Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: First Look Home Ente
• VHS Release Date: October 20, 1998
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305137285
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,767 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars SUMMIT OF DREAMS...BE SURE TO SET THE ALARM CLOCK, October 22, 2000

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mount Everest:the Summit of Dreams [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This forty six minute color video chronicles the attempt of the American North Ridge Expedition to summit Mount Everest from the North Side during the Spring of 1994. The tape opens in Tibet and videos members of the expedition, capturing their reasons for being there and their hopes relative to Everest.

The video is not of the best quality because the sound is not synchronized with the speakers. Notwithstanding this technical problem, the video has some good shots of Everest and the daunting climb up. Unfortunately, the entire video has all the drama of a cereal commercial. Notwithstanding its lack of oomph, the video does have some solid moments.

One can see the yak train carrying loads up to Advanced Base Camp. The Sherpas prayer flag ceremony is likewise captured for posterity. Bad weather hammers the expedition on their climb to the North Col, preparing them for existence higher up on the mountain. The expedition struggles to reach Camp Five which is the gateway to the upper reaches of Everest. Only a handful of them make it, as they are hit by a raging gale.

At Camp Six, now in the death zone, a number of them turn back, unable to continue climbing in such inhospitable terrain. A few hardy souls continue. Cameraman Mark Whetu, a veteran Everest summiteer, continues on to the summit with Australian climber, Mike Rheinberger, who had climbed Everest six times before, but never before reached the summit.

Unfortunately, they summit as darkness desends and are forced to bivouac overnight just below the summit. Mike gets altitude sickness and is ultimately left behind. Having lost the struggle, he is never seen again. Mark Whetu barely makes it down, suffering from severe frost bite.

One questions why anyone would consider going to the summit as darkness falls. This is the supreme exercise of bad judgment for which one climber paid the ultimate price. This is never even broached as an issue. One has to wonder at leadership that would allow such a foolhardy decision to be made.

This video is strictly for those who suffer from Everestmania. Anyone else would find it a bore.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well made, but nothing dramatic or historical., September 16, 2000

By 

snowleopard (Oregon) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mount Everest:the Summit of Dreams [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Eric Simonson led a 1994 expedition to Everest's North side which is chronicled here. This video captures a team of Americans as they travel through Tibet, to Tibetan Monastaries, on a very long trek in, and all the way to Everest's summit. This tape does a good job of laying out the long progress from preparation to the actual climb. But there are better filmed and more dramatic stories than what is told here. Simonson is most well known for leading the expedition that 4 years later would find the body of George Mallory (See: Everest: The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine, and Nova - Lost on Everest). There is a companion CD-ROM of sorts to this video called Everest: Quest for the Summit of Dreams.