Everest (1998) - full transcript

[Narrator] There is a place

that is above all others...

a place where dreams

are chased above the clouds,

a place where only

the strong and lucky survive.

The top of the world,

where the wind is fiercest,

is a desolate, deathly place,

where humans cannot live.

Every breath burns the lungs

like cold fire.

Many have died there,

on the mountain known as Everest.

[Man] When I was a boy,

my father told me...

that the highest mountain in the world

is the home of the gods.

My people, the Sherpa people,

are Buddhists.

We call Mount Everest "Chomolungma,"

for the goddess who lives on the summit.

For 50 years or more, those who tried

to climb to the summit failed or died.

Then, in 1953, the first

two climbers reached the top...

Edmund Hillary

and my father, Tenzing Norgay.

When I was just five years old,

I lit butter lamps

to honor the mountain gods...

who protected my father

at the top of the world.

He said the mountains

gave him great strength.

I thought he was

the bravest man on Earth.

Now, 43 years after

his great climb on Everest,

I'm training

for my own summit attempt.

I think it's in my blood.

The first thing I learned

was the self-arrest.

It's the only way

to stop yourself if you fall...

and begin sliding down

a steep, icy slope.

My father was a hero.

Before he passed away, my father

warned me about the dangers on Everest.

But I always felt kind of a hunger

inside to live up to his legend,

so I have to try it.

[Narrator] This spring, Jamling

will join an Everest expedition...

led by Ed Viesturs

of Seattle.

Ed has climbed Everest

four times.

He trains every day,

even when he's on vacation in Utah.

[Viesturs] Well, I brought together

a team of highly skilled climbers...

to assist a scientist who's studying

the geology of the Everest region.

This year, Paula, my fianc?e,

will be our Base Camp manager.

We're going to Everest

just two weeks after we get married.

I figured Everest would be

a cheap place to honeymoon.

[Paula] The difference

between me and Ed is...

that when we go for a five-hour

bike ride, I call it a workout.

He calls it a warm-up.

[Narrator] The third lead climber

of this Everest team...

will be an accomplished

young mountaineer from Barcelona.

Araceli Segarra has climbed

high mountains before,

but she is best known

for her skills as a rock climber.

[Segarra] I like to go

to the beach and just hang out,

but I prefer climbing mountains.

I'm not trying to prove anything.

I just love to climb.

It's my passion, that's all.

[Narrator] If she makes it

to the top of Everest,

Araceli will be the first

Spanish woman in history to do so.

Even when she's training

in Mexico,

Araceli's real goal

is halfway around the world.

Mount Everest is part of the highest

mountain range in the world...

the Himalaya, which stretches

1,500 miles across Asia.

Far below the icy peaks

of the Himalaya...

lies the capital of Nepal, Katmandu,

basking in a warm,

subtropical valley.

[Jamling]

I love this city.

In 1953, Katmandu was

the point of departure...

for my father and Hillary.

On March 15, my teammates and I

gather here to make final plans.

[Narrator]

The climbers have come to Katmandu...

to help a scientist

from England, Roger Bilham.

Roger wants the team to place

instruments high on Mount Everest...

so he can study its geology.

Sumiyo Tsuzuki of Japan

will document the expedition.

I don't know if I'm strong enough.

I've never climbed Everest.

I need to see it.

We have three tons of gear all told,

and probably half to two-thirds

of that might be food.

It's been in my dreams, you know,

ever since I was a kid, to climb it.

[Jamling] Tomorrow we helicopter up

into the foothills of Everest.

Sumiyo joins me in spinning

the prayer wheels...

to offer prayers

for the dangers that lie ahead.

When I saw the rickety old

Russian helicopter Ed had rented,

I figured we'd need

all the prayers we could get.

[Segarra] This cargo helicopter

cannot fly as high as Base Camp,

but it gives us a head start,

up to 9,000 feet.

From there, we will walk over 30 miles

to the base of Mount Everest.

I love to climb

the highest mountains in the world.

Most of them are here,

in the Himalayas.

[Narrator] Araceli's passion

is climbing high mountains.

Roger Bilham's mission

is understanding how they form.

[Bilham] Continents actually move,

and when two huge land masses collide,

all that rock has to go somewhere,

and so it goes up.

And that collision is what pushed up

the Himalayan mountains.

About a hundred million years ago,

the land we call India...

began moving north,

towards Asia.

As the continents slowly collided,

India slid under Asia.

The rock in between was squeezed

and piled up, forming the Himalaya.

India is still pushing

further underneath Asia,

so every year, Mount Everest grows

about a quarter of an inch higher.

At 29,028 feet,

Mount Everest soars five and a half

miles above sea level,

making it

the tallest mountain on Earth.

[Chatting]

[Narrator] Tall mountains

are built by many tiny movements...

which Roger tries to record

with G.P.S. Satellite receivers.

[Segarra]

Roger is, uh...

He's happy when he explains

to you what he knows.

It's a life for him,

the geology.

[Bilham] The powerful underground

forces which pushed these mountains...

five miles high

also cause massive earthquakes.

In a village like Khumjung, few houses

are built to withstand such tremors.

We can't forecast earthquakes,

but perhaps,

if our team succeeds in making

a G.P.S. Measurement on Everest...

that will make our

earthquake data more accurate.

[Narrator] On a ridge

at almost 13,000 feet...

is the remote Buddhist monastery

known as Thyangboche.

[Jamling]

Forty-three years ago, my father...

stopped at this monastery to seek

blessings to climb Mount Everest.

[Narrator] The Sherpas

believe the mountain gods...

protect those who honor them,

but pride and arrogance

can anger the gods...

and cause great suffering,

even death.

[Viesturs] With a train

of 60 yaks to carry our gear...

we headed for Base Camp,

5,000 feet up from here.

[Narrator] As the climbers go higher,

they risk altitude sickness.

But if they ascend gradually,

the body adjusts on its own

to the low oxygen level.

It's called "acclimatizing."

The number of red blood cells doubles

so the blood can carry more oxygen.

Just surviving at 29,000 feet is a

challenge in light of this medical fact.

A person taken directly from sea level

to the top of Mount Everest...

would be unconscious in a few minutes,

and dead soon thereafter.

Those who have died on Everest...

are honored by stone monuments

called "chortens."

[Segarra] You walk into Khumbu,

you see the chortens.

You think about the people who died

for the mountain we are going to climb.

[Viesturs] On April 2,

we reached the foot of Mount Everest.

Here, on a huge glacier,

we set up Base Camp.

Next to our tents are those

of a dozen other expeditions,

all with the same goal...

a summit that's two miles higher.

[Narrator] Ed is concerned that there

are too many teams on the mountain,

and some of them show

a critical lack of experience.

From this base of operations, Jamling

is in charge of organizing the loads...

and sending them up with the strongest

Sherpas... the summit team.

[Chattering]

[Jamling] Most Sherpas like me

can carry heavy loads up here...

without getting sick

or short of breath.

Our blood carries more oxygen.

So when I say, " climbing

is in my blood," I'm not kidding.

[Paula] As much as I like

everyone on the team,

I somehow never expected to bring

30 people along on my honeymoon...

30 hungry people.

[Segarra]

The head cook is called Chyangba.

He is always singing

and laughing...

and he is really a funny guy.

[Viesturs]

Several times a day at Base Camp...

you hear the roar

of an avalanche.

[Narrator] One hundred and fifty

people have died on Everest.

About a third of them

have been killed by avalanches.

[Jamling]

We hope to follow the same route...

my father and Edmund Hillary

took to the summit in 1953.

There are three main danger zones.

The first is the Khumbu Icefall,

where huge ice towers

tumble without warning.

Above that is the steep

and icy Lhotse face,

which rises nonstop

for 4,000 feet.

The third danger zone is

the southeast ridge, near the summit.

The icefall is a frozen river,

about 500 feet deep,

that surges downhill

almost four feet a day.

Some of the gigantic ice blocks

weigh over 40 tons,

and if they suddenly break loose

they can crush you in a heartbeat.

[Viesturs]

On the icefall we use ladders a lot,

which can take

a little getting used to.

[Segarra, Laughing]

I like to get my falling done early,

because later on

I don't like to fall again.

When you look down you wonder,

"How deep is that crevasse?"

Well, I don't want to find out.

The Sherpas say that if you

fall in the crevasse,

you will fall

all the way to America.

[Viesturs]

After we climb through the icefall,

we head towards Middle Camp,

where we spend where we spend

a few weeks acclimatizing.

If you go too high too soon,

you risk getting edema,

which is where your lungs begin to fill

with fluid, and that can kill you.

[Narrator] At Middle Camp, the

climbers must begin to drink more water,

which they get by melting snow.

The dry air sucks moisture from each

breath, and also makes them cough.

Coughing fits have left Sumiyo

with two cracked ribs.

[Viesturs] Whenever porters went

back down to Paula, at Base Camp,

they brought her videos because Paula

wanted to see that I was okay.

It was, after all, our honeymoon.

- Let's see what we've got.

- Yeah, we're gonna have some...

probably sliced,

lightly sauteed Spam...

along with some mustard.

It looks like breakfast time at, uh,

Base Camp. That's pretty boring.

[Segarra]

Now I'm thinking about ice cream...

with chocolate.

And a little cream

on the topping.

Can be great.

[Laughing]

Typical.

[Narrator] May 7.

After five weeks at 22,000 feet,

the team has acclimatized.

Each drop of blood

can now carry more oxygen.

They're ready to go for the top.

Right now the summit is being blasted

by freezing, hurricane-force winds.

[Viesturs] Almost all year storms

and high winds make Everest unclimbable,

but some time in May you may get

a week of calm, clear weather,

which then allows you

to sort of sneak up to the summit.

It was still very windy up high,

so I chose to sit tight.

It's not easy,

watching other teams going up...

and then wondering if perhaps

you're missing your only chance

of reaching the summit.

Of the 12 other teams here,

the largest is led...

by my good friend Rob Hall

from New Zealand,

a very experienced Everest climber.

The memory of May 8, and the days

that followed, will haunt me forever.

Heading up the steep,

icy Lhotse face that day,

we watched a column of over 50 climbers,

including my friend Rob Hall.

They faced a three-day climb

to reach the summit.

At the time,

even though I felt uneasy,

I never suspected what a nightmare

they were heading up into.

[Narrator] Two days later, most of the

same climbers set out for the summit.

Late on that fateful day,

a fierce storm...

slammed into the upper part

of the mountain without warning.

[Viesturs]

Over two dozen climbers were scattered

along the route to the summit,

many of them caught

high on the mountain...

much too high

to get down safely.

[Narrator] In the final hour

of daylight a few climbers...

fought their way back

to the chaos of High Camp,

but for the rest it looked grim.

People have been caught before

in storms high on Everest,

but very few have survived.

[Viesturs] The stranded climbers

ran out of bottled oxygen.

As the wind chill dropped

to a hundred degrees below zero,

seventeen climbers were still trapped

on the mountain... including Rob.

When night fell,

most of the climbers hunkered down...

just hoping to survive the night.

When Paula called me that night,

she reminded me...

that Rob's wife Jan

was seven months pregnant.

We were all struggling

to face the fact...

that we had friends high on the mountain

in the storm, fighting for their lives,

and that perhaps some of them

weren't going to make it.

I knew I wouldn't get much sleep.

The next morning we got word

that seven climbers were still missing.

But one of the stranded climbers

was still in radio contact... Rob Hall.

He'd beaten the odds

and survived a night...

of arctic winds at 28,000 feet.

Rob just couldn't

find the strength to move,

but he wasn't ready to give up.

Clean the ice out of your mask

and start moving.

You gotta pull yourself

up over the South Summit...

Talking to Rob on the radio

was tough.

- It's downhill from there.

- Okay.

There was nothing

I could do for him.

I was at Middle Camp, and he was

at least a two-day climb away.

You can't wait all day for them.

Using a makeshift radio patch,

we then connected...

Rob with his wife Jan

in New Zealand.

When we heard them

talking on the radio,

I mean, we all lost it.

We all started to cry.

Later they chose a name

for their unborn child,

and Rob went to sleep

in sub-zero temperatures,

but he didn't survive the night.

[Narrator]

Just above the High Camp,

a climber named Beck Weathers had been

out in the storm for over 22 hours.

He had been left for dead

by other climbers,

and then, nearly blind,

his hands literally frozen solid,

Beck stood up, left his pack,

and desperately tried to walk.

All I knew was that as long as my legs

would run and I could stand up,

I was gonna move toward that camp,

and if I fell down,

I was gonna get up.

If I fell down again,

I was gonna get up.

And I was gonna keep movin'

till I either hit that camp,

or walked off the face

of that mountain.

[Narrator] Beck's teammates were

certain he was lying dead in the snow,

so they were pretty startled

when he staggered into the High Camp.

Beck's life hung by a thread,

but Ed was determined to rescue him.

[Viesturs] The camera team

put down their gear...

and followed me up the mountain

into the storm.

We'd just lost Rob. We sure as hell

weren't going to lose Beck too.

He was so blind and so weak

that we had to support him...

and physically place his feet

in each step.

Even with our help Beck just didn't have

the strength to get through the icefall.

His frostbitten hands would have to

be amputated, so time was critical.

We had to get him out of there soon.

[Narrator] A helicopter rescue at over

20,000 feet seemed out of the question.

Up here the air is so thin that the

blades have almost nothing to bite into.

At any moment the aircraft may

lose lift and fall out of the sky.

The only previous flight up here

ended in a crash.

But a Nepalese pilot named

Colonel Madan K.C. Decided to risk it.

Even when the helicopter

flew up above the icefall,

Beck's survival was still

very much in doubt.

[Segarra]

The pilot had trouble setting down.

No one knew if they would crash.

[Narrator]

After the climbers loaded Beck in,

the pilot struggled to lift off.

Finally, he did.

[Weathers] As we flew away,

the tears began to flow,

and I was just so grateful

to be alive.

Colonel Madan, Ed Viesturs,

the guys in the film crew...

I literally owe them my life.

[Narrator]

Yet, as remarkable as this rescue was,

it could not dull the grief

that settled over Everest...

after the worst disaster

in the mountain's history.

Eight people lost their lives

in the storm.

[Viesturs]

We all went back down to Base Camp.

Paula and I held each other

for a long time.

The tragedies

hit our team very hard,

myself in particular

because Rob was a close friend.

It was very sad to think about his wife,

who was seven months pregnant,

and-and realize that my good friend

wouldn't be there...

to see his first child born.

Mm... Wait-Wait a moment.

[Sighs]

Well, I don't like

climb a route...

with people dead on the way.

I'm not afraid of...

to cross dead people

and frozen... see them...

I don't like. That's all.

[Jamling]

Base Camp was becoming a ghost town.

Almost all the other expeditions

packed up and left,

and we thought maybe we

should get out of there too.

I sent word to the monastery,

asking if I should abandon the climb.

Seven days went by,

and I felt my dream slipping away.

But then we got word about Beck,

and that made me feel

lighter and stronger.

[Viesturs] A few days

after Beck got back home to Dallas,

he began the long road

back to recovery.

He would ultimately lose

both of his hands to frostbite,

but he never lost his spirit,

never lost his will to live,

and it was his remarkable recovery

that lifted our spirits.

We started to think

about going up again,

but a strong wind was still blowing

a huge plume of snow off the summit,

so it didn't look all that great.

[Segarra]

There's no reason to climb with wind.

If it's not possible,

well, it's not possible.

It's the mountain who say

that you can climb or not.

[Jamling] I finally got word

from the monastery.

The gods were not

opposed to my quest.

[Narrator] Each of the climbers

made the same courageous decision.

They had to try again.

They held a puja ceremony

to cleanse their spirits.

Then they put aside their grief...

and followed Ed back up

through the icefall, once more.

[Segarra]

When we got up to the Middle Camp,

the wind was still

very strong up above.

We start to think

we'll have to give up.

[Jamling] When the other Sherpas

said they were afraid,

I told them

what my father had taught me.

A climber must always treat

the mountain with respect...

and use caution

in the face of danger.

[Paula]

I just wasn't ready, emotionally,

to have Ed trying

for the summit again.

So I just summoned up my courage

and told him to go for it.

It was the hardest thing

I've ever done.

[Viesturs]

We were running out of time.

We decided to go higher...

so we'd be in position to go

for the top if the wind stopped.

But first we had to ascend

the Lhotse face,

which would be

an exhausting two-day climb.

[Jamling] The Lhotse face is

a steep wall of ice, 4,000 feet high.

We used fixed ropes,

but people die here all the same.

They unclip,

make a mistake and fall.

After rocketing downhill

for as much as a mile,

they then plunge

into a bottomless crevasse.

[Segarra] Up here we really

start to feel the lack of oxygen,

and that's the biggest danger

on Everest.

The less oxygen your brain gets,

the harder it is to think straight.

You believe your mind is sharp,

but it's not.

[Viesturs On Radio]

Yeah, hi, Roger.

[Viesturs] At High Camp, we're already

three-quarters of the way to the top.

Finally, the wind on the summit

had calmed down.

...G.P.S. All set up

and it's collecting data.

At 26,000 feet, it was quite a struggle

to set up the G.P.S. Receiver,

and-and it worked.

I did not tell Roger that we

could see hundreds of rocks...

that were once

at the bottom of the sea.

We've got enough to carry

without picking up rocks for Roger.

You should be able

to see us from Kala Patar...

[Narrator] May 22. The team

would try for the summit that night,

while Sumiyo stayed at

the High Camp as the radio contact,

despite her cracked ribs.

Ed wondered if Paula had received

the video he had sent down to Base Camp.

[Viesturs] By the time you get this

video I'll be heading for the summit.

If I have to turn around, I will.

I'll be very careful.

[Jamling] At this altitude

your mind runs in slow motion.

You can't sleep, you can't eat,

your brain is starving for oxygen,

your body is deteriorating...

and your muscles are wasting away.

That's why the final 3,000 feet

is known as the Death Zone.

I was feeling tense

because in a few hours...

I was gonna set out

on the climb of my life.

It takes about 12 hours

to get from High Camp to the summit.

You have to start around midnight

so you can get to the top by noon.

Ed was going to climb

without oxygen,

so he started at 11:00 that night,

an hour before the rest of us.

[Narrator]

At midnight it was 30 below zero.

Araceli, Jamling

and five Sherpas...

packed up their oxygen supplies

and started for the summit,

following Ed's trail.

[Segarra] In the night,

with my goggles and oxygen mask,

I felt like I was on the moon.

The others were nearby,

but we never spoke.

I felt completely alone.

All I heard was the sound of my own

breathing through the oxygen mask.

[Narrator] High on Everest,

there is nothing to breathe.

There is only a third

as much oxygen in each breath...

as there is at sea level.

Most climbers need

bottled oxygen up here,

but not Ed.

[Viesturs]

You stagger along.

Every ounce of energy is sucked

from your muscles.

You just can't get enough air.

This is what

it must feel like to drown.

The sun rose, but whenever I stopped

to wait for the others, I got cold,

so I had to move on.

I climb without bottled oxygen

because I like the challenge.

It's just me and the mountain.

It's as simple as that.

[Bilham]

Hey, Paula, good news.

I think I can see our team

on the South Summit. Over.

[Viesturs] The human body

is not built to survive up here.

It screams at you

to turn around and go back.

[Segarra] It took all

my strength and concentration...

just to put one foot

in front of the other.

I've never been so tired

in my life.

Sometimes I'd want to sit down

in the snow and rest,

but I told myself,

"ten more steps,"

and I keep going and going.

[Jamling] The wind begins to

sound like drums in the monastery...

or maybe that's just the blood

pounding in my brain.

As the pain gets worse,

I feel...

that I'm closer to death

than I've ever been...

without passing over

to the other side.

[Paula]

Every half hour I radioed Sumiyo.

"Have you heard from Ed?

Have you heard from Ed?"

[Viesturs] I knew exactly where

I'd find Rob lying frozen in the snow.

When I got there

I sat down next to him and cried.

I wanted to hear his friendly

New Zealand accent one more time.

But then the voice I heard

was Paula's...

the echo of what she'd said

on the radio.

[Paula] I said, " Climb this mountain

like you've never climbed it before."

And he said he was very choked up,

but he said he thought about that

all the way to the top.

[Viesturs]

Just below the summit...

is the most difficult pitch

of the whole climb...

the wall of rock and ice

known as the Hillary Step.

When I got past that,

I knew I was gonna make it.

[Panting]

[Viesturs On Radio]

Paula! Hola, hola!

[Viesturs] I radioed Paula

and calmly told her I'd made it.

But without bottled oxygen I got too

cold to wait for Araceli and Jamling.

I passed them on my way down.

[Segarra] Ed came down from the summit

and gave us a small hug.

He told us the summit

was not far.

[Jamling]

After 12 hours of climbing,

I had to really force myself

to concentrate.

There was a drop-off of over a mile

on either side of the ridge.

[Segarra]

There were only 100 meters left,

[Laughing] but they were

the longest 100 meters in my life.

[Narrator]

After nine long weeks on the mountain,

they made it.

Araceli Segarra became the first Spanish

woman to reach the top of the world.

[Segarra]

When I got to the top I was tired,

but then I realized

that I had really done it...

and I started to feel happy.

I was sure I could see

halfway around the world.

I wondered if my friends

were thinking about me.

They had no idea I was standing

on the top of the world.

I wanted to shout to them,

"I'm okay! I made it!"

Even with cold hands

I took pictures of Jamling.

He had worked hard to get here.

I was so happy for him.

[Jamling] I've been dreaming

of this moment since I was a boy.

To finally stand on the summit,

my heart just overflowed.

My tears froze to my cheeks.

I left a picture of my late mother,

my late father,

and His Holiness, the Dalai Lama,

and also a little toy I got

for my ten-month-old daughter,

and a prayer flag as an offering

for Chomolungma,

the mother goddess

of the world.

[Segarra] When we started down

we were careful... no mistakes.

But we hurried to see

our friends at Base Camp.

It's way down there,

below the clouds.

[Narrator] As the team began

the two-day descent to Base Camp,

they had time to reflect.

They had never expected

to be swept up...

in the disaster

that would touch the whole world.

Yet, even in the face

of extraordinary hardship,

they had always acted

with courage and grace.

[Paula] I've never been so glad

to see someone in my life.

We did it.

[Narrator] High on Everest

Roger's G.P.S. Was putting out data...

that one day may give geologists

more insight into earthquakes.

And Jamling's prayer flag fluttered

in the wind at the top of the world...

and sent a different kind

of message.

[Segarra]

Looking back, I sometimes wonder...

how I found the strength

to get to the top of Everest.

I know now that

my passion for climbing...

gave me the strength.

[Viesturs] This year, Paula

was waiting for me at Base Camp.

It was wonderful. She put aside her

own fears and encouraged me to climb.

And that has made us

closer than ever.

[Jamling]

I didn't think getting to the top...

would change my life,

but it has.

Back in Katmandu, I arranged

an offering with 25,000 butter lamps...

to give thanks for our safe

and wonderful climb.

Those moments on the summit

were sacred.

Up there above the clouds,

I touched my father's soul.

Ever since I was a boy

I've looked up to him,

but I always felt

kind of a hunger inside...

to live up to his legend.

I know he'd laugh to see me

on the summit of Mount Everest.

He'd say, " Jamling, my son,

you didn't have to come such

a long, hard way just to visit me."

As if he knew all along

I was worthy of the mountain.

[Crowd Cheering]

[Man]

Thank you very much.