The Man Who Skied Down Everest Review

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Winner of the 1975 Best Documentary Oscar©, and certainly among the greatest adventure documentaries of all time, THE MAN WHO SKIED DOWN EVEREST (Image) might also be the first extreme Zen film.
The opening, widescreen shot shows Everest (29,002') through a gap in the clouds just as the morning sun hits the forbidding peak. And then this quote: "Throughout time, mas has aspired to great heights in search of peace of mind and a quiet heart. This is the story of such a man..."
The man in question is Yuichiro Miura, poet, adventurer and world champion skier (he set a speed record). The film follows his audacious attempt to ski down the upper slopes of Everest. The film, shot in 35MM Panavision, begins in Katmandu where 800 porters begin a trek of 185 miles with 27 tons of equipment.
Along the way, Miura visits Sir Edmund Hillary, who, in 1953, was the first climber (with his Sherpa partner Tenzing Norgay) to conquer Everest and return. Hillary says, "When we stop looking for challenges, human beings will be in a very bad way."
The poetic Miura is quoted as saying, "The challenge of the peaks is the challenge of life itself: To always struggle higher." Later he's quoted again: "We have wandered from the paths of the wind and become children of fear."
After trekking 185 miles across the high passes to Tibet and the base of Everest they take on 400 Sherpas. It takes another 40 days to traverse the next three miles.
Exquisitely photographed in beautifully composed shots, the breathtaking vistas are a dance of light and shadow and the memorable, poetic thoughts of Miura as he acclimates for his high altitude challenge in his "life of adventure to escape the labyrinth of the city."
During the treacherous climb, death claims six team members as they cross an icefall. About a thousand feet from the summit, Miura dons his skis, and with oxygen and a parachute, begins his descent. Zooming, almost free-falling, over ice and rock, he travel upright almost a mile and half. And then it happens. The wind knocks him off balance, he hits a big rock and falls, skidding, bouncing, across rocky ridges, skipping like a stone for 1,320 feet. He is stopped by a snowfield seconds away from the sure death of the Bergshrund Crevasse.
I have never seen a movie anything like this. If you have a big, widescreen TV, the pristine, high resolution images of this exotic place and extreme challenge will fill your field of vision and bend your mind until it literally takes your breath away during the last five minutes. This is an ultimate armchair adventure.


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