"It's, I think, almost 400 images taken with a 300-millimeter lens that are then stitched together. When you view them in the browser, allowing you that deep zoom capability.... Yeah, it's just extraordinary and we're so excited by that image. I have myself climbed Everest five times and been to the mountain 15 times. And when I'm breathless at almost 18 or 19,000 feet recording these images, I have very little time to study the mountain and learn about it. And, of course, I can't focus my eyes as closely as that lens can."
Says David Breashears.
Here's the image.
December 18, 2012
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9 comments:
Did you see the story on the dead bodies of Mt. Everest?
Bob--that was my first thought as well. "Where are the bodies?"
In 1996, David Breashears was leading an IMAX filming team on Everest. His team was a day or so behind the groups who all tried to summit on the same day, just as a storm was moving in. When word reached his team of the disaster unfolding above them, Breashears made his team's tents, oxygen, and other supplies at Camp IV (the highest camp) available without question, even though that jeopardized his filming project.
He and other members of his team then climbed up and helped some of the stricken climbers to safety.
Definitely the right thing to do...and at least one other expedition on the mountain at the time refused to help.
I did see that Bob. It's nowhere near the top of the list why I wouldn't climb Everest, but even without all of those others, that would preclude a climb for me. Too many dead bodies, and I don't want to be in a position where I'd just have to step over a guy who was dying because otherwise I would die too. Not my idea of a good time.
But that is a cool photo.
Petunia, I think Breasher's film was all the better because of it.
Awesome. I am no mountaineer, but this is pretty cool. You can even see tents and climbers @Camp 2.
This is stunning and gorgeous -
Sadly, the Mountain has been turned into a Tourist Attraction, and not only are bodies now littering the climbing routes, other refuse piles up every year. Not sure how to mitigate the problems of opening it to any Tom, Dick and Harriet with a fat wallet and a near-death wish.
Amazing scale. I thought the little colored items in the foreground were Oxygen tanks and trash, but on zooming in, it was an entire camp with buildings. Awesome!
I take some risks, but climbing that mountain has no appeal to me. It was done long ago by people with no Oxygen, ancient equipment, and nobody's experienced advice to help, and it's been done by thousands, so it's not like doing something really special today. It's just dangerous and hard and little else in my analysis. It sounds incredibly uncomfortable, grueling and less rewarding than that's worth to me.
Also there is something about leaving people - who are just just like you - to die, never trying to retrieve them, and stepping over their bodies that's just not a club I want to belong to.
I have had a number of friends die in "extreme" sports that I enjoy, but they were doing something relatively safe, that's enjoyable, and that they could do everyday if they had time. They would never do it if it involved doing it around the strewn bodies of others who tried it, but failed.
I've changed my opinion on Everest. This obsession is sick.
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