| Skiing Everest | |
|---|---|
Skiing Everest Poster |
|
| Directed by | Les Guthman and Mike Marolt |
| Produced by | Mike Marolt Les Guthman Kenny Fields |
| Written by | Les Guthman |
| Starring | Mike Marolt Steve Marolt John Callahan Jim Gile Hans Kammerlander Chris Davenport Laura Bokas Mark Newcomb |
| Music by | Richard Horowitz |
| Cinematography | Mike Marolt Cherie Silvera |
| Editing by | Les Guthman |
| Distributed by | Montezuma Basin Productions Cinetic Media |
| Release date(s) | 2009 |
| Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $500,000 (estimated) |
Skiing Everest is an American adventure documentary directed by Les Guthman and Mike Marolt;[1] written by Les Guthman, and featuring high-altitude skiers Mike Marolt, Steve Marolt, John Callaghan, Jim Gile, Hans Kammerlander, Chris Davenport, Laura Bakos, Mark Newcomb and the Fredrik Ericsson who died skiing on K2 in 2010. [2]
Filmed by Mike Marolt over ten years, Skiing Everest tells the story of a group of close friends, lead by Marolt and his twin brother Steve, who grew up in Aspen, Colorado, and went on to become the first skiers from the Western Hemisphere to ski from above 8,000 meters (26,247 ft.) when they skied from the summit of Shisha Pangma in Tibet in 2000,[3] and then challenged the highest slopes in the world on Mt. Everest and Cho Oyu.[4]
The film follows the Marolts and their childhood friends Jim Gile, and John Callahan, who was an Olympic cross-country skier,[5] on skiing expeditions into the Death Zone[6] above 26,000 ft., without using bottled oxygen. At the top of the world, they lock into their skis and challenge the most dangerous slopes in the world.
Skiing Everest also tells the history of high-altitude skiing, dating back to the 1930s, and includes interviews with Hans Kammerlander, who was the first to ski from the summit of Everest;[7] Laura Bakos, the first woman to ski from the summit of an 8,000 m. peak;[8] and Chris Davenport, the two-time world extreme skiing champion,[9] who is an avid ski mountaineer as well. And it tells the Marolts' personal story: the sons of U.S. Olympic skier Max Marolt,[10] who grew up in Aspen, before it became an internationally famous ski destination and who took to skiing in the hope of escaping what was an isolated, decaying former mining town.
Skiing Everest was shown in film festivals[11] and theaters in 2009-2011[12] [13] and was bought by ESPN in July 2011 for broadcast in the United States and Europe. It debuted on ESPN Classic in November 2011 with six primetime broadcasts over the weekend of November 18-20.[14]