40 Days at Base Camp

A holiday at the top of the world

40 Days at Base Camp Climbing the planet's highest mountain is no longer a challenge for only the bravest and most skilled. A sacred deity to the local population, Mount Everest has become the rest of the globe's most extreme playground. The towering peak is awash with amateur climbers queuing at 28,000ft for a chance to stand on top of the world. This unexpected portrait of modern-day mountaineering is fascinating and alarming in equal measure.

16-year-old Arjun tentatively edges across a precariously balanced ladder, the only route across the enormous crevasse below. Filming a video diary of his holiday, he can only muster a single line of commentary; "oh shit..." This is no walk in the park, but it's open to the public anyway. "I don't know anything about mountaineering!" laughs first-time climber Bagyashree, as her expedition leader shows her how to use an oxygen mask. Like a beehive with no queen, Everest Base Camp has become a sprawling, haphazard community of individuals, all competing for space to make their own push to the summit. "Boy has it changed. There used to be only one expedition per season, now there's dozens...and hundreds of climbers", reflects Dr Peter Hackett, a leading figure in high-altitude medicine and Everest veteran.

"What hasn't changed is that Everest is still a physiologic and medical problem." The world's highest peak remains an extremely dangerous place: "a low-oxygen environment that produces a lot of stress". Not only that, but climbers have to dodge lethal avalanches, crevasses, rock fall and pass through 'The Death Zone' to reach the summit. Winds can reach a terrifying 175 mph and temperatures can drop to a bone-chilling -17 degrees Fahrenheit.

But the dangers don't dissuade the dozens of commercial expeditions that come here every year, with customers even paying up to $100,000 for the privilege. Over 3,000 people have summated Everest since Hillary and Tenzing became the first in 1953. Yet 250 people have also died on the mountain. Between the tents in Base Camp, gruesome body parts surface through the ice in various stages of decomposition. "The death rate has been remarkably stable. It's still higher than most people would accept for a holiday..." Hackett says with a wry smile.

It's an eclectic bunch taking the risk, from 16-year-old Arjun wanting to be the youngest Indian to summit Everest, to seasoned climbers attempting a new record, and Nelson, who wants to be the first Colombian with a prosthetic leg to reach the top. But for every noble story of great personal achievement, there are warnings to be heeded. This tourist hotspot is rapidly losing its cool. "Climate change is a real issue. The mountain is melting and becoming more and more dangerous". Unofficial clean-up operations desperately attempt to clamp down on the piles of tin cans, bottles, ropes, gas canisters, tent poles and discarded clothing that blot an otherwise majestic landscape. "We're so sad, because this is our God", sighs Chuna, a local Nepali expedition guide.

And despite the changes, the mountain remains a force to be reckoned with. As the season draws to a close, its latest visitors have certainly been shown who's boss. "You can commercialize the crap out of it, but the mountain doesn't care who you are...you got to be humble in the mountains."

.
.
.

Laurel Official Selection, Vancouver International Film Festival, 2012

Laurel Official Selection, Banff Mountain Film Festival, 2012
FULL SYNOPSIS

The Producers


Dianne Whelan is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and photographer residing in Vancouver, BC. In April 2010, Whelan traveled to Nepal and Mount Everest Base Camp to direct and shoot her documentary film, 40 Days at Base Camp, a film shot on Mt. Everest. The film had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival and was the opening night film at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. She is the first woman to shoot a film on the world’s highest mountain.

Making The Film


"I grew up with the picture of Hillary and Tenzing in my bedroom—and here are these two men who had climbed the mountain together and neither of them had ever admitted, despite a lot of media pressure, who had stood on the top first. There was something really noble about that story, and I really loved it. With that in mind, I went to Everest in 2007, commissioned to write an article about Base Camp, and when I got there, I was really disillusioned. There was litter everywhere, and I was hearing stories of oxygen tanks being stolen at Camp 4, and it was the exact opposite of what I had learned, and what my experience had always been in the mountains. I thought, I gotta’ go back there as a filmmaker, because there’s something here. That mountain has been a metaphor for human ambition for a lot of people, and that mountain has changed—that metaphor has changed. How is the microcosm of what’s going on here a reflection of a greater truth of what’s going on everywhere?"

This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. For more info see our Cookies Policy