- Apr 10, 2001
- 48,775
- 3
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Now if only I could pull the recording off of my DVR for clips...alas I cannot
This Academy Award winning film (Best Documentary, 1975) features adventurer, poet and world-champion skier Yuichiro Miura as he and his team face the most challenging climb in the world, Mt. Everest. The ascent is fraught with tragedy, the descent miraculous. During the climb, they faced an icefall that claimed the lives of six of their team, still considered the worst natural disaster accident in Himalayan history. With a 35mm Panavision film crew in tow, they continued on to the South Col, only 350 meters from the summit, where Miura put his life in the hands of the gods.
Breathing from an oxygen supply and using a parachute to slow his speed, Miura skied 7,000 feet over sheer ice and rocks. Unbalanced by the gusting winds, he hit a boulder and fell 1,320 feet, smashing into rocks and ice ridges. A patch of snow was all that saved him, ending his decent just moments away from the Bergshrund Crevasse. This final climax has been called the most exciting six minutes of film ever shot, as Miura plummets helplessly down Everest's unforgiving icy slopes toward certain death.
Possibly the first truly extreme skiing film ever produced, The Man Who Skied Down Everest is a portrait of an athlete and a world record-holder, a timeless story of adventure and courage and a thrilling account of one man's dream to accomplish the impossible. For this presentation, the film has been digitally re-mastered in HD and is presented in 5.1 digital surround sound.
Now if only I could pull the recording off of my DVR for clips...alas I cannot