This is the documentary film that grew out of the book written by mountain climber Joe Simpson detailing his and his climbing partner, Simon Yates' infamous climb up Suila Grande, located in the Andes, and is over 20,000 feet in height.
Doing this as the second part of an Andean disaster double feature after Alive. The difference here, is that these guys did this to themselves. It was their idea to go climb this monster, their game plan that went wrong. At least the guys in Alive were plane crashed into their 70 something day long ordeal. These two guys go up this mountain, with just one other person the hired to mind their base camp. So when one of them seriously breaks his legs, and they are up this mountain just the two of them, the question then comes down to whether one of them is going to get left behind to perish or if they both were to make it down, then how?? The coming off the mountain is truly a harrowing thing to watch--even if it's just re-enactments. It seriously gets to the gut!! But, hey, it's Friday, so that's the point!!
Of all the things associated with snow, we haven't tackled snow blindness. Generally the term in used for over exposure to ultraviolet rays by unprotected eyes in any environment; but in extremely wintery situations, with very low temperatures, high wind and a sunny day, the term takes on a whole new evil meaning. The extreme beating that the outer lenses of the eyes take in these conditions has been known to account for some kinds of "hallucinations" reported by people lost on snow capped mountains.
Fortunately, the condition is almost universally recovered from, and pretty quickly at that--in something like 24 to 38 hours. Even in extreme cases, it can take up to 96 hours, but still one would think that something this extreme would do more permanent damage!
MORE SNOW SCULPTURE
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