Discovery launches 'Everest: Beyond The Limit'

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
The 2006 climbing season on Mount Everest was the second deadliest on record and marked the first time a double amputee made it to the summit. Using cutting-edge filming techniques including high-altitude video technology and cameras mounted on helmets, Discovery Channel's premiere series 'Everest: Beyond The Limit' will present every step of this grueling April-May 2006 expedition by a group of people from different walks of life.

For the first time ever, a television series will uncover the experience of an Everest summit attempt from start to finish and narrate the journey of the human mind – not only reflected in the glory and accomplishment of reaching the summit, but also in the intense limitations and difficulties that an expedition of this magnitude places on the human body and spirit.

For 'Everest: Beyond The Limit', a 17-member production team followed an expedition of 11 climbers with three professional mountain guides, organized and led by the experienced New Zealander Russell Brice. In the programme, viewers will see and hear from climbers every step of the way as they deal with their own physical and mental struggles: an asthmatic man from Denmark who tries to summit without supplemental oxygen; a firefighter from Los Angeles making his second attempt to reach the summit, having previously mortgaged his home and sold his motorcycle to pay for the climb; a Harley-Davidson motorcycle designer having a considerable climbing disadvantage with metal plates and pins holding his spine, ankle and part of his skull together – the result of a near-fatal bike crash and an Oregon ER doctor on his first summit attempt. The six-part premiere series begins from 12th May and will air on Discovery Channel every Saturday at 9 pm with a repeat on the following Monday at 9 pm.

Included in the series is Mark Inglis' historic summit, as he becomes the first-ever double amputee to scale Everest after losing his legs to frostbite while climbing Mount Cook 24 years ago. On his passion for climbing, Mark says, "The main thing is to always know that nothing in life is too hard and you never know until you give it a go."

"For the first time ever in a television series, we will put viewers on the world's tallest and most alluring peak – a mountain that represents the ultimate test of human will and determination, From this unique vantage point, the intense danger surrounding this increasingly popular climbing passion becomes startlingly clear - we are presenting the mountain's magnificence and intimidating terrain to viewers in the most real way possible." said Deepak Shourie, EVP & Management Director of Discovery Networks India.

At the launch of the programme, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia, a member of the first Indian team to climb Mount Everest and the current President of Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) said "The dominant emotion that surged through me as I stood on the summit of Everest was humility. I felt, "Thank God", it's all over, but instead of jubilation, there was a tinge of sadness. Was it because I had done the ultimate in climbing and all roads hereafter would lead down? In climbing to the summit you are overwhelmed by a deep sense of joy and thankfulness which lasts a lifetime and the experience changes you completely. The man who has been to the mountains is never the same again; he becomes conscious of his smallness and loneliness in the universe. The other summit – the summit – the summit of the mind – no less formidable and no easier to climb. The mind has its mountains and cliffs, fearful, sheer unfathomed. The physical act of climbing a mountain has a kinship with the ascent of that inward, spiritual mountain."

The first woman in the world to twice scale Mount Everest, Padma Shri Santosh Yadav talking about the spirit of mountaineering said, "Discovery Channel has done a remarkable job by producing an exact look and sense of climbing Everest, showcasing every element involved: intense danger and challenge, profound passion and the unmatched joy and glory. Initially it is the challenge of the climb that motivates you. But as you experience the mountains it makes you aware of your limitations as a person and as a human being. The towering mountains and their surreal beauty make you humble. You feel nearer to God."

Angst-ridden and candid conversations among climbers give viewers an inside look at extreme adventurers facing very real health risks such as cerebral edema, frostbite, hypothermia, heart attacks and hallucinations, just to have one breathtaking moment at the top. Scientific knowledge presented in the series further explains the effects of altitude and extreme cold on the human body and the geography of Everest.

Each climber will face his fears, but not all will reach the summit. Discovery Channel's exclusive account will show what it takes to attempt a rescue on Everest and gives viewers a first-hand look at the shockingly long wait lines at the top of the mountain in an area dubbed as the "death zone." At levels above 26,000 feet, temperatures are routinely minus-40 degrees Fahrenheit, oxygen is 70 percent lower than at sea level, and the extreme altitude causes the body to consume its own muscle tissue for energy.

Viewers will also witness the risks and challenges associated with climbing the Everest, including facts like: fatal accidents on Everest are 80 percent more likely to take place on descent, despite it being less physically demanding; solar radiation is so brutal near the summit that climbers who breathe with their mouth open can burn the roof of their mouth; at above 17,000 feet, the body literally consumes itself for energy and coughing can be so violent that it can crack a rib; and on summit day climbers burn 12,000 to 15,000 calories – 10 times what the body uses on an average day.

From his 25-years of mountaineering experience Russell says, "In my lifetime, about 80 percent of my mates have died from climbing. It's a privilege to have survived this long."