that he would not climb it again. While he remains at Base Camp, several other Sherpas take part in the summit quest. Athans, Bishop, and Hillary provide the commentary. The Sherpa viewpoint is presented by Jamling Tenzing Norgay; and Dawa Sherpa, making his first trip to the summit, offers such pithy observations as the Sherpa saying, "Before climbing mountain, pay all your debts."
After the successful 1953 British expedition, an unfortunate dispute arose. Tenzing inadvertently signed a statement that he reached the summit first. In response, British expedition leader John Hunt claimed that Tenzing, as a mere Sherpa, lacked the skill to have been first. Later, Tenzing said that Hillary was first. Tenzing and Hillary have subsequently said that they reached the summit together. Although the question of who reached the summit first seems rather pointless (was there a finish line at the top of the mountain, manned by an official with a checkered flag?), it trapped Hillary and Tenzing in an unexpected controversy, and took some of the luster from their achievement. Tenzing's life became more complicated after 1953-he may even have wished that he had not climbed Everest. For his part, Hillary did not expect anyone to return to the summit.
Unlike most similar productions, Everest: 50 Years on the Mountain gives considerable attention to the Sherpas. The film features interviews with various Sherpas, including some who climbed with Tenzing Norgay. Since 1921, Sherpas have performed the heavy lifting for expeditions-in a typical year each Sherpa makes as many as 20 trips from Base Camp to Camp 2, and 10 trips from Camp 2 to the South Col. Sherpas have also undertaken other tasks in support of climbers. The career path for a Sherpa begins at an early age with service as a porter. After this, some Sherpas may advance to become climbing Sherpas and sirdars (foremen supervising other Sherpas). By assisting climbers, some Sherpas have substantially increased their earnings. But Sherpas have also suffered frostbite, broken bones, and death on the mountain. Sherpas have been, in Jamling Tenzing Norgay's words, the "unsung heroes of mountaineering." But, on the 1952 Swiss expedition, Sherpas were treated as equals-in fact, Tenzing Norgay wished he had reached the summit with the Swiss. After mastering Everest, Edmund Hillary founded the Hillary Foundation, which has constructed over 30 schools and two hospitals for Sherpas. (Hillary's wife and daughter died in a plane crash while en route to work on one of these hospitals.)
After narrowly escaping death in an icefall, the expedition's camera crew, "exhausted and rattled," decided not to return to the mountain. Thus the film's concluding scenes were shot with a hand-held video camera. This camera had its limitations-it could not cope with extreme cold, and parts of some scenes are seriously overexposed--but, in the hands of Pete Athans, it yielded outstanding shots of climbers laboriously approaching the South Summit, with some of the world's tallest peaks visible thousands of feet below.
The film ends amid a crowd of scores of climbers on the top of Mount Everest, while Peter Hillary makes an emotional cell phone to his father. Fifty years had certainly brought changes to the mountain.
To answer these questions, the film tells how three men, Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing Norgay (whose fathers, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, were the first climbers to reach the top of Mount Everest), and Brent Bishop (whose father, Barry Bishop, was a member of the first U. S. team to reach Everest's summit) join an expedition led by Pete Athans, returning to confront the mountain. After climbing Everest at the time of the 1996 disaster, Jamling Tenzing Norgay had promised his family that he would not climb it again. While he remains at Base Camp, several other Sherpas take part in the summit quest. Athans, Bishop, and Hillary provide the commentary. The Sherpa viewpoint is presented by Jamling Tenzing Norgay; and Dawa Sherpa, making his first trip to the summit, offers such pithy observations as the Sherpa saying, "Before climbing mountain, pay all your debts."
After the successful 1953 British expedition, an unfortunate dispute arose. Tenzing inadvertently signed a statement that he reached the summit first. In response, British expedition leader John Hunt claimed that Tenzing, as a mere Sherpa, lacked the skill to have been first. Later, Tenzing said that Hillary was first. Tenzing and Hillary have subsequently said that they reached the summit together. Although the question of who reached the summit first seems rather pointless (was there a finish line at the top of the mountain, manned by an official with a checkered flag?), it trapped Hillary and Tenzing in an unexpected controversy, and took some of the luster from their achievement. Tenzing's life became more complicated after 1953-he may even have wished that he had not climbed Everest. For his part, Hillary did not expect anyone to return to the summit.
Unlike most similar productions, Everest: 50 Years on the Mountain gives considerable attention to the Sherpas. The film features interviews with various Sherpas, including some who climbed with Tenzing Norgay. Since 1921, Sherpas have performed the heavy lifting for expeditions-in a typical year each Sherpa makes as many as 20 trips from Base Camp to Camp 2, and 10 trips from Camp 2 to the South Col. Sherpas have also undertaken other tasks in support of climbers. The career path for a Sherpa begins at an early age with service as a porter. After this, some Sherpas may advance to become climbing Sherpas and sirdars (foremen supervising other Sherpas). By assisting climbers, some Sherpas have substantially increased their earnings. But Sherpas have also suffered frostbite, broken bones, and death on the mountain. Sherpas have been, in Jamling Tenzing Norgay's words, the "unsung heroes of mountaineering." But, on the 1952 Swiss expedition, Sherpas were treated as equals-in fact, Tenzing Norgay wished he had reached the summit with the Swiss. After mastering Everest, Edmund Hillary founded the Hillary Foundation, which has constructed over 30 schools and two hospitals for Sherpas. (Hillary's wife and daughter died in a plane crash while en route to work on one of these hospitals.)
After narrowly escaping death in an icefall, the expedition's camera crew, "exhausted and rattled," decided not to return to the mountain. Thus the film's concluding scenes were shot with a hand-held video camera. This camera had its limitations-it could not cope with extreme cold, and parts of some scenes are seriously overexposed--but, in the hands of Pete Athans, it yielded outstanding shots of climbers laboriously approaching the South Summit, with some of the world's tallest peaks visible thousands of feet below.
The film ends amid a crowd of scores of climbers on the top of Mount Everest, while Peter Hillary makes an emotional cell phone to his father. Fifty years had certainly brought changes to the mountain.
