World Famous Comics: Bruce Nyznik The Man Who Skied Down Everest
Bruce Nyznik The Man Who Skied Down Everest
Starring: Douglas Rain, Yuichiro Miura Directed By: Lawrence Schiller, Bruce Nyznik Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Image Entertainment Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: March 01, 2005 Running Time: 85 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1975
Description: This incredible, award-winning film features adventurer, poet and world-champion skier Yuichiro Miura as he and his team face the most challenging climb in the world, Mt. Everest. The ascent is fraught with tragedy, the descent miraculous. During the climb, they face an icefall that claims the lives of six of their team, still considered the worst natural disaster accident in Himalayan history. With a 35mm Panavision film crew in tow, they continue on to the South Col, only 350 meters from the summit, where Miura put his life in the hands of the gods in his descent. Using oxygen and a parachute to slow his speed, Miura skied 7,000 feet over sheer ice and rocks. Unbalanced by the gusting winds, he hit a boulder and fell 1,320 feet, smashing into rocks and ice ridges. A patch of snow was all that saved him, allowing his fall to end just moments away from the Bergshrund Crevasse. This final climax has been called the most exciting six minutes of film ever shot as Miura plummets helplessly down Everest's unforgiving icy slopes toward certain death.
Physical & Spiritual Journey The first time I saw this was on The Discovery Channel, 1987. I was an engineering student at the time and I only caught the very last part, where he skies down the mountatin. I told my friends about it, but no one believed me. A few weeks later, it was on again. This time I taped/recorded it (old school VHS), I had proof! This is a great documentary, not only of one man's physical journey but also the spiritual journey of all who attempt this quest.
An incredible, scenic, courages adventure through a part of the world and culture that has already gone. Beautiful. It is a fantastic work. The sherpas, the small towns they pass through, the culture that was alive back in the 1960s still, all that is beautifully filmed. All that is gone, changed forever now. The mountain, the challange, the courage, all can be felt in this film. I highly recommend it to everyone, but most especially to those who can remember supreme adventuring before goretex, gps /cell phones and high tech equipment. It's a remarkable film on many levels.
The Real Everest This guy is nuts and the video is good. If you want to see what people really had to go thru to climb Everest without all the fluff added, see this video. Not to mention you get to see this guy attempt this insane feat.
Kamikaze on Everest Excellent DVD.Maybe the best Everest video.Totaly different camera posision than other films.Probably the most viues of this Mountain.Great film. Strongly recomended for evryone who like Everest subject.
Incredible I have been fascinated with Mount Everest since reading Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air". There was an underlying message in that book that made me want to understand more about why someone would risk their life and struggle through overwelming physical challenges just to say they had climbed the mountain. There was also a picture, in words, of a rugged beauty that served, in part, to explain that puzzle. I have purchased and enjoyed a number of cinematic accounts of Everest climbs and the beauty and the questions still remain. "The Man Who Skied Down Everest" is probably the best of those videos because the cinematography is outstanding and the quest is beyond the scope of just wanting to climb Everest; Yuichiro Miura wanted to ski down it. Indeed, it did not appear that Everest was summitted but, rather, plummitted.
The film begins as a sort of "how to" and shows all of the equiptment and provisions that needs to be hauled up to the base camp (I forget how many tons but it was a lot). It takes us through the route that the porters (and climbers) had to journey. That seemed like a challeging enough trek in itself. We get to the base camp area of Everest which appeared as though Miura and his crew had sole reservations to. This was in the early 1970's and was, apparently, before the climbing of Everest became such a popular sport. Knowing about the thin air from Krakauer's book and other sources, I was astonished to see one of the party smoking a cigarette. I recalled the time I did that in the Andes and almost passed out. There is a tragic accident due to a cave in and half a dozen native porters are killed. I pondered the superhuman efforts that must have occurred in order to recover the bodies.
Eventually, we see Miura ski down a major portion of Everest and it is, by itself, worth the price of the DVD. The uncredited part of this video presentation is the camera work that was done to bring this event into our homes. Even on the single-file portering of the provisions up to the base camp, we get incredible camera shots from quite a distance. It may be by plane in some cases but the shots vere very steady and I'm not sure that would have happened in an air-borne vehicle at that thin-air altitude. The shots of the skiing also seemed to come from parrallel angles but the there was a noticeable decrease in clarity so it might have been shot from quite a distance at a lower altitude. Either way, we got the feeling that we were seeing things from a relatively close perspective.
I remembered the title of this movie from the Academy Awards from 1975. It's title is compelling. The film is even more so.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
