This documentary was very inspiring. Obviously, shot quite a while ago so the format is a bit old school. However, the content itself is exciting, with raw humanity which is to be expected when people try to conquer the highest peak of all continents. I have watched Everest, prior to this doc, about the 1996 disaster which is often referenced in this so I would recommend seeing that before it too because it really helps understand the danger of overcrowding on the mountain. At any point it did not feel too slow, felt like I learned a lot along the way. Very enjoyable doc.
7 Reviews
Almost ruined by the music
shanayneigh16 June 2021
A decent documentary about Everest. Some very nice footage. The high altitude workers in Team Discovery are background characters as usual, the focus is almost exclusively on Whitey McPaleface. The overly dramatic music (not to mention the narration) almost killed this documentary.
Absolutely fantastic, except for one thing....
DJRMewzique5 February 2023
This series is an absolutely amazing look at an actual ascent of the world's tallest peak. As someone who is just fascinated by all things Everest, I really enjoyed this entire series.
However, they made one glaring mistake more than once. The 1996 Everest disaster took the lives of eight people. Eight. This series refers to this disaster more than once and states sixteen people died. It wasn't sixteen.
It was eight.
Only twelve people died during the entire 1996 season...so why they kept stating sixteen died at that one even was quite frustrating.
Other than that, this series really is an extraordinary first-hand look at those who attempt this incredible, and insane, adventure, even if it was from way back in the early 2000s.
However, they made one glaring mistake more than once. The 1996 Everest disaster took the lives of eight people. Eight. This series refers to this disaster more than once and states sixteen people died. It wasn't sixteen.
It was eight.
Only twelve people died during the entire 1996 season...so why they kept stating sixteen died at that one even was quite frustrating.
Other than that, this series really is an extraordinary first-hand look at those who attempt this incredible, and insane, adventure, even if it was from way back in the early 2000s.
Awe inspiring footage
csm-781192 May 2021
This is a gripping series that charts the attempts of 4 Discovery Team climbers to summit Everest in 2004. There is video footage for every stage and the climbers are actually quite likeable! Andrew Lock, Hector Ponce de Leon, Ben Webster and Shauna Burke make up the Foursome. Marred a little by an over dramatic use of voiceovers and the traditional failure to give proper prominence to the Sherpas roles it is nevertheless one of the better Everest documentaries. Will Cross making an attempt to summit as an insulin dependent diabetic also makes an inspiring appearance.
One of the best Everest documentaries, easily.
JurijFedorov31 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Annabelle! What a charismatic hero. She's so good on camera. I had to get this out of the way.
I have watched quite a few Everest documentaries. There are always more, but it's likely over 20 at this point or something plus all the rest mountain climbing documentaries I watch. This is quite obviously a step above nearly everything else. I'm sad I didn't get to watch it in HD as I think it could look awesome in full quality. I live the Youtube life. But either way it's very proper quality and not the usual stuff you expect where you mostly see talking heads and some photos. Discovery actually got cameras up the mountain to make this documentary and it was a huge victory. You pretty much should start with these kind of documentaries showing you the actual climb.
On top of this the doc delivers some really great narration and he pulls no punches. I do think it was over the top in many places though. The narrator kinda made this into some impossible task, but it's not nearly as hard as he makes it out to be as you can see even old overweight men climb the mountain. But it is extremely dangerous for many climbers. 6 died during this season alone. Unfortunately Discovery didn't quite luck out with this expedition team because while we saw some great summits the ones who couldn't make it just turned back. They were too professional and rational. In reality what you'd often expect to see is a team with leaders just doing their own stuff and beginner climbers getting themselves into trouble and dying. Here no one was close to dying. But Discovery did save 2 lives so that explains it. One older man refused to even acknowledge that he would be dead without them. But normally such people are either saved by Sherpas guided by base camp or left to die. Here cameras were filming everyone so you kinda had to do some extra work to save such people. And the Discovery team was largely on their way down when they saved the 2 climbers.
The narrator give us a ton of extra info besides the big words. A lot of jargon and info about Mount Everest. This is pretty much a documentary to replace 90% of Everest documentaries for you. But obviously with new HD cams this would have been astonishing. You just need both, the info and HD cams. You can't get both everywhere.
Some episodes and parts are kinda slow and boring because you follow so many people that you kinda zone out. Not all these people were interesting. The expedition leader was unfortunately boring on camera. Not his fault, but the doc suffers when a huge chunk of the documentary is focused on a man who barely could make it out of basecamp and seemed to just hinder other climbers. It's not great TV when all his big leader decisions are not filmed. With other climbers you often felt like you only saw 5% of the climb. The doc just switches between people and places on the mountain which is a huge shame because I do feel like they could have made an even better series if they had filmed one single small team making their way up.
This is definitely an underrated documentary. But it's also Discovery. They are trying to make something flashy for the family. None of the 6 deaths are talked much about and largely we focus on the smiles and success stories. Which is fine, but lacking a bit of what we really came here for. The narrator even promises that 6 people will die. Of course none from these groups do so. Discovery knows what sells, but also know they can't show the very extremes on their huge channel. I do want to see people make mistakes and there were none here. Which is not normal for Everest let's be fair. The narrator tells a story of a regular Everest team, but this was just not it. They had plenty of Sherpas and professional help. This was a huge and very expensive project not a regular dangerous climb.
I have watched quite a few Everest documentaries. There are always more, but it's likely over 20 at this point or something plus all the rest mountain climbing documentaries I watch. This is quite obviously a step above nearly everything else. I'm sad I didn't get to watch it in HD as I think it could look awesome in full quality. I live the Youtube life. But either way it's very proper quality and not the usual stuff you expect where you mostly see talking heads and some photos. Discovery actually got cameras up the mountain to make this documentary and it was a huge victory. You pretty much should start with these kind of documentaries showing you the actual climb.
On top of this the doc delivers some really great narration and he pulls no punches. I do think it was over the top in many places though. The narrator kinda made this into some impossible task, but it's not nearly as hard as he makes it out to be as you can see even old overweight men climb the mountain. But it is extremely dangerous for many climbers. 6 died during this season alone. Unfortunately Discovery didn't quite luck out with this expedition team because while we saw some great summits the ones who couldn't make it just turned back. They were too professional and rational. In reality what you'd often expect to see is a team with leaders just doing their own stuff and beginner climbers getting themselves into trouble and dying. Here no one was close to dying. But Discovery did save 2 lives so that explains it. One older man refused to even acknowledge that he would be dead without them. But normally such people are either saved by Sherpas guided by base camp or left to die. Here cameras were filming everyone so you kinda had to do some extra work to save such people. And the Discovery team was largely on their way down when they saved the 2 climbers.
The narrator give us a ton of extra info besides the big words. A lot of jargon and info about Mount Everest. This is pretty much a documentary to replace 90% of Everest documentaries for you. But obviously with new HD cams this would have been astonishing. You just need both, the info and HD cams. You can't get both everywhere.
Some episodes and parts are kinda slow and boring because you follow so many people that you kinda zone out. Not all these people were interesting. The expedition leader was unfortunately boring on camera. Not his fault, but the doc suffers when a huge chunk of the documentary is focused on a man who barely could make it out of basecamp and seemed to just hinder other climbers. It's not great TV when all his big leader decisions are not filmed. With other climbers you often felt like you only saw 5% of the climb. The doc just switches between people and places on the mountain which is a huge shame because I do feel like they could have made an even better series if they had filmed one single small team making their way up.
This is definitely an underrated documentary. But it's also Discovery. They are trying to make something flashy for the family. None of the 6 deaths are talked much about and largely we focus on the smiles and success stories. Which is fine, but lacking a bit of what we really came here for. The narrator even promises that 6 people will die. Of course none from these groups do so. Discovery knows what sells, but also know they can't show the very extremes on their huge channel. I do want to see people make mistakes and there were none here. Which is not normal for Everest let's be fair. The narrator tells a story of a regular Everest team, but this was just not it. They had plenty of Sherpas and professional help. This was a huge and very expensive project not a regular dangerous climb.
Excellent Footage
nb9921 February 2024
I've watched a lot of films and documentaries on Everest and what made this one stand out was the footage of parts of the climb you don't usually see. The relatively long length of the program means they had time to explain lots about the equipment, the various parts of the route up and interestingly a bit about coming back down (which is actually the bit most people die on). They also captured the steepness of the climb better than most of the other programs I've watched on it. Yes the music and commentary were at times a little over-dramatic but the stunning footage in my opinion more than made up for it. It's quite long overall so probably only for those already interested in climbing rather than a "must-see" for everyone.
It's okay
striknbarb27 August 2020
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