Original subtitles

One of the big attractions of going to Everest is that you are risking your

to get that close to death, almost touch it, and then come back

home again.

You're just this little speck in this massive environment, and at any point,

second, the mountain can just wipe you away.

The thing is a lot.

You can hear the things, like, clicking and popping. Over all of that is the

constant sound, you know, day and night of avalanches raining down from above.

These avalanches have been known to come down.

four or five thousand feet, and then rocket debris across the route.

It seems like every half hour or so, some part of this thing is collapsing

somewhere, and you just don't want to be underneath that when it happens.

It's not if, it is when.

Camera crews came to Mount Everest to make history.

Live on Discovery Channel, Joby O 'Gwynn's epic wingsuit jump off Everest.

Instead, they witnessed history on the mountain's deadliest day.

On the 17th of April, I sat with them while they prayed to their mountain

And the next day, they're all dead.

One of the most difficult risks I ever did.

That nothing you could do.

Copy that, copy that.

Sheriff

is

down.

The huge avalanche came down all the way across the entire width of the icefall.

I saw it happen. I was one of the first to throw it on the radio.

What did you see happen, Michael?

A big icefall down off the west shoulder and through a portion of the route

where it's tough to have an icefall and not have people in it.

Joe, you copy?

We need as many shovels as this camp has.

At 18 ,000 feet, disaster is unfolding on Everest.

Dozens of climbers are trapped in a deadly avalanche.

We've got a lot of chaos.

There's a serious collapse in the icefall. We're not exactly sure, but it

like there's about five to seven Sherpas that are missing. A block of ice the

size of a mansion has come crashing down on the Sherpas.

You guys just go to HRA, just camp out there. They've got a lot of stuff set

I'll let them know that some doctors are gathering there.

A couple hours for us to get up there.

So we're trying to hurry as quickly as we can, but none of us have been up

yet. So we're still kind of acclimatizing.

Conditions are difficult as rescuers are heading up the mountain with 50 % less

oxygen and the temperature hovering around freezing.

It's a treacherous two -hour climb to reach the disaster zone.

As we're working our way up the ice ball, the radio is alive the entire

We have access from below.

We have access from below. Repeat.

Affirmative. Copy that.

Lakpa Rita oversees a team of Sherpas on the mountain.

I turn my radio on and try to reach my Sherpas. One of my Sherpas told me that

at least five or six of my Sherpas are buried underneath the avalanche.

A lot of our Sherpas do have radio.

They're in contact, but Gopal is here talking to them.

Helicopter is... 30 minutes out to land in base camp, coming up, a mountain heli

with gear, and then we have a long line an hour and a half out.

Joe, it sounds like we have one person surviving at least right now, several

buried. Copy that.

Confirmed, several buried.

It was like a bomb had gone off.

Everybody knew this was very bad, mass casualties, mass death.

Cameras for Discovery Channel and a team from NBC News are at base camp,

preparing to broadcast a live program for Discovery Channel.

They turn their cameras on the unfolding disaster.

I ended up doing what I know how to do. I started filming the situation down

here. The next patient is coming in here by long line. I

need people who are used to working with helicopters.

Is that a bit of good news, Joe?

Yeah, three Jagged Globe Sherpa and the bull walking on their own, one contusion

on their head. Ben's going to check them out on their way down.

Still nothing on our guys, though.

Do you have a radio for me?

Okay.

I think people knew immediately that some of the Sherpa were dead.

Global Day!

Radio.

So emotional, it's just hard to believe. And these guys...

grabbing onto your hand and have their head down and weeping, my brother, my

brother.

Some people just burst into tears. Some people just needed a hug.

Guys, you might not hug regularly, you just hug them.

If the men are buried by the ice, transceiver beacons might be the best

finding them.

Joe, please confirm if any of your surfers are wearing avalanche

Over.

Copy.

Michael, Michael, copy.

Go ahead, Joe.

Any of our Sherpa have avalanche transceivers on them?

Negative.

Negative on the transceivers.

No transceivers.

Joe, was that a negative?

Yeah, negative, no transceivers on our Sherpa.

Roger that.

I was filming him coordinate the rescue and for the first time in my life I was

filming and I was actually crying as I was filming and

just as it was escalating it was almost

quite comforting to have a camera there because it was a barrier between me

and actually the events that were unfolding.

You know, a devastating sight.

The actual area which these Sherpas were trapped was probably no wider than 20

feet. They were waiting for a ladder that had become dislodged. Some had

packs off, almost resting.

They heard the ice. They could see it coming.

Jungbu Sherpa is one of the Sherpas caught in the avalanche.

I just looked up and I saw a big...

big blocks of ice and then the powder avalanche came

and

then we feel a little bit of our suffocation for maybe a 45 second or one

and then people got screaming everywhere like what to do it was a situation

where you couldn't run one way or the other we saw one one climbers half

And he was like conscious. As soon as we started digging him, we can see the

feet of other climbers underneath him. But they were covered for a long time

already. I see these four dead bodies laying on the ground.

Tears coming through my eyes.

Trying to hide my terror in front of all of my service team.

Man, we just couldn't believe what we were seeing.

I wasn't here to film people dying in avalanches.

I was here to celebrate the spirit of adventure. I was here to film this crazy

guy jumping off the top of Mount Everest and flying down to base camp.

Today will unfold as the darkest day Mount Everest has ever known.

But it will take hours and days to find out

just what happened and who survived.

Will this disaster put the summit of the world's most famous mountain out of

reach?

Break, break. Update from icefall, 13 or 14 missing.

The Discovery Channel team is at Mount Everest for this man, 39 -year -old

mountain climber and wingsuit pilot, Joby O 'Gwen.

This is really nice to be breathing the fresh air and be in the mountains.

Today, he begins his journey to the summit of Mount Everest to do what no

has ever done before.

I'm going to climb to the top of Mount Everest, get into my wingsuit.

I'm going to launch off the summit.

I'm going to use my wingsuit to fly all the way down and land at base camp.

Boom, boom, boom.

The goal?

To do it all on live television.

My Everest.

is this project.

I have a feeling this is going to be an awesome season for us.

And so he heads to Everest, never imagining the devastation that lies

the profound impact it will have on the victims' families, the climbing

community, and the future of the most revered mountain on Earth.

Joby O 'Gwen is on an arduous seven -day trek to Mount Everest Base Camp at

nearly 18 ,000 feet.

He's preparing himself physically and mentally for one of the most daring

ever attempted.

The first wingsuit jump off the world's highest mountain.

Some people think they need to be really strong and super fit and that's all

that matters.

Some people think it's about what your connection is to the mountain and your

attitude, your mentality, how humble are you.

It's about asking permission from the gods of the mountain, not conquering the

mountain.

And then some people would say, you know, you've got to be lucky.

I think a smart person thinks that you need a little bit of all that.

Joby meets up with elite expedition leader Garrett Madison.

He'll lead Joby and his Sherpa team to the summit of Mount Everest.

We're just happy everything's come together, and we're at the point now

can enjoy the expedition. All the planning and logistics is out of the

Now we're just walking down the track, cruising, enjoying some nice views, some

sunshine, and looking forward to getting up to base camp.

I've climbed Everest six times. I've guided over 37 people to the top of the

mountain. So I know what it takes to organize an expedition and get to the

and to help other climbers get to the top.

Joby's team is able to hike only about five miles a day because of the dramatic

change in altitude.

It's 8 ,000 feet higher at base camp.

So this is the first time that you really get to see kind of Everest with

whole thing, Lhotse, the Noopsie Ridge, Amitablam in the background, all

mountains I've climbed before, which is exciting to see.

And it's a nice clear day, but you can also see up there it's pretty windy. So

we've got a few weeks to let the winds die down. It's great to be on the trail.

There's very few mountains in the world that actually take a week just to get to

the starting line, and this is one of those mountains.

At the Tengboche Monastery, 5 ,000 feet below base camp, the crew seeks

spiritual energy for what lies ahead and stops at the home of a Buddhist

priest.

We believe that all the mountains are the home of God, so her name is Mia

Longsema. Take care and good luck.

I know that by going back up there, myself and other climbers with me will

exposed to these hazards that could kill all of us.

How do you feel?

How do I think?

Great.

Awesome.

Stoked.

That's great. We're out in the mountains.

Walking around.

Shooting a TV show.

What could be better?

Everybody's in good spirits?

The production crew may be in good spirits, but the climb is getting

Temperatures are dropping.

and they're getting 40 % less oxygen than at sea level.

I guess we're about, this is day three now.

I think we're about halfway to base camp, but it's hard to tell.

I thought it was getting dangerous immediately above that too. So once we

base camp, bang, expedition's on.

In these harsh conditions, Nepalese porters carry some of the equipment to

Everest Base Camp.

And ethnic Sherpas take over from there, carrying supplies, setting ropes,

and helping climbers all the way to the summit.

Senior guide, Lakparita Sherpa. Sherpas come from eastern Tibet. So, actually,

like 600, 700 years ago, we immigrated from Tibet.

Then we basically live along the border between Tibet and Nepal.

Sherpas are the strongest individuals I've ever met, especially at altitude.

I can take a young 17 -year -old Sherpa, average physique, and

in a week he'll be stronger than the strongest climber in America.

I'm not going anywhere with this.

Oh, my God.

3 ,000 feet above the production crew, Sherpas are already hard at work at

Everest Base Camp.

Because it's built on a glacier and the ice is always shifting, Base Camp has to

be rebuilt from scratch every year.

Lakpa Rita is supervising.

At Everest Base Camp, we're making a tent platform.

All the Sherpa teams are digging the ice.

We know a lot of rocks, so I try to pick a platform for stories and stuff like

that.

The guys are working hard.

He's very strong.

Four miles from base camp, at a field of memorials to fallen climbers, the

reality and the danger of the biggest Everest expedition ever mounted is

starting to set in.

For Joby O 'Gwen.

People die here every single year. There's never been a year in the last

that people haven't died on ever. So this is a real stark reminder of just

serious it is of where we're going and just how dangerous it actually is to be

on the mountain.

You're just this little speck in this massive environment.

And at any point, any second, the mountain can just wipe you away.

After seven tough days of trekking, Joby's team and the production crew

make it to base camp.

When we first get to base camp, most of the Westerners are fairly worthless.

The Sherpas are telling us where the tea tent is, where to go, how to do stuff.

They're always working with a smile on their face.

Base Camp is a mini city. There's 39 expeditions this year, 39 little mini

of micro cities all together, living on this rock quarry on a glacier that's a

mile and a half long and a quarter mile wide.

Everest Base Camp is higher than any mountain in Europe, but still only two

-thirds of the way to the summit.

Joby and his team plan to climb to the top in three weeks.

Over several days, They'll cross the treacherous Khumbu Icefall, sleep at a

series of small, high -altitude camps, before pushing their way over the South

Summit, up the famed Hillary Step, to the highest point on Earth, where Joby

will make his unprecedented leap.

Meanwhile, cameraman Ed Wardle is checking every detail.

You can carry this to the summit, no problem?

Not comfortable.

Not comfortable?

Yes.

The Sherpa is often confused with the job of being a porter.

But a Sherpa is an ethnicity.

The term Sherpa means people from the East that work with us, alongside us,

and for us.

They're some of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. You get to know a

lot of them pretty well, and they become family members.

All Sherpas are descendants of only a handful of families from villages in the

Khumbu region near Mount Everest.

About 300 of them work for expedition companies on the mountain.

For Sherpas and Westerners alike, base camp can be a bonding experience.

We're all suffering together.

We're all dealing with the cold, the high altitude, the dry air, the body

breaking down at altitude, acclimatization, sickness.

We're all going through these things together, and that builds camaraderie

amongst the climbers.

Oftentimes Sherpas don't really know the foreign climbers, and the foreign

climbers don't really know the Sherpas until they get to Baskin.

We sit in one base camp and we'll always, you know, see each other's face

talking to each other.

Everyone at base camp has a common goal. Make sure foreign climbers, who have

paid as much as $100 ,000, make it to the summit.

Climbing Sherpas make $5 ,000 a year, a princely sum in a very poor country.

Other Sherpas occupy supporting roles.

Ang Sering also must make the perilous trek above base camp.

The Sherpas really do the hard work on the mountain, the cooking and cleaning

and the carrying of all of the oxygen systems, all of the food, fuel, tents.

They break the trail, they lay the rope, they do everything.

Guys like me, we would never be there without them.

The feeling is mutual.

We learn a lot from Western climbers. If there is no Western climbers,

We won't be climbing the mountain at all.

Joby Sirdar, the Sherpa who will lead the trek to the top, is Dorji Khatri, an

accomplished mountaineer who's summited Everest nine times.

There's no more intense friendship or relationship or bond that you can forge

this world than trying to get to the tallest point on planet Earth together.

On the ground.

The TV production crew is busy trying to figure out how to broadcast what will

be the largest, highest -altitude live television event ever attempted.

I spent a week with different printer manufacturers trying to find the best

printer that's going to work at 18 ,000 feet. It's the same for the satellite

dish as well. Your amplifiers have to go back to the manufacturer, get adjusted

to work at high altitudes.

Every piece, you don't know.

There's no testing environment.

We'll know for next time.

Yeah,

K2 next time.

The Bahamas next time. Bahamas, yeah, sea levels.

The equipment continues to arrive.

Yaks carry many of the loads.

These are the yaks.

They've just taken probably, I'd say, about 100 loads.

There's a lot of yaks.

They're pretty cool, beautiful ones. I'm sure there's prize -winning yaks in

amongst this lot.

Massive generators must be flown in to power the production.

This is the helicopter load.

All the generators and camera gears. We're going to do a whole bunch of

maybe 20 trips.

These are pretty heavy.

Five or six Sherpas have to lift this generator.

And hopefully we'll get everything today.

Power!

Cameraman Ed Wardle is heading above base camp to scope out positions for

of the 11 cameras meant to capture Joby's historic wingsuit flight.

But this spot in particular, this place is really special.

There'll be at least seven antennas pointing at the different positions that

Joby might be in during his flight, from the summit all the way down to his

landing spot.

An excellent camera position right here. There'll be nothing in the way. There's

pretty much a sheer drop right down to base camp there.

On the other side here, there's a good half -mile vertical drop.

The altitude at base camp takes a savage toll on the production team.

Each breath gives them only half the oxygen they'd get at sea level.

How's your partner doing, Sean?

He's down for the count right now.

He's up all night, so dehydrated that he can barely do anything.

At any moment, a burp could turn into anything. Any kind of gurgle in your

stomach could be a bug of some sort.

The dangers above base camp are far greater.

In the death zone.

The area near the summit, over 26 ,000 feet, the air is even thinner, only a

third of the oxygen at sea level.

Being there feels like breathing through a straw.

To prepare themselves, Joby and his team need to spend the coming days

acclimatizing, getting their bodies used to the high altitude by climbing above

base camp and coming back down.

You know, there's a lot of obstacles that can be put in front of you on

The biggest one is the altitude.

Some people can do it, some people can't. So Everest as a mountain is

of who it lets up there.

This will definitely be the most dangerous thing that I've ever done.

When we signed up for this, we knew it was dangerous, and we're all experienced

expedition cameramen.

People have started to come to the conclusion that climbing Everest is

It's not.

It's just fraught with danger.

Joby O 'Gwen is just weeks away from jumping off the top of the world in a

wingsuit. But to reach the summit, he and his team must first pass through the

Khumbu Icefall.

One of the most dangerous parts of the mountain is near the bottom. The very

first steps you're taking up through the Khumbu Icefall, that thing is just a

nightmare.

It is just a massive...

full of blocks of ice, biggest 10 -story buildings, and it's moving and shifting

all the time.

The thing is alive.

The icefall is 100 % alive.

Well, we've been camped beneath the icefall, and it's like a tumbling

the easier part of the mountain higher up. You've got to get past this fortress

of tumbling ice.

The icefall is nothing but a moving glacier.

And there's towers of ice that are threatening to fall at any moment.

enormous crevasses that are opening and closing.

Icefall is the most dangerous part of the mountain.

You never know when the ice will collapse or when the crevice will crack.

It seems like every...

half hour or so, some part of this thing is collapsing somewhere, and you just

don't want to be underneath that when it happens.

You just can't even imagine that anybody can even, in their right mind, get

through it. There's a group of guys, Sherpas, called the Icefall Doctors, and

their whole job is to find the root, set the root, and maintain it.

It'll be changing constantly with the moving of the glaciers.

It's a scary job.

These guys are in the icefall all the time.

They are the maintenance of the icefall.

You have to climb across aluminum ladders that band cravats over the top

large blocks of ice. And kind of clink across with your boots and your crampons

and hope that your crampons don't get hung up on the rungs of the ladder.

And those icefall ladders, you know, when you're crossing, if you're not

unbalanced on that ladder, you collapse.

So icefall is really dangerous.

Really dangerous.

Behind the icefall doctors, highly skilled Sherpas who set up and maintain

four camps along the route, carrying everything they need on their backs.

For the Sherpas, That means a staggering number of trips through the icefall.

They might go up to maybe 12 times one way, maybe 20 trips plus, whereas a

Western climber might only go three or four times.

And so they're risking their life. They're playing Russian roulette going

through this icefall, just like we are, but on a much bigger scale than we are.

They know there's a risk, but they have to.

because this is one of the biggest ways they make their living.

And they do definitely take the risk to make their living

and support their families.

Sherpas are the backbone, you know, because we don't climb a single day, but

climb lots of time. We spend two months here going up and down. If one wants

to do the expedition,

Traversing the icefall can take several hours, a perilous journey that must

begin before sunrise.

The ice is generally more frozen together during the night and in the

morning, whereas late in the day it warms up and the ice starts to move. It

becomes very unstable.

Sometimes these ice towers will collapse.

leave early in the morning when the ices are super hard and cold and try to

avoid icefall on the sunny day or where the temperature is very high.

Afternoon temperatures in the icefall can reach as high as 40 degrees.

And as soon as that sun hits, The temperature pops right up and all of a

you know, you feel like, you know, you could be in some fairly temperate place

as long as the sun's shining, which is when people worry about, you know, the

avalanches really sort of starting to increase in intensity.

Avalanches are the number one killer of Sherpas on the mountain, a reality that

has Joby's team worried.

Our main concern is an avalanche coming off the west shoulder of Everest.

These avalanches have been known to come down 4 ,000 or 5 ,000 feet and hit the

Khumbu Icefall and then rocket debris across the route.

And unfortunately, if we're in the wrong place at the wrong time, we could be

taken out.

Some of these blocks of ice are like the size of eight or ten Suburbans stacked

on top of each other, and they'll be kind of leaning over.

And at any point, they can just kind of fall down.

It doesn't really matter what experience you've got or who you are.

If a bit of ice decides to go, it will, and it will probably kill you.

Death is a given on Everest.

More than 4 ,000 climbers have made it to the top.

But 264 have died along the way.

A third of those who perish on the mountain are Sherpas, making their job

the most deadly on the planet.

Sherpas have.

A death rate puts them well above the things that you normally think of as

dangerous jobs, like being a commercial fisherman in the Bering Sea, or being a

bush pilot in Alaska, or even being a soldier in the modern military.

Well, we know, everybody knows it is dangerous, but, you know, this is our

For me, more than job, it's my passion.

So, avalanches, you know, this is the natural thing, and...

Yeah, we, being a man, human being, we don't have any control over things.

There's no easy way to climb Everest.

There's deep ice, there's avalanche potential, there's the exposure to high

altitudes.

Every year, a number of climbers, 6, 8, 10, 12 climbers die on Everest.

Climbing Mount Everest is not a safe endeavor.

And there's always going to be risk and there's always going to be death on this

mountain, unfortunately.

The team has been acclimatizing at base camp.

preparing to take their first steps through the icefall towards the summit.

In my mind, the icefall is the most dangerous part of the climb, going up to

top of everything back down.

It's the most important part to get up to there safely.

From Camp 1 to Camp 2, it's not as dangerous. From Camp 2 to Camp 3, it's a

little more dangerous.

But being right here and seeing the icefall and asking for safe passes is

important.

The Sherpas won't go up on the mountain without puja ceremony.

It's a blessing for you and them to go up the mountain safely.

It's a time -honored tradition.

No one climbs without it.

We climb the mountain.

We like to make a puja or the ceremony and ask the permission to the goddess,

saying that, you know, let us climb, give us the permission to

climb the mountain.

The puja, we burn juniper, we'll put offerings of things that are precious to

us. Sometimes it may be kukri rums, sometimes it'll be money, it'll be

Sampah is the precious food.

that is ground wheat and flour.

Each climbing team holds a puja at base camp.

As a Sherpa tradition, you will not step over the mountain without having a

puja. So that is very, very important for all of the Sherpa community,

the climbers. She's the supreme power.

Everest doesn't care if you're white or you're a Sherpa or you're first time or

you're 20th time through the icefall.

She's the supreme ruler.

We hang a prayer flag, which means whenever the prayer flags flip off,

that means the wind will take the prayer to the torch to the god, and as it

flaps down, it will blast out with the blazing.

Everyone takes part in the ceremony, including veteran cook Aung Srin, who

be heading to Camp 2 tomorrow to set up his kitchen.

John. One more time for you, John.

Long life. We just finished the puja ceremony.

The stampa is what we put on each other's faces for long life.

It's a Sherpa tradition, and it's pretty fun to smear it all over people's

faces. After the puja ceremony, we had a great tradition in Sherpa dance.

which was great.

It's a nice time to basically come together from all cultures and reflect

on the fact that we're going to work together to try and climb this peak.

There's dangers and there's...

there's respect that needs to be paid to the mountains.

And I think together we do that in the puja ceremony, and it feels really

special to me. I've been drinking chang, which is a local brew, alcohol, and it

is very important for Buddhism. We have to have alcohol to offer to God whenever

we do the prayer.

Everything. You know, it's not my religion, but...

I guess I sit there and I feel like I'm in their company and I'm respecting

their religion and their gods and it's definitely not going to do me any harm.

feel better about this thing now and for sure I'm going to come and I'm coming

back and all my friends are too.

On the other end of base camp, Joby and his team hold another puja.

For Joby, the risks are even higher.

He's got to get to the top, jump off.

and survive.

We went down to cover Joby's Puja, which was very small. They had six Sherpas.

It was very important to the Sherpas. They really wanted to have this done

before they went up.

You know, you're looking around. It's just awesome.

And this is by far the best one I've ever had.

All six Sherpas working with Joby are at his puja.

43 -year -old Dorji Katra.

It's bad luck. It's bad luck. You have to drink it. It's bad luck.

26 -year -old Poor Temba Sherpa.

23 -year -old Tendorji Sherpa.

It does forge the bond of the westerner climber and the Sherpa for sure

because... You say to that person that day that you are willing to go and risk

your life together.

One, two, three. Before dawn, they will begin their ascent into the treacherous

ice wall. All right, let's say one big word in Nepalese. Good luck, happiness,

whatever you want.

All right, dasi dele on three. One, two, three. Dasi dele!

It was a peaceful morning.

Yeah, I was just kind of laying in my tent.

We started at 4 o 'clock from base camp.

Our team of six climbing shippers and then two kitchen

staff were supposed to go up to camp two.

We were on the radio with our team. We were talking to them, asking them what

the route conditions were like, the temperature, the weather.

Everything was looking good. Three of our staff, they passed the ladders, and

radioed that.

And as we were talking to them on the radio, we heard a scream.

I just looked up,

and I saw big, big blocks of ice, and then the powder

avalanche came.

And I just unzipped the back of the tent, and I just kind of poked my head

little bit just to see. To my complete horror, I realized that it was in a spot

that was going to run right across a main portion of the route.

Can we start organizing lots of people from Bay Camp and their Sherpas to start

clearing the path up from the bottom?

32 Sherpas are caught in a massive avalanche.

Jungbu Sherpa.

is one of six working with Joby and Garrett.

Me and my friends, my co -workers, were lucky enough to hide under the ice cave,

and then the snow, the powder avalanche was just going through our head.

We didn't know who was involved, if anyone was hurt, if anyone was injured.

All we knew was that radio contact had temporarily gone silent.

A few minutes later, all the Sherpas are calling down to base camp, saying that

there's been an accident, a massive avalanche.

We kept calling on the radio, saying, are you guys all right?

Can you please confirm with us?

And eventually we got confirmations from three of our guys that they were okay,

whereas three of our other guys did not check in on the radio.

One of the men who's not responding is Dorji Khatri.

Dorji was our boss. He was really the leader of our group.

I know Garrett and I both felt very strongly that we had to find him. He had

be there somewhere. It was so important.

We've got five confirmed missing at this point.

We have one person surviving right now, several buried.

We kept checking in with the guys we had contact with, saying, where's Dorji,

where's Tendorji, and where's Pertemba?

How come they're not responding on the radio?

At the icefall, Jambu Sherpa sees someone who is trapped but alive.

He was bleeding. He was bleeding from nose everywhere.

But he was still breathing and he was talking to us. So we started digging

As soon as we started digging him, we can see the feet of other climbers

underneath him.

There are dead missing.

Injured.

Choppers are dispatched under extreme conditions.

Helicopter rescues high above the icefall are fairly rare, if not

The air is so thin, there's simply not enough lift.

In an instant, a tent at base camp turns into a command center.

We want medical kit. We want sleeping bags, warm clothes, hot drink.

We want metal spades, no aluminum spades, metal spades.

Roger that, Captain.

Is there any information on the casualties, Captain?

You know, I haven't heard anything at all.

Actually, just that four of our Sherpas are potentially buried just above the

football field, which is 18 ,000.

600 or 700 feet.

So it's a couple hours for us to get up there.

Teams mobilize quickly to get up to the accident site.

I want to come with Eric in like 10 or 5, whatever he's doing.

I'm ready right now.

I know, but it's probably better to travel in pairs.

Rocking loud makes it happen.

Joe, you copy?

We need as many shovels as this camp has.

The news coming in from the icefall is grim. In terms of very morbid details,

can confirm three dead, one severely injured, unable to walk down, needs to

helicoptered, high priority.

13 or 14 missing, not sure who or what team they're from.

Your confirmed number of missing is 13 or 14.

Ang Sering, the beloved Camp 2 cook, is unaccounted for.

His son Pemba, a climbing Sherpa, is at Camp 1, 800 feet above the icefall when

the accident happens. He rushes down and frantically searches for his father.

Then, a chilling discovery.

A body in the snow.

He recognizes the shoes.

Over the course of the day the death toll started to rise and

It was evident that we were involved in a massive tragedy.

They want to know how many people need long lines or rescues from the football

field. How many people need long lines or rescues from the football field?

time we looked up, we saw this helicopter with a long line dangling,

bottom were our friends. And you could see their little feet sticking out, and

it was just these lifeless bodies going back and forth.

And me.

Man, we just couldn't believe what we were seeing.

The Sherpas are your friends, your brothers, your teammates. They are there

every day. I mean, they're the backbone of this mountain.

And to see the loss that they suffered was...

You hurt just to see them hurt.

By early afternoon, it's no longer a rescue mission.

It's a recovery.

With 13 fatalities and three missing, it's the deadliest day in the history of

Mount Everest.

Joby and Garrett have lost three of their six Sherpas, but only one body has

made it down to base camp.

Their lead Sherpa, Dorji Khatri, is still missing.

And they're determined to find him.

Garrett didn't hesitate.

He just turned and said, I'm going up. I'm going to take care of this.

I got to the ice ball accident site.

And my number one goal was to find the two bodies of our missing Sherpa. While

was working to dig through the rubble, Dave Hahn and his crew found one of our

guys, and then I went up a little bit higher above the vertical ladder ice

section and located Georgie Cartree, who was encased in ice in a crevasse,

upside down, head first, and his boot was just sticking out of the ice, and

that's how we found him.

Garrett and his team work for two hours to extract Dorji's body.

But by 2 .30, base camp is forced to abort the mission.

As soon as that sun hits the icefalls, it becomes even more unstable.

They're in the icefall at the most dangerous time of the day.

They need to get out of the icefall or risk getting caught in another

It was tough to leave his body up there without finishing the job and being able

to bring him back.

He was still half encased in ice. It was absolutely not an option to leave him

up there.

A day

after the single biggest loss of life in the mountain's history, the hunt for

the missing continues.

Yesterday we were able to extract many of those bodies, but not all of them.

Some were buried in the ice, and we were not able to get them off yesterday, so

we're going back up today. We're going to fly in by helicopter.

9 .30 a .m.

Garrett Madison and his team gather in an area of hard -packed snow known as

football field.

The football field.

There's a flat spot about the size of a small putting green, but around it are

monster crevasses that if you fall into, you'll die, absolutely.

The whole team got to the football field area in the icefall around 10 a .m.

And we assembled, reviewed our plan for the day. Just tell me when you're ready,

okay? And the long line, and then if we haven't found anybody else, we're going

to start thinking about... We climbed up about half an hour to where the

accident zone was.

Garrett returns to the icefall to finish recovering the body of his lead Sherpa,

Dorji Khatri.

who is still encased in ice.

The whole time I'm thinking, this is really important for his family. This is

something we have to do.

We're not going to leave him behind.

To leave him behind on the mountain would be unimaginable for me. I

have to bring him down.

The important thing in the Sherpa culture is to take the bodies off the

so that they can be brought back to the family, so that they can be cremated in

an old and ancient way, and that that soul can be at peace.

A huge thing for us to be able to get our guys extracted off the mountain.

Once again, the team finds itself in the danger zone.

The route goes through these various ice towers. So ice towers, or seracs, are

hanging over the route literally.

And these towers collapse every couple days. So just to get to the accident

zone, you have to climb underneath these towers.

After an hour, they see it.

Dorji's leg in the ice.

Okay,

we'll

run there if ice comes.

So to remove his entire body from this crevasse encased in ice, we had to chip

with our ice axes.

Working at that altitude is very strenuous. We're at 18 ,500 feet or

It's high altitude, thin air, cold, very easy to get dehydrated, push yourself

over the edge and get sick.

So physically it was a very tough environment to be operated in. And it

about two and a half hours to finish the job.

Almost out of the danger zone.

See you down there.

13 bodies are recovered.

Dorji Khatri is the last.

Three more are still missing.

The final tally, 16 dead.

The avalanche is growing into a major international news story.

Film crews.

who'd come for the live broadcast of Joby O 'Gwynn's jump, instead find

themselves documenting the worst tragedy in Everest history and mourning

the men who died.

Some of them were in their 20s.

Some of them were fathers.

Some of them were husbands.

You probably have 40 children without a father now.

40 children that don't have someone to pay for their education.

You have a loss of 16 wonderful individuals who are

pillars in their community.

Three days after the disaster, the cremations and funeral ceremonies begin

Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

In the home of Camp 2 cook, Aung Sering, a family mourns.

His sons, Mingma and Pemba, both work as climbing Sherpas on Everest.

He is a very nice cook.

And he is a very funny guy.

Everybody knows my father. He makes good food.

And all Sherpa people like my father.

He is a very good man.

Unlike climbing Sherpas, who make multiple trips through the Khumbu

cook was making his only trip of the season up the mountain, when disaster

struck.

This was to be Aung Sring's last season on Everest.

My father said, now I'm getting older, so I have to work hard in Camp 2.

I'm going to leave this job.

For the entire production team, it's hard to stop thinking about the memoirs

they'll share with the men who died.

On the 17th of April, we danced around with them, and I sat with them while

prayed to their mountain god and asked for a safe passage and a safe return for

themselves and for us.

And the next day, they're all dead.

With 16 Sherpas dead, three of them members of his own expedition, Joby O

comes to a decision.

His mission is over.

He's going home.

This was so bad, and it just did so much damage, that I realized that the right

approach would be to step back from the mountain.

16 Sherpas died.

The whole climbing community had to go through the grieving process.

So each day that changed. First everyone was very sad, then people were angry,

then people wanted confessions from the government.

Complete education.

I hope that all the Western friends, brothers and sisters from all over the

world and all the Nepalese Sherpas, my friends, my brothers, let's put a hand

together and let's request the government to support these people.

The Sherpas want more compensation for the victims' families than the

is offering.

Each family of a fallen Sherpa receives $400.

while the Nepalese government collects nearly $4 million a year in permit fees.

It's won on a list of grievances Sherpa leaders have submitted to the Ministry

of Tourism, which oversees working conditions on Everest.

The Sherpas want compensation for the deceased families.

They want extra life insurance.

We need to have extra rescue insurance so they can get helicopters.

They want a memorial park.

If these demands aren't met, the Sherpas are threatening something unheard of on

the mountain to boycott the climbing season.

There's some very upset Sherpas who want to stop climbing. Some want to work.

You have the government who has permit revenue at stake. You have the Sherpas

who have lost their friends and family and also who have had some workplace

grievances. And all of those things are coming together at 17 ,500 feet. And

it's this sort of volatile mix of humanity where...

You know, anything can happen.

Some expedition teams are packing up, including the crew brought in to produce

the live discovery broadcast of Joby's wingsuit jump off the summit.

It's time to leave because there's a lot of grieving and mourning that has to be

done.

With the climbing season in limbo, the government agrees to some of the

demands.

But many of the Sherpas feel the concessions are not enough.

and decide not to climb.

It's an unprecedented event in the history of Mount Everest.

We are sad that foreign climbers, they have, you know, spent a lot of time and

their money.

But, yeah, if you have life, you know, you can make money anytime,

but you never can bring the life back with your money.

My wife, she said, this is it for you. No more. You're not climbing anymore.

And I believe that I need to listen to my wife.

In a last -ditch effort to salvage the climbing season, government officials

choppered a base camp to meet the Sherpas face -to -face.

I think they're recognizing that this is an opportunity where they do have

leverage, where the ministry can't ignore them.

I hope that the April 18th tragedy changes the way that things are done on

Everest. Hopefully those tensions will start to recede.

Negotiations are ongoing.

But for now, the season is over.

Tragedy has left its mark.

on the mountain but the call of everest will undoubtedly

endure life has to move on go on

after a certain time of being passed i will continue climbing

and maybe come back to average next season most all

of us will probably go back again somehow there's something about that

That always pulls you back.

You just can't resist it.

I still believe in mountaineering. It's very close to my heart. I still like

climbing mountains, you know.

It's about the freedom of the human spirit.

I'm a climber. It's in your blood.

As ridiculous as it seems, you know, these things happen and there's still

something in you that wants to climb.

I don't really necessarily always remember how it feels to stand on top of

peak. What I remember after these 50 days of an expedition is over is the

people and the dancing and the puja and the camaraderie.

The race is more tight, thick and rough.

And you feel like you're on a sky, you're in a heaven.

Every time I go back there, it makes me more grateful.