Kevin's Watch

Saw this in 3d last night. A recreation of the tragic events that hit groups of commercially run climbing tours some years back, when 'unexpected' bad weather trapped a number of climbers on their descent from the summit. Poignant and saddening as you would expect, the film also uses its 3d effects with a subtle brush to give the viewer as real a taste of grandeur of the scene as is possible from the seat of a cinema. Jake Gyllinghall gives a good supporting role as a laid back team-leader, and Emily Watson and Keira Knightly also make a good fist of their smaller roles, but the lead actors were in the main less recognisable and I think the film was the better for it.

The film runs pretty much as you would expect with extreme suffering taking the centre stage and in the final analysis the predominant feeling one is left with is why? It just seemed so obvious that if you start to become blasé about a force of nature as wild as Everest it will bite you in the ass. As the man in the film said "the mountain will always have the last word".

I have read that a Japanese man drowned while hiking Everest, but can find no further details. his is the only drowning I found.

and I want to see this movie.

need to fix the thread title.

The film may go some way at least toward discouraging the type of commercial operation that results in this kind of 'overuse' Hashi. I can't think the commercial climbing operations will be best pleased by their presentation in the film. At one stage the route over the ice-crevasses becomes so clogged with groups that they are queing in line for over an hour to cross the bridges. As a result of the inactivity some climbers develop frostbite. This and other logistical failures are starkly portrayed in the film such that it serves as anything but an advert for the practice.

This would not be my normal type of film to spring for but for a couple of things. I wanted to see the how well cinematic technology could present the Himalaya, a background almost perfect for judicially used 3D, and second, more personally, I've been to 'base-camp' on the Tibet side and had a desire, however vicariously, to relive some of the experiences of that trip.

62 years ago, Hilary and Sherpa Tensing pushed the boundaries of human endeavour. Now they run tourists up on day trips practically. Ah, humanity.

Agree with Hashi...a 20 year moratorium on climbing it would help. Of course, the waiting list would start immediately...

A quick Google shows the movie was indeed based on the '96 disasters as I suspected.

Instead of this, I recommend 3 books...

Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
Left For Dead by Beck Weathers
Ascent and Dissent by Ken Vernon

3 different perspectives on the events. My favourite is the last, probably because it deals with the '96 South African expedition, but it's also very well written by a journalist who accompanied them.

I see that John Krakauer has condemned the movie as "total bull."

--A

Wow! I thought it was Ok.

Oddly [or perhaps not ] I take almost the diametrically opposit view from you guys regarding the top of Everest. The mountain has been climbed. As you say it has become almost a commercialised day-trip expedition now and thus is the point of the whole exercise rendered moot. Now is the time for the Chinese [for lets face it, they're in Tibet for the duration] and Nepalese governments to get together and with the help of the best engineering minds and architectural visionaries we have, begin construction of what could only be the ultimate tourist destination of the whole planet. Yes - I mean an escalator jouney and 360 degree viewing hotel complex kitted out with all mod cons and luxuries situated bang on the top of the world! You could have the actual summit coming up through a hole in the floor of the central foyer as the center-piece for you to stand next to with your finger on top while being photographed [or even better doing a 'selfie']. This can be done - I swear it can be done! {Hypothetically, could this be done?}

If it was hermetically sealed maybe. The extreme temperature would play hell with any mechanical equipment, and obviously the lack of oxygen is going to be a problem. If you treated it like a space station maybe. Which it sorta technically would be...well...not quite, 50 odd miles away...but close.

--A

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:Confirmed.

Masao Yokoyama, 2 Sept 1987, drowned during Japanese Expedition on E Rongbuk Glacier.

and that is all I can find on him. how does one drown on a mountain?

This probably isn't it, but in acute altitude sickness the thin linning of the lung alveoli effectively begins to 'weep' serum into the alveolar spaces and the sufferer effectively 'drowns' thereby. I have seen it described this way in the literature.

Alternatively the sloping sided bowl like shape of the glaciers cross-section would make it very suceptable to flash-flooding if significant quantities of water were suddenly released higher up the mountain. How would this happen? I haven't got a clue.

Saw it. Hashi is right. I guess like peter I'm left asking "why?" I just don't get it.

Some moves in the right direction this week with the announcement by the Nepalese authorities of a strict tightening of climbing permit issues that should considerably limit the traffic on the upper slopes of the mountain.

I was wondering how many deaths would be too many.

I'd say one Sarge, but people will ever find ways to push their boundaries and risk is inherent in this. I've been following this new hominid find in S. Africa, and the risks the cavers take wriggling through long and ever so narrow fissures deep underground truly appals me.

we were watching a local Texas travel show. they featured a swimming hole that had underwater caves that had to be gated after a group ended up getting stuck and drowning.

and I read of morons dying for selfies. we get one life, seems it should be precious.

sgt.null wrote:we were watching a local Texas travel show. they featured a swimming hole that had underwater caves that had to be gated after a group ended up getting stuck and drowning.

and I read of morons dying for selfies. we get one life, seems it should be precious.

I think it was about 10 years ago now a group from Chicago went to Ft. Worth for a convention and they were letting their children jump into the Water Gardens, a place where you are only supposed to walk on the concrete. Anyway, one of the kids drowned and the group tried to sue the city. Fortunately, Ft. Worth won the case--you shouldn't have let your kids run around like little hellions, folks.

when we went to the Grand Canyon we read up and found thus...

www.citylab.com/weather/2015/05/mapping ... th/394040/

with all the deaths, how does the canyon end up not being sued.

Given the picture of you with your back to that edge Sarge.......no I'm not even going to continue that thought!........ suffice to say, you must have nerves like steel cables 'coz I wouldn't be 100 yards from a drop like that.

peter - julie was yelling at me the entire time that i was too close to the edge.

meanwhile there was a girl on crutches who was way closer than i ever got to the edge. i kept worrying she was going to fall.