Frontline Looks at the Storm Over Everest

It was the worst climbing tragedy in Mount Everest’s History. As darkness fell on May 10, 1996, a fast-moving storm of unimaginable ferocity trapped three climbing teams high on the slopes of Mount Everest. The climbers, exhausted from their summit climb, were soon lost in darkness, in a fierce blizzard, far from the safety of high camp at 26,000 feet. World-renowned climber and filmmaker David Breashears returns to Everest to tell the story of the climbers who perished in that storm in Frontline’s presentation of “Storm Over Everest,” Tuesday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m. central on NPT and PBS stations nationwide. It is also the story of 11 climbers caught in the storm and the eyewitness accounts of their astonishing survival in the world’s most unforgiving environment.

Elisabeth Jensen in the New York Times writes, “In an attempt to free his film from the controversy of that day — mostly manufactured by the media, he says — Mr. Breashears largely avoids second-guessing, instead piecing together a straightforward story of the climb, told by the participants and focused around the storm itself — what it was like to be in it and survive. Close observers of the tragedy are left to parse for themselves how the recollections match up with past accounts, like in the best-selling book “Into Thin Air,” which sold nearly one million hardcover copies alone.”

James Clash, Adventure Columnist for Forbes Magazine, has an interview with Breashers:

Preview: