I saw the new Everest movie last night.  Comprehensive accounts of the 1996 incident have been out there since it happened.  I read Krakauers original Outside Magazine article and then his book on the subject.  He seems to be the only person that benefited from what happened up there.  It is what put him on the map and launched him into the Pat Tillman story but he isn’t happy about this movie.  He says it is total bull.

It is a large scale sad story especially considering the final sat phone/radio conversation between Hall and his pregnant wife but it is not without its ironies.  Rob Hall pioneered pushing less than expert climbers up that mountain for $65,000 a pop and indulging one of them is what got him and arguably a few others killed.  I think, based on my understanding of the events, if he had kept to the plan Doug Hansen, Andy Harris, Yasuko Namba, and Hall himself would most likely have made it down to the high camp and lived.

The movie doesn’t address many of the nagging mysteries like the fixed ropes, the missing oxygen, or why Ang Dorje Sherpa got so close to Hall but turned back before reaching him nor does it take much of a swing at the commercial summit business but then again I didn’t really expect it to.  There are a lot of discrepancies with actual accounts and the helicopter rescue scene made me laugh out loud.  So, take it with a grain of salt and accept it for what it is.  A Hollywood movie about a real life event with good (CGI enhanced) mountain scenery.  I rate it an OK.