Above All Else: The Everest Dream (1999)
Allumination

Description

There are always two stories in mountain climbing, the story of the mountain and the story of the people trying to climb it. We know the story of Everest well after the tragic news stories and the IMAX film about it. There may be more technically difficult mountains to climb, but none have the mystique of Everest.

Above All Else is the story of Alan Hobson and Jamie Clarke's third and final attempt to scale the mountain. The two climbers, who had failed twice in 10 years to conquer Everest--once only 400 meters from the top--balance each other well; Clarke's surfer style is offset by Hobson's thoughtfulness. Clarke never lets things get too serious as he mugs for the camera, describing avalanche footage as "cool." Hobson on the other hand openly expresses the concentration it takes to suspend fear when crossing crevasses, moving beneath house-size chunks of ice that could fall at any moment, or climbing up high in the dead zone where there is hardly any oxygen. Knowing how Hobson feels about the risks makes the scenes in the terrible Khumbu icefall, a maze of broken ice and crevasses, much more frightening.

The film also shows parts of an expedition that are rarely seen, from the tedious organizational work that takes place before a climb, to the practice runs in the Canadian Rockies. There is also a touching scene of the mountaineers' families huddled next to a fax machine half a world away waiting to hear about the climbers' fate.

Tags

Adventure, Climbing, Mount Everest, Himalaya

Collected reviews and ratings

8.0 Amazon user reviews

Inspiring and uplifting, Above All Else: The Everest Dream takes you where few others have been before.
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7.5 digitallyobsessed.com | Dale Dobson

While the film captures the human drama of the ascent in an immediate sense, it provides little context to help us appreciate the struggle. Those familiar with Everest will find this an interesting side trip, but it ultimately seems like a "visitor center" film—well-constructed within its narrow focus but not as informative or comprehensive as one might like.
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