At Everest base camp at night, if you try and sleep, you will awake breathless everyfew minutes. You feel as if you are drowning, which in a sense, you are. Base campis at a modest 18,000 feet. The summit of the highest mountain on the planet still lies11,000 feet above you.
In 1953 no one knew whether a human being could reach the roof of the world andsurvive. Thirteen men had already died in unsuccessful expeditions. Enter a Britishteam which included a humble New Zealand beekeeper, Edmund Hillary, and amember of the Nepalese Sherpa people, Tensing Norgay, a veteran of five attempts onEverest. It was probably the last ‘British’ chance to be the first to make it to the top. ASwiss team had almost succeeded in 1952 and a number of resourceful andresource-rich American climbers were ready to take on the awe-inspiringChomolungma.
Beyond the Edge, in its clever mix of actuality and dramatization, captures both theextraordinary beauty of the high Himalayas and the peerless achievement of Hillary,Tenzing and the team led by John Hunt.
Myles Dungan
