From the July/December 1998 issue of the Operating Cameraman

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From the very beginning, the spring 1996 MacGillivray Freeman Films expedition to climb and film on Mt. Everest promised to be different from any other IMAX™ shoot.

While it is true that many films have been made about Mt. Everest, no one has ever undertaken what was attempted with the IMAX™ camera. Co-director David Breashears had used 16 MM cameras high on Mt. Everest; however he had only taken video cameras to the summit.

In 1983 Breashears carried a specially modified 2.5-pound Panasonic industrial camera to the summit for a live microwave broadcast. More recently he took the 3-pound Sony DVX-1000 camcorder to the summit--this camera could record up to 1 hour on a two-ounce digital cassette.

By comparison, the IMAX™ camera weighing in at 42 pounds and devouring 500 feet of 65mm film in 90 seconds clearly earned its nickname "The Pig." As Breashears says, "I still am amazed that we were able to film on the summit with it. Just taking a video camera to the summit is difficult enough--what we did with the IMAX™ camera should have been impossible."

Yet while much of the attention has been focused on the accomplishment of getting this bulky camera to the top of Mt. Everest, many challenges had to be overcome prior to the summit attempt.

THE TREK TO BASE CAMP

One of the first rules of IMAX™ production is that the crew needs to cart around a great deal of bulky equipment. This burden becomes increasingly challenging in a place like the Khumbu Valley leading up to Mt. Everest where there are no automobiles and no regular aircraft service. Each equipment case would have to be carried to Mt. Everest Base Camp on the backs of local porters or by yaks.

When it was determined that the modest camera package would take up 80 heavy cases Breashears' jaw dropped. "I could not believe it. The 65mm film was one of the biggest culprits. Since a 500 foot roll weighs 5 pounds and only runs for 90 seconds, we had at least 20 heavy cases of film!"

Compared to the 16mm format that Breashears was used to, the 15-perf pulldown of IMAX™ was voracious. A 70 pound case of 65mm film provided only 15 minutes of shooting time. For comparison the equivalent weight of 16mm film would yield almost 300 minutes of shooting!

The task of dealing with the bulky IMAX™ equipment becomes even more challenging at high altitude. At altitudes above 17,000 feet, the reduced oxygen in every breath of air has a noticeable effect on a person's judgment, behavior and physical abilities.

The "production office" was set up at Base Camp--17,600' above sea level. At this altitude there is less oxygen in every breath, so crew members became exhausted after minimal physical work.

Because of the way that the altitude dulls the senses, a relatively simple task at sea level--such as loading a 500 foot magazine--proved to be exhausting and mentally challenging--and this was only Base Camp. The summit was still over 2 vertical miles away!

The difficulties of working at high altitude would only get more extreme at the higher camps, so the camera team had to establish a system to cross check each other's work. This was necessary to reduce the risk of incorrectly threading the camera, forgetting to stop down to the appropriate aperture or installing the magazine drive belt backwards.

So whenever the camera was set up, Breashears, assistant cameraman Robert Schauer and camera technician and IMAX™ filmmaker Brad Ohlund would each look at what the other was doing.

A great asset that allowed the Western camera team to concentrate on details was the Sherpa camera team. These were four Sherpas who carried the camera body, magazine, film, lenses, battery and accessories, and also proved to be excellent assistants.

After watching Breashears, Ohlund and Schauer set up the camera a few times, the Sherpas were able to imitate the procedure perfectly. The Sherpa camera team was invaluable, according to Breashears: "We got to a point where I would say, 'Let's do a shot here,' and they would have the camera set up in less than 5 minutes.

"This was great because it allowed Robert, Brad and I to concentrate on threading up the camera, selecting a lens and composing the shot. There is no way we could have even imagined doing this film without them."

UP THE ICEFALL

The first climbing challenge above Base Camp is the Khumbu Icefall. The icefall is a large frozen river of tumbling ice blocks, many the size of large apartment buildings. The route up the icefall requires the crossing of many deep crevasses on aluminum ladders.

Normally, climbers head up the icefall at first light and make it through by early morning before the ice begins to melt and the ice blocks start to shift and tumble.

The film crew, however, would have to spend a great deal of time in the icefall shooting or waiting for good light. This exposed them to many dangers such as a large ice block shifting or a crevasse opening up.

When possible, Breashears and Schauer would head up into the icefall with a viewfinder and no other filming equipment. By scouting the locations with their Leica rangefinder (which approximated the "standard" IMAX™ 40mm lens) they could limit the time that the crew would have to spend in the dangerous icefall.

After deciding on a location and a time of day when the light would be good, they would return a few days later, hoping that the shot would not be dramatically changed by ice movement.

Sometimes, however, there was no way around the added risk of shooting in the icefall. Breashears wanted to replicate a shot in IMAX™ that he had done 13 years before on video--the camera looking up from inside an ice crevasse as a climber crosses a ladder above.

When this shot had been done previously, Breashears used a 22 pound Panasonic Recam camcorder which could be easily rested on his shoulder as he was lowered down a rope. With the 42 pound IMAX™ camera this shot required more elaborate setup and engineering.

In video, some swaying and instability is acceptable but in IMAX™ even minor jerks or sudden motions translate into a waste of film. After the crew dug a series of "dead-men" rope anchors in the ice, David climbed down and rested on a bosun's chair suspended across the crevasse.

The loaded camera and battery were lowered down to him and he set up the shot. The climber, Araceli Segarra from Spain, had to practice the speed and motion, crossing the ladder several times. The goal was to get the shot in 1 or 2 takes maximum.

"I really didn't want to reload down there," reflected Breashears afterward, "because there was always the possibility of the crevasse closing or shifting while I was inside of it."

ACCLIMATIZING AT ABC

Above the icefall was Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 21,300 feet. Here the team would spend a great deal of time acclimatizing and "resting." Since they were there to make a film about Mt. Everest, the camera crew would find itself outside filming scenic shots in minus 20 degree temperatures and high winds while the rest of the team were relaxing in the relative warmth of their tents.

To add insult to injury, they would call out words of encouragement from inside their thick down sleeping bags. Days were always longer for the camera crew as they would stay up well into the night downloading magazines, cleaning the camera, discussing logistics and thinking about shots for the following day. This reality has led to David's remark that "filming on Everest is much harder than climbing on Everest."

TRAGEDY STRIKES

After several weeks of acclimatizing at the higher camps, the team was at ABC preparing for their final push to the summit. On the planned day of departure however, there was a gale force wind blowing a plume of snow off the summit. Since they were planning to use a specially designed monopod for the summit shooting, strong wind would make a steady shot impossible.

Added to this was the fact that over 30 people from a variety of expeditions were heading for the summit that day which would make the going slow and the logistics of filming more difficult. With these considerations in mind, Breashears decided to hold off on the summit attempt. This was a gamble because the weather envelope of good days to climb Everest was narrowing and could close up at any time.

But with the combination of Breashears, Schauer and climbing leader Ed Viesturs the team had over 50 years of mountaineering experience. They trusted their judgment and were content with this decision.

During the coming days, a series of tragic events led to the deaths of nine climbers on Mt. Everest. At this point the MacGillivray Freeman IMAX™ team abandoned the filming and became fully committed to rescue and relief efforts for the injured climbers trying to get off the mountain.

Many of the supplies that were to be used for their own summit attempt, mainly bottled oxygen, were given to the climbers in need. After this tragedy the film team descended to Base Camp to contemplate what had just happened.

Several of the dead were close friends and they would have to pass their bodies on the way to the summit.

Producer/Director Greg MacGillivray made it clear that there was no pressure to attempt the summit--making this film was not worth losing a life. From the beginning, MacGillivray knew that one of the risks in climbing Everest was to not reach the summit--he was budgeted and ready to try again the following season if necessary.

The team was, however, resolved to make it to the top--they really wanted to try. It was the challenge of being the first--this would surely be a milestone in Himalayan mountaineering if the IMAX™ camera were to make it to the summit.

ONWARD TO THE SUMMIT

Once again the team went up through the Khumbu Icefall. Beyond ABC the team had to climb the steep icy Lhotse Face up to Camp III at 24,000' and finally to the high camp on the South Col at 26,000'.

The thin air at these elevations forces one to gasp for every breath--just walking is difficult. Under such conditions, accomplishing smooth camera moves while gasping for breath proved to be difficult. Any camera bounce or lurch is amplified on the huge IMAX™ screen.

Breashears was forced to practice camera moves numerous times before rolling film to make sure that he could complete the moves without unduly shaking or jerking the camera by breathing too strongly.

The team carried an OConnor 2575 tripod head as high as the South Col at 26,000', which helped the situation to some degree, but above this camp the only camera support was a monopod which would require a very steady hand for smooth shots.

After arriving at the high camp and resting for a few hours, the team set off for the final push to the summit at around midnight. The summit camera crew included Breashears, Schauer, the four camera Sherpas and two support Sherpas to carry oxygen for the camera Sherpas.

This was a virtual army compared to the one Sherpa that was needed to carry a microwave transmitter to the summit for Breashears in 1983 for live video broadcast.

All members of the camera team were breathing supplemental oxygen through heavy masks, which made verbal communication difficult. But after working together for so long on the mountain, "There was no longer a need for words because we all knew what to do automatically" recall Robert Schauer. This was fortunate because Breashears and Schauer had lost their voices from the exhaustion of being awake for over 36 hours straight.

Just after dawn the team reached "The Balcony" at 27,600' where they set up to film the first shot of the day . For this shot Breashears did not want the crew to use excessive time and energy to set up the monopod so he carefully balanced the camera on the bulky camera backpack for a quick setup. An entire 500-foot roll from summit day was now in the can.

The team had to move towards the summit as swiftly as possible because of the ever-present threat of bad weather later in the day.

By 11:30 AM on May 23, 1996 the entire team reached the summit. Fortunately it was a picture perfect morning, with hardly a cloud in the sky and only a light wind blowing.

At this point the camera team could not celebrate their triumph because they were to busy setting up and loading the IMAX™ camera. Because of weight limitations the camera could not be loaded ahead of time--that had to be done on the summit.

One aspect of loading the Mark II camera is that the large pressure plate must be removed and set aside while threading it up and then the magazine drive belt must be put on. In the hypoxic (oxygen deprived) and hypothermic state that the climbers were in at 29,028' there was a great risk of oversight on these exacting tasks.

In anticipation of this exhaustion, Breashears had made a laminated checklist for the camera team. At this altitude the human mind can become extremely dulled and a simple mistake could lead to a film jam or worse.

Robert Schauer breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the whirring sound of the Mark II running properly.

Breashears carefully balanced the 42-pound camera atop the lightweight monopod and rolled film on 3 shots, rolling out on the final take. 90 seconds of IMAX™ film had been shot on the summit, all of which was cut into the movie.

The camera team spent over an hour on the summit and had to prepare for their descent before it got any later.

After making it back down to Base Camp, the team was both triumphant and contemplative. Breashears and Schauer were able to celebrate the fact that they had successfully rolled film on the summit and made it back down without any injuries to the crew.

But Base Camp had become a ghost town, with most of the other teams departing after the tragedies earlier in the month.

The team left the mountain and returned to a world that had become swept up in the drama of Mount Everest. What they had accomplished by getting the IMAX™ camera up the mountain should have been impossible, but it wasn't. And they had proven it.