The seventh volume of the "Il Grande Alpinismo" series, entitled "Everest Sea To Summit", has a rather enigmatic title. You read it and reread it a few times until you're driven to read the back of the box, and at last you understand how legendary this video can be.
The story is thrilling, not least for the project itself of covering on foot the way that runs from the mouth of the Ganges to the summit of Everest (8848 m).
I always say that to understand the height of a mountain you have to climb all of it from the bottom, without cable cars, without cars, without stratagems of any kind to shorten the way. Here we are looking at a man who for me is a hero, a man who out of integrity of principle pulled off an unprecedented feat.
The film is even too short for the enormity of the feat...
What strikes you is that beside him his wife's love went with him step by step as far as base camp at the foot of the glacier. Walking 800 km from the mouth of the Ganges to Everest base camp may sound trivial, but it isn't. It's hard to see why the DVD box has to comment on the feat with a line by Messner, stating that "from a mountaineering point of view, all that matters is how you climb the last 4000 metres of Everest".
The footage is not particularly fine and the script very thin. But the documentary is genuine and builds a growing tension right through the film.
A docu-film that simply shows that there are no limits to human imagination, that the feats we can achieve are always new and incredibly full of surprises and the unexpected.
All in all a good film.
Who we recommend the documentary to
We recommend it to those interested in great feats more than in mountaineering technique: the heart of the film is the long walk from the mouth of the Ganges, across plains and hills, to base camp and then to the summit. It is also suitable for those who go to the mountains as hikers, because it shows in a concrete way what it means to earn the whole height gain without shortcuts.
Those looking for spectacular images or polished direction may be disappointed: the value of the documentary lies in the sincerity of the account and in the project itself. It is part of the "Il Grande Alpinismo" series, useful for those who want to go on to other titles devoted to the great climbs. For a very different account of the same mountain, read the review of Into Thin Air (Aria sottile) by Jon Krakauer.