Thoughts On Storm Over Everest

So did anyone else catch Storm Over Everest last night? It aired for two hours in prime time, and was some of the best television I've seen in a quite a long time.

The show was filmmaker David Breashears' return to Mt. Everest to take a closer look at the events that took place on the mountain back in 1996. The story is told through limited narration by Breaashears himself, and interviews with a number of the survivors, and some dramatic recreations of the events, interspersed between amazing photos and video of Everest itself.

The survivors, who told their tales in a very compelling fashion included the likes of Michael Groom, Beck Weathers, Charlotte Fox, Sandy Hill, Makalu Gau, and many more. Listening to them talk about their various experiences was mesmerizing at times, even though I've heard some of them talk about it in the past. It seems that they were more willing to open up now, since so much time has passed, and share what they were going through.

The film was very well edited and offered a flair for the dramatic, as the events unfolded on screen, with images and footage to complement the stories being told. It was all shot in high def as well, which made for a stunning visual of what life on Everest is like. It was, for the most part, a fairly straight forward telling of the events, with the first hand accounts of the climbers, and there was really no blame being placed on anyone or attempts to make it seem like it was the fault of any particular person. More like a series of unfortunate circumstances.

Personally, I thought the show was great. It was riveting to watch, and I can't recall ever seeing so many of the climbers in one show at the same time. It was a quick two hours of television and definitely brilliant filmmaking out of Breashears whose track record speaks for itself.

So? Who watched? Post your impressions in the comments section. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Or, if you missed it, you can catch the whole thing online, so go watch it and come back and report in! :)