To icy heights - dying on Mount Everest
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | To icy heights - dying on Mount Everest |
| Original title | Into Thin Air: Death On Everest |
| Country of production | USA / CZ |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1997 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Markowitz |
| script | Robert J. Avrech |
| production | Hans Proppe |
| music | Lee Holdridge |
| camera | Neil Roach |
| cut | David Beatty |
| occupation | |
To Icy Heights - Die on Mount Everest is an American television film from 1997 . It is based on the factual report In Icy Heights by Jon Krakauer and deals with the accident on Mount Everest in 1996 , in which eight climbers were killed.
action
The American author Jon Krakauer joins the expedition team of high-altitude mountaineer Rob Hall in the spring of 1996 to participate in an ascent of Mount Everest and to report on it. Hall wants to take a group of more or less experienced mountaineers to the highest point in the world for a fee of up to 65,000 US dollars per person.
Krakauer is already skeptical in the base camp : there are a number of mountaineers, some of whom are apparently not particularly experienced. Since there could be a real traffic jam on the mountain due to the many expeditions , the teams of Rob Hall and the also commercially working expedition leader Scott Fischer get together to coordinate their approach.
In several stages, the groups make their way to the last high altitude camp before the summit. Hall gives the members of his expedition the strict directive that each individual must start the descent at 2 p.m., regardless of where they are on the mountain. Otherwise one could get into the life-threatening situation of having to spend the night on Mount Everest outdoors.
The teams begin the final section of the climb in the middle of the night. Krakauer made it to the summit, but serious problems were already apparent: For example, accompanying Sherpas were unable to attach the required fixed ropes at a crucial point, the Hillary Step , as they were busy looking after the expedition members. On the descent, Krakauer encounters Hall, who is still on the way up with a customer; however, it is already 2:45 p.m. In addition, the weather is changing and a storm is brewing. Fischer and parts of his team also continue to rise.
In the changing weather, Krakauer and a few others manage to descend to the last altitude camp. But due to the advanced time - it is now night - and the storm, several climbers are stuck on the mountain. A small group around the mountain guide Anatoli Bukrejew managed to save some during the night, but Hall, Fischer and six other climbers either freeze to death or fall.
Reviews
"Even if the Tyrolean Alps had to double the Himalayas, the film adaptation of the bestseller 'In icy heights' turned into a realistic, gripping drama whose human tragedies never leave the viewer indifferent."
“A simple story with superficial dialogues and pale direction that only brings platitudes to light and whose intrusive music exceeds the level of the bearable. The literary versions of the catastrophe are recommended to those who are really interested. "
Web links
- Into Thin Air in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Jobst-Ulrich Brand: The revenge of the mountain. Focus , March 9, 1998, accessed August 3, 2020 (debate between Jon Krakauer and Reinhold Messner ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ To icy heights. In: Cinema . www.cinema.de, accessed on September 7, 2008 .
- ↑ To Icy Heights - Dying on Mount Everest. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .