![]() ![]() 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. The new movie Everest is all Hollywood, with big movie stars meant for a big IMAX screen. ![]()
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