1996 Everest Disaster

[Nathan S]

There is another climbing movie I liked about two men who climb in South America...can anyone help me out? there was something unconventional about the approach of the climb or the time of the year. This movie involved a higher degree of re-enactment than the Everest documentary but the climb was a life/death proposition.

That sounds like "Scream of Stone": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Torre

 

[annr]

double posting

 

[annr]

That sounds like "Scream of Stone": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Torre

Thanks.

Looks good, but not the one I was trying to remember. I finally found the documentary:

"Touching the Void"

I highly recommend this film. In fact, if you are seriously thinking of watching it I wouldn't read anything about it because IMO it is quite suspenseful. Here is the beginning of the review:



In 1985, climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb a mountain. Not just any would do, however, the duo setting their sights on the supposedly unconquerable west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Young, fit and full of determination, they braved the harsh conditions and their own ill planning and managed to make the peak after a three-day ascent. A successful climb, to be sure, if only that pesky descent didn’t still lie in front of them.

That is where disaster horrifically struck,......

The new film from Academy Award-winning documentarian Kevin Macdonald (“One Day in September&#8221 “Touching the Void” is a blisteringly intense examination of Simpson and Yates story. Based on Joe’s award-winning book of the same name, Macdonald fuses present-day interviews of the climbers with surreal reenactments of the events to craft a documentary unlike almost any other I’ve ever seen. It is a beautifully rendered document, a testament to human perseverance and the strength of character that resides in some individuals when faced with the specter of certain death.



Here is the full review:
http://www.moviefreak.com/reviews/t/touchingthevoid.htm

 

[Blues]

Scott Fischer and I climbed together for five weeks in the Wind Rivers of Wyoming in the mid 70's when he was about 19 and I was 21. Even then you could tell he was destined to be a great climber.

We stayed in touch through the mid to late 80's when I was embarking on a trip up to the Wrangells in Alaska.

It was a terrible blow when Scott and many others lost their lives on Everest. I've read everything I could get my hands on and it just seems that too many mental errors were made that day by a number of climbers. In that harsh environment one is more than enough and sometimes it doesn't take any error at all to lead to a bad outcome.