At 18,000 feet above sea level and over the course of 40 days last Spring, documentary filmmaker Dianne Whelan immersed herself in the challenging and captivating world of base camp at Mt. Everest. With spectacular footage of the mountains’ landscape as a backdrop, 40 DAYS AT BASE CAMP is an intriguing and intimate portrayal of three climbing teams and their journey to the peak.
In 1994, New Zealand mountaineer, Mark Whetu, summitted Mt Everest with climbing partner and friend Mike Reinberger. However it was late in the day and after a freezing night on the summit, Whetu was faced with a terrible decision...to leave Reinberger or stay with him forever.
I am a cameraman specialized in shooting in high altitude and extreme condition. I participate in four sponsored expeditions to the Himalayas from 2009 to 2013 to shoot TV documentaries. Having observed success, failure and death of aspiring alpinist in the series of life risking challenges, I decide to make a film about the other side of the alpinist that has not been seen on TV.
The great successes and tragedies in the life and work of Hans Kammerlander, the renowned mountaineer.
Horia Colibasanu is a dentist, father of two boys and elite climber. In 2008, he refused to abandon, at 7400 meters on the Annapurna, his sick companion, the Basque mountaineer Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, implanted his own life in danger. His action dazzled the climbing community. Despite this tragic incident, he continued to climb in pure alpine style, without supplemental oxygen. In 2017, the 40-year-old Romanian athlete will return to Everest, after two unsuccessful attempts. For the first time, Horia is attempting a solo ascent.
Ueli Steck may be the greatest speed alpinist the world has ever seen. In this film he tells the stories of his record-breaking ascents in the Alps, accompanied by stunning aerial footage of him racing up 8,000 foot alpine faces. Ueli joins Alex Honnold in Yosemite to attempt speed records there. His ultimate goal: take his one-man alpine speed game to the largest, highest walls in the world.
Jim Bridwell was one of the best climbers in the world in the 70s, 80s. The documentary chronicles Bridwell's career from those early days to his final ascents in 2001. The film traces Jim Bridwell's journey through numerous interviews with other legendary free climbing personalities such as Leo Houlding and Ron Kauk. See him climb some of Yosemite's historic routes with today's young climbers paying homage to this true legend of free climbing. In an unpublished document from 1981, he is seen in one of his famous Zodiac ascents in El Capitan with and Fred East.
History of rock climbing in Yosemite.
Igor D'India's epic journey down the Yukon River, across Canada & Alaska. 16000 km hitch-hiking and nearly 2000 km solo paddling with an "old-fashioned" approach to adventure. Without any assistance, radio, GPS or phone, just some solar panels to re-charge his audio/video equipment. In 1965 well known mountaineer Walter Bonatti, accomplished a solo expedition by canoe down the Yukon.
Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk ascend Northern India's Meru Shark Fin, one of the last great unclimbed alpine rock walls in the world.
A mountaineer and audiovisual director begins a trip through Argentina to reconvene with the two friends with whom he tried to make a summit in the Himalayas. Alone and with them, he will try to understand what happened to Dario, the fourth friend, who decided to keep going up, the only one who did not return alive from the expedition.
Deceased but not forgotten. In 2017, Switzerland's most famous mountaineer, "Swiss Machine" Ueli Steck, fell to his death in the Himalayas when he was just 40 years old. Three close friends travel again to the Everest region where he died. His family in Emmental has to deal with premature death.
