mountaineering accidents

Jules Mountain shares his story of climbing Mount Everest, and surviving an avalanche caused by an earthquake on the mountain.

Hiking into the remote Utah canyonlands, Aron Ralston felt perfectly at home in the beautiful natural world. Then, at 2:41 p.m., eight miles from his truck, in a deep and narrow slot canyon, an eight-hundred-pound boulder tumbled loose, pinning Aron's right hand and wrist against the canyon wall. Through six days of hell, with scant water, food, or warm clothing, and the terrible knowledge that no one knew where he was, Aron eliminated his escape options one by one. Then a moment of stark clarity helped him to solve the riddle of the boulder, and commit one of the most extreme and desperate acts imaginable.

This movie attempts to re-create the disastrous events that took place during the Mount Everest climb on May 10, 1996.

When Edmund Hillary first conquered Mt. Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world?s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.

The author relates his experience of climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense.

Shares stories of being stranded on mountains.

Surveys five separate mountain disasters of the twentieth century including George Mallory's attempt to climb Mt. Everest, the 1986 deaths of seven students and two teachers on Mount Hood near Portland, Oregon, and the 2008 deaths of eleven experienced mountain climbers on K2.

Aron Ralston recounts his story of survival and rescue after being trapped for six days in the Utah canyonlands after a falling boulder pinned his right hand and wrist to the canyon wall. Reveals how he used his video camera to say goodbye to family and friends and reflect on his life, leading to a divine inspiration that eventually saved his life.

Examines the possibility that the rigors of the experience of an ascent of Mt. Everest can cause permanent, damaging changes to the human brain and body, following a team of climbers, under close monitoring by scientists, during an expedition to the summit of Everest and back again.