Return to Everest. In 1996, MacGillivray Freeman Films filmed an amazing story that unfolded on the tallest mountain on Earth.  In May of that year, Mt. Everest claimed its deadliest season -- 16 climbers.  A horrific storm killed eight climbers on one fateful day.  The film told the story of that tragedy through the sympathetic eyes of its main characters, Ed Viesturs, Araceli Segarra and Jamling Norgay, son of the legendary climber Tenzing Norgay. The resulting  44-minute giant screen film, Everest, became the highest grossing giant screen documentary film of all time.

Eleven years later, in the spring of 2007, veterans from the 1996 expedition returned to Everest, this time with other mountaineers determined to experience and learn from the “death zone” – 8000 meters and beyond. 

The Everest climbers’ 2007 Expedition begins in Asia where Araceli Segarra and Jamling Norgay meet Dr. Mike Grocott, who is leading a team of scientists on an unusual expedition. Grocott and his team will conduct experiments on how the human body copes with extreme conditions on Caudwell’s Xtreme Everest Expedition.

Oxygen levels in the blood plummet at high altitudes, to a point where death is imminent.  The same happens to many intensive care patients. 

The Everest doctors, by conducting tests on brain activity, breathing, genetics and oxygen  metabolism while on Everest slopes and its peak, hope to gain an understanding of how some patients are better able to cope with low oxygen levels and why others are not.  Return to Everest will document this largest human biology experiment ever conducted at high altitude.  Ultimately, what researchers learn on Everest could make a difference to someone’s survival in real-life circumstances back home, especially for those suffering from heart and lung afflictions. It could also explain why some climbers survived and some died in 1996.

Everest was a mountain of a movie for the giant screen industry. It was a heartfelt story of tragedy and triumph.  Return to Everest promises to be a story about people who challenge themselves – even put themselves at great risk – for others, because there is so much more to learn.

Return to Everest will premiere in March 2009.

For information on how to become a sponsor or partner to help support this film production and its outreach programming, please contact Patty Collins at pcollins@macfreefilms.com.