''The Man Who Skied Down Everest'' is a documentary about Yuichiro Miura, a Japanese alpinist who skied down

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

in 1970. The film was produced by Canadian film maker F. R. "Budge" Crawley. Miura skied 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in two minutes and 20 seconds and fell 400 m (1,320 ft) down the steep

Lhotse Lhotse ( ne, ल्होत्से ; , ''lho tse'', ) is the fourth highest mountain in the world at , after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of China and the Khumbu ...

face from the Yellow Band just below the

South Col The South Col is a sharp-edged col between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the highest and fourth-highest mountains in the world, respectively. The South Col is typically swept by high winds, leaving it free of significant snow accumulation. Since 195 ...

. He used a large parachute to slow his descent. He came to a full stop just 76 m (250 ft) from the edge of a

bergschrund A bergschrund (from the German for ''mountain cleft'') or rimaye (from French; ) is a crevasse that forms where moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineers, who sometimes abb ...

, a large, deep crevasse where the ice shears away from the stagnant ice on the rock face and begins to move downwards as a glacier. The ski descent was the objective of ''The Japanese Everest Skiing Expedition 1970''. Six

Sherpa Sherpa may refer to: Ethnography * Sherpa people, an ethnic group in north eastern Nepal * Sherpa language Organizations and companies * Sherpa (association), a French network of jurists dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility * ...

members were killed during the expedition, as well as a Japanese member who died of a heart attack. At the same time, another independent Japanese expedition (called ''The Japanese Mount Everest Expedition 1970'') undertook a combined ascent of (a) the

normal route A normal route or normal way (french: voie normale; german: Normalweg) is the most frequently used route for ascending and descending a mountain peak. It is usually the simplest route. Overview In the Alps, routes are classed in the following way ...

, including

Naomi Uemura was a Japanese adventurer who was known particularly for his solo exploits. For example, he was the first person to reach the North Pole solo, the first person to raft the Amazon solo, and the first person to climb Denali solo. He disappeared a ...

who made the summit, and (b) the first attempt at the South-West Face, the tall black face on the movie poster with the Y-shaped snowy gully. Two members of this second expedition died. Crawley won the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

for this picture. The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

preserved ''The Man Who Skied Down Everest'' in 2010.

References

External links

* 1975 films English-language Canadian films Mountaineering films Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Films directed by Lawrence Schiller Canadian sports documentary films 1975 documentary films Films about Mount Everest 1970s English-language films 1970s Canadian films {{sport-documentary-film-stub

See also

References

External links