The Man Who Skied Down Everest
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The Man Who Skied Down Everest is a documentary about Yuichiro Miura, a Japanese alpinist who skied down Mt. Everest in 1970. The film was produced by Canadian film maker Budge Crawley. Miura skied 6,600 feet (2000 m) in 2 minutes and 20 seconds and fell 1320 feet down the steep Lhotse face from the Yellow Band just below the South Col. He used a large parachute to slow his descent. He came to a full stop just 250 ft. from the edge of the crevasse.
Eight died during the expedition's ascent.
The South Col is a large, level saddle between Everest and Lhotse at 26,000 feet (7928 m), often used as the highest base camp on the southern route, 3,000 feet below the summit. The southern route is the one Jon Krakauer took in May of 1996, documented in the book "Into Thin Air". The South Col is the place where Beck Weathers wandered frozen and left for dead. At the base of the Lhotse face is the Khumbu Glacier. Its upper end is constantly pulling away from the Lhotse face leaving a bergschrund, a crevasse formed by a glacier's falling away from the supporting rock.
Many have died by falling down this precipitous wall.
Crawley won the Best Documentary Film Academy Award for this picture.
[edit] External links
- The Man Who Skied Down Everest at the Internet Movie Database
- Altitudes on Everest
- clip of Yuichiro Miura skiing from the South Col
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Hearts and Minds |
Academy Award for Documentary Feature 1975 |
Succeeded by Harlan County, USA |
