Entering the Thin Air Zone： The Everest Story Behind Breaking Altitude
1905 movie network exclusive feature On November 3rd, before the heating came, a feature film about the disaster of Mount Everest "climbed" into the mainland cinema, and a cold breath of "adding insult to injury" came on the face, and people could finally experience the taste of "ice peak exploration" on the big screen … …
Mount Everest has always been a sacred place in the minds of many young artists — — The clear sky and the snow-capped mountains filled with fairy clouds bring people unlimited space for daydreaming. For nearly a century, mountaineering enthusiasts from various countries and regions have never stopped their desire to conquer the highest peak in the world.
However, in order to step on this tallest beast, people pay a heavy price. On May 10, 1996, 12 climbers were killed, which was the worst mountain disaster in the history of Everest climbing at that time. This "Breaking Altitude" is adapted from this real event and tells the cause and effect of the mountain disaster with a very calm and restrained attitude. Let’s "enter the thin air zone" and explore the story behind this film:
Why "Everest": What should Mount Everest be called?
Viewers who have seen the poster of the international version of the film may notice that the English name of the film is "Everest" instead of "Chomolungma", while the Taiwan Province version is "Everest". So how did these names come from?
At present, it is more reliable to say that the name "Everest" originated from a surveying and mapping station of India’s Grand Triangulation Bureau in 1852. At that time, the surveyor was surprised to measure that the height of this mountain was the highest in the world and informed the director at that time. In 1865, nine years after this measurement was confirmed, the then director named the then numbered "No.15 Peak" Mount Everest after the surname of the former director Sir George Everest. This name is still deeply rooted in western countries, as evidenced by the title of this film.
Since the northern slope of Mount Everest is in Tibet and the southern slope is in Nepal, the two places have different names for this peak. The ancient and elegant name "Everest" comes from Tibetan transliteration, and its meaning has many explanations, such as "Mother of the Earth", "Water of the Virgin" and "The Third Goddess". In 1771, the Qing government officially finalized the word "Qomolangma" as a Chinese translation in the "Ganlong Neifu and Tu", which is still in use today. Since 1960, Nepalese people have called it "Sagamata", which means "Goddess of the Sky". Taiwan Province people combined the names of Tibetans and Nepalis, and came up with the name "Everest", which is a little mistaken for being associated with Christianity.
Going up the mountain is easier than going down: what is the experience of climbing Mount Everest?
People who don’t know Mount Everest may think that the process of climbing up is the most thrilling, but in fact, when the whole film "Breaking Altitude" is only halfway through, almost all the protagonists in the film have reached the top. The film spent a lot of time depicting the tension and misery of the mountaineering team when it went down the mountain, as well as the moral bottom line and family values of people exposed in this cruel life-and-death contest.
According to the survey results of China State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping in 2005, the rock face height of Mount Everest is 8844.43 meters, which is equivalent to the sailing height of a Boeing 747. As the movie said, in theory, people are "dead" at this height. Therefore, most of the time in the film, climbers are struggling with the gradual loss of physical strength, hallucinations caused by severe hypothermia and hypoxia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Even if you barely reach the summit, you can go down because there is no oxygen or physical strength, and accidents may happen. This mountain disaster in the film shows exactly this situation.
In addition, what the film fails to emphasize is that climbing Mount Everest is not a "feat" that can be completed in a day or two on a whim, but more like a huge, long and boring construction project. Mountaineers often need to arrive at the base camp at an altitude of 5367 meters at the foot of Mount Everest one or two months in advance to adapt to the rapid breathing, the change of pH value and the surge of red blood cells at high altitude, and at the same time, they have to do adaptive climbing between camps. At the same time, due to the changeable climate and poor living conditions of Mount Everest, symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness are often commonplace. For climbers with less climbing experience, the use of ice claws, ice picks, ladders and safety ropes also takes time to learn.
Next page: the exploration of Mount Everest is seriously commercialized: Mount Everest becomes a "pigsty"