EVEREST OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS
Background information for the film, “Everest: The Other Side.”

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Ben Clark is actually a good example of why you do not have to have been born with physical prowess to climb Everest. Take a look at his 6th grade school photo and you’ll see an overweight boy who never envisioned himself scaling the World’s highest mountain. However, it did eventually become a dream, and Ben attained the summit through sheer determination and will as opposed to sheer physical strength.

3. Climbing Everest is an every-man-for-himself pursuit.

This is probably the most misunderstood aspect of climbing the mountain. In fact, before the expedition, we bought into this one as well. Luckily, after arriving at BC and spending a few days getting to know the place it became obvious how wrong we had been. We were expecting BC to be dominated by ego and machismo, but what we found was an international community working together and sharing resources freely.

In the pioneering days of Everest climbing, the method used to get men up the mountain was very much like a military siege. Very few people were interested in traveling to these remote locations, so you had to bring a tremendous amount of men and supplies since you would be on your own.

Today, military-style expeditions are financially prohibitive for the average climber. So, the culture of BC has evolved to meet the challenge. Everyone brings what they can, and all the resources are pooled. For example: we did not have a working electrical generator. However, the Russians did. The Russians did not have a communications technician or a connection to the Internet for sending emails. We did. The British had a doctor with medication, the French had spirit-lifting food and weather reports, the Chinese had a soldering iron and fresh fruit, the Indians had functioning radio equipment…

BC is an interesting sociological experiment that the rest of the world could learn a lesson from. It is a wonderful place where you can form immediate friendships with your neighbors. However, it can be a very lonely place when you are cold and ill and homesick. You also have to battle with the reality that climbing Everest can kill you. Of course, when pushed into these intense situations, amazing things can happen.

We formed amazing friendships and felt a sense of intense cooperation for weeks at a time that most people will get to experience only a few days out of their entire life. Everyone can relate to these phenomena; we’ve all lived through some type of disaster. Maybe it was a blizzard or a hurricane. Maybe it was a terrorist attack or a school shooting. In any case, the community comes together for a brief period and strangers who would never have occasion to get to know each other pitch in and help out to solve a problem or try and deal with a situation. These are times that bring out the best in humanity. Now, Everest climbers volunteer for this stress and intensity, but the emotions are real and just as important.

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