The Summit Film tonight 21.35 RTE1

duckysauce

Reminder to anyone interested

Alun

Have it set to record

SomeFool

duckysauce wrote: »

Reminder to anyone interested

just poped in to post this too!

pauld81

Great show, loving it!!

foolelle

anyone know where i can view the segment relating to this from the late late show the following month? can find it anywhere.

Great documentary,

nomdeboardie

Engrossing, though I'm thoroughly confused as to the who/what/when of it all (even without the acknowledged uncertainties and contradictions)!

+ I really wish the producers had used subtitles to identify the source of each piece of mountain footage as belonging to the expedition in question, "reconstructions" or previous expeditions etc. Going off on a tangent, more and more while watching documentary and 'informational' TV etc. I feel that I don't know what's 'real' and what's 'projected'; surveillance footage, candid camera, drama, 'reality TV', pseudo-reality TV, its all becoming a blur...

CardinalJ

Jaysus it really is a bit grim. The reality of what those guys do I suppose. Pemba Gyalje is an amazing guy.

SomeFool

CardinalJ wrote: »

Jaysus it really is a bit grim. The reality of what those guys do I suppose. Pemba Gyalje is an amazing guy.

if you haven't read it, no way down is a good read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Way-Down-Life-Death/dp/0141044063

DubOnHoliday

Can't say I enjoyed it due to the harrowing subject, and although I thought it was well done, I thought the last ten minutes was pretty rushed.
Overall, you're left with the opinion that most of the people on the mountain didn't tell the full story.

Was a little disappointed, can see why reviews were mixed.

The story was interesting, at least from an Irish angle, some of the characters involved were great men including Ger himself and Sherpa Pemba with incredible achievements.

That whole area of "mountaineers survive disaster with conflicting accounts" is almost standard now, the Everest disaster spawned books of allegations and denials, even without disaster it seems that many great mountaineers are surrounded by controversy about things they did and didn't do and how it affected expeditions.

But as nomdeboardie said above, it was the style that for me was the let down. There seeemed to be a lot of reconstruction, which any documentary maker can churn out these days. For me, it was a good story, not a good documentary It was like a kinda interesting programme on the History Channel, rather than a gripping film. For me the best documentary makers like Ken Burns can take a bundle of facts and photos and still tell an engrossing story, without relying on visual mock ups and reconstructions.

BarryD

Ditto - I was left thinking, this is one construction of what happened. But there could have been several other scenarios. It wasn't really explained or maybe I missed it, how the three Korean climbers became detached from the others and when they got into difficulties - was it during the night or the following morning. And why did Pemba and the two other sherpas 'abandon' the group and get themselves down to the camp? They obviously made the decision that they could reverse the awkward section without the fixed rope in place, did they discuss this with the others, did remaining climbers judge too tricky and decide to wait till daylight - more questions than answers.

jamfer

I believe that the starting place for this film was to clarify Ger's actions and place them in a different light. Having read No Way Down I was familiar with the main characters and their differing interpretations of events and it is only in the last quarter of the film that the point is made, that Ger wasn't out of his mind (as was quoted in the press), that he didn't just wonder off and die (as had also been quoted in the press), that he was the type who was not going to leave injured people on the mountain and that he was in fact aiding the injured people (who were left / passed by by others) and that as he was assisting the injured he was struck by an icefall and lost forever.

In short, the film is telling us that Ger lost his own life as he attempted to save others, rather than the other narrative which was that he was overcome with delirium and wandered off and died

BarryD

I missed the opening ten minutes or so, so maybe that was the setting. But if it was as you say, it was a long complicated way of making that point. I haven't read the book but I followed the events at the time. The scenario outlined at the end of this film was dependent, it seems to me, on the account given by Pemba. He said he had a radio call from the two sherpas attached to the Korean team who had gone up above and relayed that they said they were at the top of the 'bottleneck' section and encountered some Koreans and a westerner. That's from memory so I could be wrong. These were then all swept away in a serac fall so his is the only testimony on this? So you're still left with a situation as to who you believe?? It is also quite possible surely that Ger suffered from altitude sickness and became disorientated - there'd be no 'disgrace' in that, it'd be entirely understandable and reasonable in the circumstances. Regardless, he was some man.

jusmeig

It would be worth reading the book if u have not:
http://www.patfalvey.com/Newsflashes/Awards-Appearances/Books-Films-TV-reviews/The-time-has-come-New-book-about-Ger-McDonnell

Pemba did some amazing feats on the mountain that night, in addition to the other Sherpa on the expedition. One of them (Sherpa Chhiring Dorje) free-climbed down the bottleneck and found another Sherpa who had lost his ice axes. Chhiring secured this Sherpa to his harness and managed to continue down and saved him....epic. As always the selfless Sherpas saved many lives that night.

silverharp

I was surprised there was one guy there by himself. for something that that has a 1:4 chance of killing you , some of the people's lax attitude to planning was mind boggling.

BarryD

silverharp wrote: »

I was surprised there was one guy there by himself. for something that that has a 1:4 chance of killing you , some of the people's lax attitude to planning was mind boggling.

That was the Serbian climber? He was probably in the best position!! He could piggyback on the other groups in terms of fixing rope for the difficulties. He was tough, experienced and independent and wasn't relying on waiting for anyone else, could go at his own pace etc. I think he was one of the first to reach the summit and was heading down well within daylight.

As far as I could judge from what we heard at the time and on the basis of the documentary, no one really knows the full story. If I had an issue with the documentary, it was that the final events were more or less presented as fact, whereas they were just one take on events.

silverharp

BarryD wrote: »

That was the Serbian climber? He was probably in the best position!! He could piggyback on the other groups in terms of fixing rope for the difficulties. He was tough, experienced and independent and wasn't relying on waiting for anyone else, could go at his own pace etc. I think he was one of the first to reach the summit and was heading down well within daylight.

As far as I could judge from what we heard at the time and on the basis of the documentary, no one really knows the full story. If I had an issue with the documentary, it was that the final events were more or less presented as fact, whereas they were just one take on events.

maybe he was fine, it seemed odd though going out there not knowing exactly what resources youll be sharing or who youd be depending on. I couldn't follow the programme fully but clearly there was some timing issues and rope issues where they started laying them too low wasting time and rope I assume.

BarryD

Probably was in the region and headed up towards base camp, knew there were several other teams on the mountain, that there was a window in the weather, that they would have fixed ropes for the most difficult sections. If I recall correctly, he had come up directly from Camp 3 and still arrived in Camp 4 whilst the other teams were still getting underway? Must be some tough cookie!

duckysauce

BarryD wrote: »

That was the Serbian climber? He was probably in the best position!! He could piggyback on the other groups in terms of fixing rope for the difficulties. He was tough, experienced and independent and wasn't relying on waiting for anyone else, could go at his own pace etc. I think he was one of the first to reach the summit and was heading down well within daylight.

As far as I could judge from what we heard at the time and on the basis of the documentary, no one really knows the full story. If I had an issue with the documentary, it was that the final events were more or less presented as fact, whereas they were just one take on events.

there were 2 guys there by themselves one of them seemed to be a complete muppet who did not bring Ropes with him, the other was a Spanish climber Alberto Zerain who knew his ****.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_K2_disaster

BarryD

duckysauce wrote: »

there were 2 guys there by themselves one of them seemed to be a complete muppet who did not bring Ropes with him, the other was a Spanish climber Alberto Zerain who knew his ****.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_K2_disaster

Yes, Zerain was who I was referring to - Spanish not Serbian.

1986 was another year of high casualties on this mountain. I think 13 people died over a period of a couple of weeks then, including Alan Rouse & Julie Tullis.

BarryD

BarryD wrote: »

1986 was another year of high casualties on this mountain. I think 13 people died over a period of a couple of weeks then, including Alan Rouse & Julie Tullis.

Alan Rouse seemed like one of climbing's great characters, colourful guy, think he had a wild streak. I really must get the book on his exploits.

Mickeroo

Is this on the RTE player? Missed it the night it was on.

Alun

Mickeroo wrote: »

Is this on the RTE player? Missed it the night it was on.

Yes.

http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10239842/

5 days to go ...

Mickeroo

Alun wrote: »

Yes.

http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10239842/

5 days to go ...

Nice one, will watch it this evening.

Walter Sobchek

Haven't read the book so wouldnt have the full story but from watching the documentary it seemed that the family of Ger were believing what they wanted to believe about him, That he died trying to save others. Surely if this was the case it wouldnt have been brushed over so quickly at the end of the programme and a lot more of the film would have been about this considering he was the person the film was based around.

Mr Kim didn't come across too well.

karltimber

hi,

Saw the summit during the week.
Even though it was a tragic story, a compelling one all the same.

Is there any other documentrays similar to this out there - about climbing (doesn't have to be tragic) as I though it was just fasinating the footage of them on top of that mountain.
Not the same as Lug on a Sunday

Thx

oh, and I don't mean Cliffhanger with Silvester :rolleyes:

K

Mickeroo

karltimber wrote: »

hi,

Saw the summit during the week.
Even though it was a tragic story, a compelling one all the same.

Is there any other documentrays similar to this out there - about climbing (doesn't have to be tragic) as I though it was just fasinating the footage of them on top of that mountain.
Not the same as Lug on a Sunday

Thx

oh, and I don't mean Cliffhanger with Silvester :rolleyes:

K

You've probably seen it already but if not then Touching the Void is probably the best one there is, great film. The book is also well worth a read.

Into Thin Air, about the Everest disaster, is also another great read, may have been made into a film too but not sure.

BarryD

Seems to be a few documentaries/ films on the Eigerwand - north face climb. One I recall best was 'Eiger Solo' - a documentary of the first British solo ascent of the Eiger North Face. Welsh mountaineer Eric Jones' ultimate dream was to climb the notorious... weaves in the story of the early attempts and first ascent and it's tragedies.

http://www.peakware.com/peaks.html?pk=71&view=videos

Seems to be loads of them on the site above but the Eiger Solo was a bit of a classic in it's day.

nerraw1111

BBC4 did a great doc, The Eiger: Wall of Death. Basically the history of attempts on the Eiger.

It's repeated this Tuesday on BBC 4 at 22.55

duckysauce

nerraw1111 wrote: »

BBC4 did a great doc, The Eiger: Wall of Death. Basically the history of attempts on the Eiger.

It's repeated this Tuesday on BBC 4 at 22.55

Cracking Doc :cool:

Gasherbraun

karltimber wrote: »

hi,

Saw the summit during the week.
Even though it was a tragic story, a compelling one all the same.

Is there any other documentrays similar to this out there - about climbing (doesn't have to be tragic) as I though it was just fasinating the footage of them on top of that mountain.
Not the same as Lug on a Sunday

Thx

oh, and I don't mean Cliffhanger with Silvester :rolleyes:

K

Try "The Last Great Climb". It follows Leo Houlding + team attempting the unclimbed NE ridge of Ulvetanna in Antarctica. No tragedy just a great climbing film.

E11 is also a good watch. Follows Dave MacLeod over two years as he attempts to climb the worlds first rock climbing route rated at E11. Climbing on tiny fingertip holds and taking huge 80 foot falls.