No Kings on the Mountain: A Review of Everest: Beyond the Limit

My interest in Everest is highly personal. In less than two months' time, I will be flying to Nepal to begin a trek to Everest Base Camp. EBC is situated at about 17,000 feet, and although it's at the bottom of the mountain, it's higher than any peak in the rockies.

The only things standing between me and the summit of the mountain are the mountain itself, 40,000 to pay for the expedition, years of mountaineering experience, physical fitness, and the nerve to make the attempt.

However, the mere fact that I will not climb the mountain needn't hinder me from popping some popcorn, getting into my pj's, and watching others brave the elements. I may have to take some breaks to get blankets and heat up more tea, but I too can share in the harrowing adventure, thanks to The Discovery Channel's groundbreaking series Everest: Beyond the Limit!

Like any good piece of Entertainment, Everest has its complexities. It offers a wealth of information about the mountain, climate, and characters that define the journey to the top of the world. It explores the motivations of complex people and follows them in their very real life-and-death quest to summit.

A few things worth knowing about the mountain: Removing bodies of dead climbers is next to impossible, so the route is peppered with frozen corpses. It takes several months to summit because of the logistics. Mountaineers have to strategically put their lives in danger based on weather conditions, traffic on the mountain, and wildly unpredictable circumstances. There are also a host of incompetent climbers on the mountain clogging up the route and endangering the lives of sherpas and stronger climbers.

Throw into this setting a team of characters with their demons, ambitions, and big hearts, along with some stunning advances in camera and film technology, and you end up with a series that makes you feel, between bathroom breaks and trips to the pantry for more snacks, like you are right there on the mountain, gritting your teeth and striving for the top.