Everest is an American-Icelandic-British adventure film directed by Baltasar Kormákur, released in 2015.
It recounts the tragedy that occurred on Everest on May 10 and 11, 1996, causing the deaths of eight people in two expeditions led by Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, who also go missing. This is not the adaptation of the story Tragedy on Everest (Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster) of the witness of this drama Jon Krakauer, published in 1997, but that of the memoirs of the Doctor Beck Weathers, one of the survivors of Rob Hall's crew.
Since pioneering the concept in 1992, New Zealand's Rob Hall has offered commercial expeditions to amateur mountaineers to the top of Everest through Adventure Consultant. On March 30, 1996 in Kathmandu, he launched a new expedition accompanied by guides Mike Groom and Andy "Harold" Harris with for clients in particular the journalist Jon Krakauer (who also came to do a report), the postman Doug Hansen (who had already done an attempt before), Texan Beck Weather or Japanese Yasuko Namba (who has climbed six of the seven summits). Once the introductions are made, the expedition begins the next day from Lukla at an altitude of 2,860m and progressively reaches Everest base camp at 5,364m above sea level where they are greeted by Chief Helen Wilton. . There, Rob meets his competitor and friend Scott Fischer at the head of Mountain Madness. This one is quite worn on the bottle.
On site, customers are reminded of the main dangers of the expedition, both in mountaineering accidents and physical problems related to altitude (including cerebral edema or pulmonary edema). During the month before the final ascent, the expedition will make three partial climbs from base camp through the very dangerous icefall before returning to the bottom. But following an incident during a partial ascent due to the lack of coordination of the teams, Rob and Scott decide to organize the final ascent together and instruct their sherpa to prepare the ladders and the ropes and to deposit the bottles. oxygen at the top. On May 5, the two teams prepare for the ascent which will reach the summit on Friday, Jon takes the opportunity to ask the motivations of each to make the ascent: Doug wants to prove to the children that he can do it, while Beck crosses an attack of depression. Rob calls his pregnant fiancee Jan (and also a climber) to inform her about the climb.
The next day begins the ascent. As the teams reached Camp 3 at an altitude of 7,315 m, Scott Fisher descended to base camp before ascending to Camp 1 at 5,944 m. On Thursday, the two teams climbed in mild weather from Camp 3 to Camp 4 at 7,951m, later joined by Scott. But the wind blows hard up there in the evening and the air is thinner. Fortunately, the weather calms down overnight at 12:30 am on Friday and the teams (without Scott resting) begin the final climb to the top. But Beck suffering from the eyes stops while waiting for Rob's return, the ascent is delayed because it is not equipped, some decide to go back down, while Doug cannot manage to climb quickly. The route is finally equipped around 12:45 p.m., the ascent resumes and they reach the summit between 1:14 p.m. and 2 p.m. without Beck (still stopped), while Rob waits for Doug still lagging behind. They are joined by Scott, but he experiences health problems and tells Rob that Doug is still too far from the top. They decide to go back down. But on the way down, the guide Harold does not find a full oxygen cylinder. Rob finds Doug on the descent, telling him it's too late, but he insists on climbing. Rob agrees to go back to the top with him, which they reach at 4 p.m. to the delight of Doug who has successfully completed his challenge.
But a storm gradually arrives in the valley and surprises all the climbers on the descent. Unfortunately Doug has no more oxygen and can no longer get down with Rob. At this point, Mike picks up Beck, while Harold climbs back up to Rob. Rescuer Guy Cotter suggests Rob go back down on his own, but Rob refuses to give up on Doug. However, the latter falls into the void. For his part, Beck slips and does not get up, while Scott collapses on his side, being very badly focused and dies. Rob is joined by Harold with oxygen and the two of them resume the descent. But the two guides stop because the oxygen bottles have frozen, then fall asleep. But during the night, Hiccup falls into the void, leaving Rob alone to his fate. Meanwhile, mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev of the Mountain Madness team sets out to help the struggling mountaineers, but leaves Beck and Yasuko for dead. Later that night, Rob's fiancée comes to the news and demands that her man be saved.
