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since 2005
15 November 2006, 12:57

DSC — Everest: Beyond the Limit
Summit Dreams
“Climbers arrive at Everest Base Camp and quickly learn the dangers of the mountain when they hear about a Sherpa`s condition. Climbers struggle to push their bodies to acclimate to the extreme altitude four miles above sea level”. Discovery Channel documentary, which will be shown in six weekly installments, from 14 th of November.

Why Climb a Mountain? It’s There, and It’s Hard to Do

By Mark Rogers/Discovery Channel

“Everest” follows a crew of climbers who paid approximately $40,000 apiece to attempt the summit in the spring of 2006. The expedition is managed by Russell Brice, a silver-haired New Zealander whose rugged good looks are only partly diminished by his chapped lips, and whose machismo is not weakened by his propensity for choking up, as when he mourns the death of a favorite Sherpa guide.

Terry O’Connor, the expedition’s physician, excels at describing the effects of altitude sickness, which can strike anyone at any time in the high Himalayas.

“You get used to suffering, frankly,” he says. The suffering starts at advanced base camp, where insomnia and nausea accompany the men as their bodies acclimate to the thin atmosphere. Their blood thickens, which helps them not to pass out but increases the risk that they will have strokes.

Enough sissy stuff. Once the climbers hit 26,000 feet, the “death zone,” their digestive systems shut down. “The body prefers to essentially eat itself,” Dr. O’Connor explains. “We’re doing nothing but starving, and there’s only so long we can do that.”

There’s only so long we can watch it too, but “Everest” understands the viewer’s limits. The documentary, filmed by Sherpa guides wearing helmet-mounted cameras, invests in personalities early on. By the time the climbers are so close to the sun that mouth-breathing can cause their hard palates to sunburn, we know them as people and not simply as bodies under stress. Standouts include a trouble-loving Harley salesman from Hollywood and an asthmatic Dane who plans to make the ascent without supplemental oxygen.

Dr. O’Connor says of the Dane, “He’s a genetic freak, basically born with five lungs.”

Then there’s Mark Inglis, who was born with two legs but lost them as a result of a climbing accident. If he succeeds, he will be the first double amputee to scale Everest.

The Everest ascent made news last spring for other reasons. A British climber, David Sharp, died on the high slopes as 40 fellow climbers, several of them members of Mr. Brice’s team, passed by him. Oxygen and water were administered, but a rescue attempt was deemed too dangerous and most likely futile. The event led to soul-searching among mountaineers and renewed discussions about the ethics of this existential, eccentric sport.

“Everest” touches on that episode in its last hour, which was not available for review. A Discovery representative said that Mr. Sharp’s family had requested that no scenes of him dying be shown, and that the network had decided to respect its wishes.

Besides, while “Everest” doesn’t mind putting us off our feed, it clearly doesn’t want to put us off mountain climbing. A closer exploration of Mr. Sharp’s death would not be in keeping with the documentary’s semiworshipful attitude toward its stoic subjects.

Mr. Brice, who comes off as a hero here, never seems happier than when he’s describing the utter misery of high-altitude climbing.

If you want to know how it feels, he says, “Put a plastic bag over your head and run up the stairs.”

Or just watch “Everest.”

EVEREST

Beyond the Limit

Dick Colthurst, executive producer; Tomi Landis, executive producer for Discovery Channel. Produced for Discovery Channel by Tigress Productions.