>> tonight on frontline, from the rooftop of the world comes the story that changed the perception of everest forever. >> you feel your body start to come alive, and you're climbing mt. everest! >> three teams of climbers... >> few people have stood here, looking out over this fantastic sight. >> ... an unexpected storm... >> it was a very black wall of cloud coming in low. >> one minute, we could look down and we could see the camp below, and the next minute, you

couldn't see it. >> ... and a journey that would test them all, physically and emotionally. >> rob wasn't leaving doug. i don't think it's possible to get somebody who's incapacitated down the hillary step. >> the rescue that would save his life was no longer coming. >> the storm, the wind, the snow, the cold-- everything is just crescendoing. >> i don't want to die. i don't want to die. >> if you're stuck up there, you might as well be on the moon. >> tonight on frontline, "storm over everest." >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. > with major funding from the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. helping to build a more just world. and additional funding from the

park foundation. committed to raising public awareness.

>> narrator: for over 25 years, i've been making the journey to mt. everest. i've stood on its summit five times. the mountain has given me great joy and close friendships. it's also been a place of hardship and tragedy.

in 1996, a fast-moving storm trapped climbers high on the mountain and people died. stories were told forever changing the world's perception, and my own, about climbing everest. now, i've come back to base camp alone to remember, and to reflect on what it was like to be here, on this mountain, ten years ago. we were all gathered at the mountain's base that year. we'd come with a common goal. i shared their energy, optimism and desire, all those hopes, all

those dreams. but most all, i remember the climbers and friends caught in that storm. this is their story. >> when we left base camp, we were all wary, of course, of mighty everest in front of us, but this was it, this was our chance. so we took off, and it was a great feeling. >> nobody can go there without thinking, "this is way cool just to be able to climb on this thing."

just that idea that you're actually going to put your feet on everest. i don't care whether you're a climber or you're not a climber-- that's big stuff, that's exciting. >> we went two-thirds of the way through the icefall, and i was hooked. it was the most spectacular piece of real estate that i'd ever climbed on. it helps you to put yourself in perspective with what life's all about. >> i got through the icefall and i started crying. and i thought, "well, i'm probably hyperventilating, because i'm really, really tired." and then i realized that i was beginning to cry because it was so amazing. it's just so beautiful.

>> narrator: i remember seeing them coming up the western cwm. it was may 8. i was already on the mountain. we'd set out a day ahead of the other teams, climbing up the lhotse face on our way to the summit. i was leading the imax film team, but we'd been held up by high winds, and i was worried about the conditions higher up. we needed clear weather for filming. looking down from camp three, we could see them climbing towards us. the mountain suddenly seemed crowded. we decided to go down and wait.

on the way down, i met an old friend who was leading one of the expeditions, the new zealander rob hall. we talked about the weather. i took his picture. further down, i met another friend who i'd known since we were young climbers in colorado. scott fischer was leading his team of clients. the day before, he'd taken a sick climber down to base camp. it was good to see him, but he seemed tired. the next day, i watched from lower down as scott and all the others began the steep ascent to camp four on the south col.

>> when you leave camp three on the lhotse face, it's the first time that you can actually see the summit. your goal is visible, and that's very thrilling. what blind faith it's been this whole time, climbing this far without having your goal in front of you. >> my very first view of everest, it was a long moment and a big, hard swallow, and the thought was, "i'm not so sure whether i can do this." >> leaving camp three, we donned our down suits for the first time and definitely could feel the altitude and the strenuousness of the climb. you know, climbing above 24,000 and into 25,000 feet is really

hard. it's... i don't care who you are, it really is. it's challenging. it's hard work. >> this was the first time that i remember registering "the air is much, much thinner here than anywhere else i've ever been." >> narrator: earlier that morning, there'd been an accident at camp three. a taiwanese climber had slipped and fallen into a crevasse, but he assured his teammate that he was okay and would rest before going higher. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> you move out of an area that seems familiar. there is this sense of a desolate place. it's kind of like moving into golgotha.

this is a barren, hard, inhospitable, cold... and i don't mean that in temperature; i mean that in just a sense of heaviness about the place. >> narrator: in the afternoon, we got a radio call. the taiwanese climber's health had deteriorated. the sherpas were bringing him down, and they asked us to help. we climbed fast up the lhotse face, but by the time we reached him, chen was dead. the sherpas, superstitious about death on the mountain, wanted us to bring the body down. chen's close friend and team leader, makalu gau, had just arrived at camp four on the south col. >> ( speaking chinese )

>> narrator: sitting at base camp all these years later, i can still remember my reaction: how upset i was by his response, and his decision not to come down. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> narrator: only now, after hearing his story, do i know why he decided to go on, and how little i understood about what it was like to be high on this mountain over the next few days.

>> the weather was so crummy that when we first got in there, i didn't think there was any chance that we were going to climb that night. >> in our tents at camp four that night, it was living hell. it was absolutely crazy. >> it was bad weather, and the concern was, "well, what if it's like this tomorrow?" >> we thought, "we may have struggled all the way up here, and if this keeps up at all, then the whole crowd is just going to get to head back down, and party's over." >> about 8:00, the wind died off, and so we were able to snatch a little sleep, as much as you can up there. you just are basically listening to your heartbeat and thinking, "wow, the day has come, i can't

believe it." >> "get ready, be ready. 11:00, we're going." i, i still remember looking at the faces of the other people. doug thought it was a bad idea. he... you could just tell it in his eyes that he didn't want to go. >> you had a little cover over your head, a little skullcap, and then you've got this massive thing like this, and you're trying to get your goggles adjusted just right, and meanwhile, you can't see to put your gloves on, and you've got your straps, "oh, gosh, i got the crampons on the wrong feet-- i'll be there in a minute!" >> ( speaking chinese )

>> you get out, you stand up, and it's a different world than the one you saw when you came in, because the night is gorgeous, the wind is still. you can see more stars than you ever dreamed that a place could have, and they're so close to you that you feel like you can touch them. >> in front of us is this great silhouette, the blackness of everest, and the milky way was just on fire. it was like a, like a row of lights above us. >> it was a vast, open sky, but there on the mountain, i could see the headlamps of rob hall's team, and i was worried that we might be behind before we'd even started.

>> when you climb at night, much more so than the day, you feel like you're alone. and as you look up and you look down, you don't see the vistas. you see these little cones scattered along in a line, of the people that are all strung out as part of this silent progression of individuals, each one in their own world, separated from everyone else on their team, separated from everyone else on earth. >> you start to get in rhythm with your oxygen. you get your headlight adjusted just right and jiggle your pack around, and you can feel your body start to come alive and, you know, the blood flowing, and, you know, you're... you're climbing mt. everest. it's a pretty cool feeling.

>> ( speaking chinese ) >> right before the balcony, which was several hours out, after going up fixed ropes in the dark, you started to see a little light out to the east. >> within a few steps, you just walk right up into the sunlight, and everything changes. you can see what appears to be a thousand miles out across the tibetan plains. the sun is now over the horizon and just glittering off of the glaciers, thousands and thousands of feet below you.

it's an amazing experience, and, and you know why you're climbing mt. everest at that moment. >> you look across at all these other peaks that were always way above you, and now they're, they're tiny. they're like waves in the ocean. >> and you know that few people have stood here, looking out over this fantastic sight. >> narrator: by dawn, the teams were just below the southeast ridge at 27,600 feet. it had been five weeks since they'd first arrived at base camp. each team was its own small world. the clients were paying their way, and the professional guides

like rob and scott promised access to a dream. >> i felt like a part of something great. i really... i really think that to do something with people for a common purpose is a wonderful thing, and to help people to achieve their dreams is something that caught me as well. so much emotion and experiences and demands of you happen in such a short space of time, six weeks of intensive living. i never thought i'd ever do this in my life. >> i think everybody has, has a place in themselves that mountains can fill. mountains carry great respect with people around the world, so it doesn't surprise me at all

that many people use mountains to find this. that's what i did myself. >> i'd spent most of my adult life in profound depression. and i, i mean, i john wayned it so that i never let anybody know about it, and i discovered that if you drove your body hard, when you did that, you couldn't think, and that lack of thinking, as you punished your body and drove yourself, was amazingly pleasant. >> other people, when they have... when their life is at a difficult spot, turn to drugs or drink or credit cards. i go to the mountains. that's always worked for me. >> as long as i, or human beings, believe that by doing

something, the world is going to change; by doing this, i'm going to be more happy; by doing that, i'm going to be more successful; by doing this, people are going to love me more-- then i think there will be this fantastic drive behind it. >> now that we could see the summit, you're just pulled in. you've gone so far up the mountain, you've come so far from home, and you've spent six months preparing for this goal. there's no way you're going to turn around unless things are really going south.

>> narrator: they'd been climbing hard since midnight. it's vital to get to the summit and back to the camp four before nightfall. >> i felt very comfortable with the situation. we were inside of our turnaround time. the weather was still good. there were certainly some delays that were unexpected, but that's how climbing is. >> and by the time that i get up to the balcony, i realized that i pretty much was out of the game. my right eye was not really usable, 'cause it was blurred over, and my left eye wasn't good enough yet that i felt comfortable going forward. and so when i told rob this, he volunteered to send me down with a couple of the sherpa. and i'd just climbed all night to get to this place. i didn't want to go. he said, "beck, i want you to

promise me that you're going to stay here till i come back." and i said, "rob, cross my heart, hope to die, i'm sticking." and it never, ever crossed my mind that he'd never come back. >> beck had a problem, and it was too bad. i... and i didn't even think that much about that because, you know, a lot of things happen, and it could have been me, it could have been anybody, but it was sort of like "tough break, and see you later." >> upon arriving at the south summit, there were a few people there, and there seemed to be some confusion about ropes and who was going first, and were we using old fixed lines, or did we

have enough new line to string across the traverse to the hillary step? >> anatoli and i tied into the rope together and trekked off towards the hillary step over this very beautiful, very delicate knife-edge ridge. and there was a steady enough wind that it would take the rope between us and hold it out in this big arc. it would hold itself out for maybe ten or even 15 seconds at a time, and then drop down, and like a sail, it would, it would bulge out again. >> it was definitely not a place that you wanted to fall. you had a rope to sort of guide you that was probably staked in pretty well, but the snow wasn't

that great for holding stakes. and the fact that, when you sunk your ice axe into the snow, you could look through the hole as you pulled it out and see tibet, and over here you could see nepal. so you wanted to be very careful about staying right on the border, so to speak. people were stacking up behind us like crazy, and i was feeling lucky to be one of the first people across. >> lots and lots of people were so slow getting up the hillary step, and you sort of had to wait your turn in line before you could, could climb that, that piece of rock face. and losing one hour just more or less standing still on a mountain, that is really the stupidest thing you can do because speed is the same as safety.

>> i looked at my watch, and i had a sick feeling inside of myself. this is the way i was feeling: i was feeling sick at that point, because i knew... i knew it was impossible to get there by the 1:00 pm turnaround time. >> and i thought, "if i keep going now, i'll be out of oxygen, get to the summit, but i'll be coming back down to the south col in the dark and without oxygen and more tired than i am now." the risks were escalating. >> my heart was beating so hard. i felt like it was going to jump right out of my chest. i was almost shaking as i was struggling inside of myself with, "what am i going to do? am i going to keep going, because i'm so close, or am i going to turn around?" >> at that stage, rob came up past me, and i said to him, "rob, i'm going down." and i could even see behind his oxygen mask, he was visibly

disappointed, probably for me, because he loved to get people to achieve their goal of getting to the top. but he said, "it's your call, pal." didn't say "mate," like an australian. "it's your call, pal. i'll see you back at the south col." and that was the last time i saw rob alive. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> and it's not difficult climbing, by rock climbing standards, but you have to imagine, you've got these massive boots with little rock holds for your feet, massive mitten hands with little rock holds for your hands, and you're all puffy like the michelin

person, and you're trying to execute these moves at 28,000, 29,000 feet, and an oxygen bottle and your pack, and it's just very awkward. >> ( speaking chinese )

>> i arrived at the summit at 1:25, and for about five minutes, i really enjoyed the summit of mt. everest for myself. then i started watching this stream of people come over the rise above the hillary step. >> finally we came to one rise, and i looked to the next, and there were a group of people on top, and i knew that was it. >> in any other circumstance, you would think that somebody could cover that distance in ten or 15 minutes, but it took some of these people much, much

longer than that. >> it's not very far, but it's just so hard, and even though there are not that many paces, it just takes very, very long time from there to actually get to the summit. >> and soon enough, we were joining the celebration up there, and looking down the north side, and looking down the west and the east and the south, and we could see it all. we were on the roof of the world. >> you can almost see the curvature of the earth. i know you can't, but you can feel that you're up high enough that you're looking down on the sphere. all the hardships that you've gone through and all the discomfort you've been through is completely worth it at that moment. >> what i really felt was a massive, massive contentment and sort of a feeling of everything falling into place.

>> it was just this cluster of people. i couldn't believe how many were there. but everybody is perched onto this little ridge, so it just looked like this sea of colors. it was hard to even recognize who was who out of all these colors. >> it was my feeling that we celebrated a little too long. we were waiting for scott to come up so we could descend as a team, but he was taking the longest time, and people were enjoying the day. the day was beautiful. there wasn't a cloud out there. >> finally, i was just like, "we've got to go. it's getting late now. this is... no more. we've got to go." so i remember walking back up to where everybody was, and, you know, getting up close into everybody's face, each person's face that was there, and telling

them, "look, get yourself ready, we've got to go down now." >> when rob called me from the summit at 2:30, it was those familiar words: "base camp, this is everest summit." oh, and he sounded sort of hale and hearty. he sounded really good. and he told us who had just started descending, and he said that doug hansen was... "he's just in sight." and he said, as soon as doug got up to him, that they'd do a really quick turnaround. and he was intending to descend straight away. and i said, "what's the weather like?" and he said, "cold and windy, cold and windy."

>> rob and yasuko and i, we stayed on the summit for an extra five or ten minutes and then took some photographs, and then yasuko and i headed back down. >> narrator: yasuko namba had just completed the seven summits. it had taken her 16 years, but she was now the second japanese woman to climb the highest mountain on every continent. >> and then finally we started descending. and then getting down over the hillary step, i meet scott, who's on the way up, and i sort of really hug him. >> we high-fived, we hugged, and it was just obvious from his movement that he was intending to continue going up.

>> the first thing i noticed about scott fischer was just how badly he was traveling. of all the people i saw that day moving up and down the mountain, he was the most unlikely person to be in that situation, still going up the mountain. >> narrator: now, hours behind schedule, 14 climbers were still high on the mountain. at the summit, rob hall waited for his client, doug hansen. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> narrator: doug hansen was a postal worker from seattle. the year before, also climbing with rob hall, he'd collapsed at the south summit and had to be helped down.

he'd worked two jobs to save enough money to return to everest. finally, he was almost there. >> i was in front of rob hall. i told doug hansen, "okay, it's late. it's now bad weather. we're going to go down." but doug hansen, he didn't talk to me, he just shake his head, and then he's pointing his finger at the summit. >> ( speaking sherpa ) >> rob told me, "okay, i don't want to leave clients behind. you guys go ahead. you go ahead. leave oxygen bottle at south summit. go down." >> from the south summit, i recall looking back along this razorback ridge to the hillary step. i saw rob hall standing up and

doug hansen leaning into the slope, resting on his ice axe. i remember giving the normal thumbs-up sign, like that, and i got the same response from the person i thought was rob hall. and it indicated to me that everything was okay and it was time to continue the descent. >> we were headed down from the south summit when i saw sandy laying in the snow. >> there's this person in a yellow suit laying face down, head down the hill. and charlotte, i recognized charlotte standing above this person. >> i'd try pulling her to her feet, and she was just a load of dead weight. she just... she couldn't go any further. >> she collapsed. she literally collapsed and there was absolutely no more power in her to move down. >> and then i remembered i had that injection of dexamethasone,

kept it warm inside my suit all this time, just in case something like this happened. >> she kind of gives me the nod as she's got basically both hands on the syringe, that, you know, "is this the right thing to do?" and i'm, like, "yeah, go for it." >> so i unzipped the rainbow zipper to her rear end, and knew she had layers of pile on, but that the needle would go right through that. and i just took a wing back and... >> and she smiled this crazy, wonderful, maniacal smile, and jammed the dex into my leg. >> there we also realized that sandy was running out of oxygen. >> i asked lene to exchange bottles with sandy and she kind of looked at me like, you know, "you're crazy, i'm not giving up

my oxygen." and i certainly don't blame her for that. but i was like, "you've got to do this because you're walking right now and she is not." >> from then, i believe tim and i moved together, and left sandy with neal, and we were just a little in front of the rest of the gang on our way down to the last fixed ropes. >> john taske was just right in front of me. we basically came to the balcony together, and there's beck. >> so we said, "beck, come on down with us." and beck said, "no, no, i've basically given the word, i'll wait for rob. i'll stay here and wait for him." >> they clearly wanted me to come down, but they didn't have the conversation with rob. they did not promise rob that you'd stay there. >> in good weather, that would have been obviously the right decision to make, because rob

was more experienced. rob had a rope, so he could have short-roped beck down. we'd have had all sorts of trouble. >> beck said he felt more comfortable if we had a rope, and we didn't have a rope, and he said he thought he needed to be short-roped, and that was the end of it. >> i could have gone down with them, and obviously i should have, but i really didn't want the day to end even then. >> there wasn't any sense of being left behind or abandoned or almost dying or anything happening at that point. >> when we got the 4:15 call, rob was asking somebody else on our team, who may have just been below the south summit, for more oxygen. and he was obviously with someone in trouble.

>> narrator: rob was on the radio to one of his guides, andy harris, who was waiting for him at the south summit. >> rob was obviously distressed and concerned about something that was going on. there was something wrong. >> narrator: andy was last seen climbing back up the ridge to help rob and doug. >> what really started to concern me at this point was that i started to see some bad weather coming in from down the valley. it was a very black wall of clouds coming from behind towichi, further down the valley, coming in low. unlike a lot of storms that start high, this storm was coming quite low, and it was obviously very fast-moving, very intense.

in a few minutes, i saw the mountains of towichi disappear. >> down below this what was sort of benevolent puffy clouds has now got more of a sinister look to it. it's really... it's starting to look like it's, you know, a real storm, and we're walking right down into this storm. >> narrator: the climbers nearing camp four on the south col were the first to run into trouble. >> a rock came hurtling down the face and knocked lou's glove from underneath the piece of rope, and it went cart-wheeling away with the wind. following the rock, we didn't know who it was, but it was anatoli boukreev racing down, who went straight past us without talking, heading off towards the tents on the south col.

at that moment, as i looked up and saw the tents, i could see the storm coming behind it. >> one minute, we could look down and we could see the camp below, and the next minute, you couldn't see it. >> within the spacof five minutes, it changed from really a good day with a little bit of wind to, to desperate conditions, something i'd never experienced the ferocity of before. >> and then i came across beck weathers, which caught me completely by surprise, because by this time, snow had started to fall very lightly. beck had obviously been sitting very patiently and very still, so he was completely covered in snow. and as he turned to me, all the snow fell off his climbing suit, and suddenly i could see there was someone in front of me. and i think he said, "is that you, mike?"

and i said, "yes." and i think he said, "well, i've got a bit of a problem. i can't see." >> so mike put me on a short tether, and it was a good decision, because i'm coming down, and i do make some pretty good missteps. i put down and actually shift my weight onto the down foot, and it's, and it's nothing there. >> and then, to my surprise, still in the gully, i came across yasuko, sitting in the snow, completely and utterly exhausted. so i really had my hands full now, because here's beck weathers, who's totally blind, and yasuko, who can't walk. >> there was no more thought about who was on whose team. it was just people. >> fortunately for me, neal could see my dilemma and took over the control of yasuko.

>> i could feel when i grabbed her at first, her arm was limp. but once we got her up and started walking, i could tell she was hanging on tighter because she had hope and she knew that she was heading down. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> ( speaking sherpa )

>> narrator: the sherpas never came back. they left makalu gau more than a thousand feet above camp four, alone. >> narrator: scott soon collapsed on a ledge not far from makalu gau, too weak to descend further. now, both teams were without their leaders. >> on the top of the hillary step, which is about as far away from anywhere in this world that you can get, rob was in a situation where he had somebody incapacitated, that he could not

pick this guy up and carry him. that's impossible up there. >> at 5:15, he called and he said that doug was weak and, um... yes, i could tell things were very serious. >> my feeling was that rob should descend to south col and at least look after himself, to be in a position to effect a rescue the next day, as hard as that might be. >> when guy was talking like this, i think rob sounded a little annoyed that, you know, like doug, doug might be listening to this. >> at the time, i was effectively being the devil's advocate. i mean, i was trying to give him the option to decide that what i was saying was a good idea. he might have been thinking it in his own head, but yet not being able to come up with that decision himself. >> i recorded at that time that it sounded like rob wasn't

leaving doug, and that was kind of like we didn't hear for another 12 hours from rob. >> narrator: as darkness fell, the storm was nearing full force. it swept over the south col, engulfing camp four. >> when i got back to camp, i crawled inside the tent, and the next thing i remember was the feeling like somebody was shoving me. but the thoughts were, "why isn't anybody here? why am i alone?"

and i could hear nothing. i could hear nothing but the wind. it was the wind that was moving me around, shoving me and pushing me. and... and it was terrifying. i felt lonely. i wanted to say good-bye. i wanted to say "i love you" one more time. i... i didn't want to die alone. it was something that i never knew about myself, would be important to me, to be dying

separated from the people i love and who love me. >> narrator: the storm, which began as a cyclone in the bay of bengal, surprised everyone on the mountain as it surged higher, gaining in energy, power, and ferocity, overwhelming the exhausted summit climbers as they searched for camp on the hard rocks and steep cliffs of the south col.

>> we would walk, thinking, "wow, the wind's going to want to blow us toward the kangshung face, so let's overcompensate by going the other direction, and we'll probably hit base camp." >> and as you move further and you become more disoriented... and the entire time that you're doing this, the storm, the wind, the snow, the cold, everything is just moving, it's crescendoing, and now it's the noise level that's starting to overwhelm you, and you've got to yell at each other to be heard at all. and i don't know whether we're getting a sense of just being led like sheep.

>> and then we just became hopelessly lost. i recall the ice and the snow stinging my face, freezing my eyelids together to a point where i have to, to sort of break the ice off my eyelids to be able to see, and tripping over rocks on the south col, picking up beck when he did the same, because he fell over quite a lot. >> i had no idea where we were going. i knew enough, though, to keep track of mike groom's arm because i thought, if i let go of him and i got three feet away, i wouldn't have any idea where anybody was. >> people who have all run out of oxygen, some of them really

start collapsing, and those of us who are still able to walk try to sort of, you know, pick them up, make them keep walking. this is survival, and surviving in the mountain is to keep moving-- never, ever stop. >> we all felt that camp was close, and we couldn't figure out why we had not stumbled upon it. we had passed discarded oxygen tanks, pots and pans, ripped fabric of tents. we knew we were right there. >> we could be 40 meters from the tents and people could die there, but there was no way that we could find our way back to the tents. >> on both sides of the south col, it's this big expansive flat, but at the edges, it becomes precipitously steep. >> one side's the kangshung

face, and the other side is straight down the steepest section on everest on the nepal side. so... and it was literally... it would have been walking off a cliff. >> i just had this strong, strong feeling that we had to just stop and sit down and just wait for a little bit for the storm to abate before we made a decision we couldn't get out of. >> they were beginning on a downward slope off the kangshung face, and neal sensed this. i don't know how he did it, and that's the reason neal's a guide and i'm not, but he made that decision that we were going to stop, and then we start to come together, this odd lot of

individuals, and we become the huddle. >> narrator: most of us knew nothing of what was happening that night. we knew only that many climbers were missing, and that rob and doug were still high on the mountain, unable to get down.

>> i don't think it's possible to get somebody who's incapacitated down the hillary step, let alone along the knife- edge ridge between the hillary step and the south summit, let alone in a storm. unless some sort of amazing thing happened and somebody came charging up with a pile of oxygen bottles, rob was in really deep trouble with doug.

>> as time passes, each one of us becomes more and more absorbed in our own world. you can know the other individuals are there, but you're beginning to lose that sense of contact with them. charlotte says, "i don't care anymore. all i want to do is die." and sandy is about to come unglued. "i don't want to die. i don't want to die. my face is freezing; my hands are freezing." >> i remember thinking, "i don't want to die. i don't want to die here."

>> yasuko was next to me, and i was pretty much trying to shove her and pummel her and try to keep it going. and at some point in there, though, i had this sense of just gently moving away. i wasn't giving up. i was just becoming unaware. >> we knew that going to sleep was the wrong thing to do, and it was too easy to do. you just suck yourself back, you draw yourself back as far as you could into your down suit hood, and just close your eyes and take a few breaths, and it was too easy to want to let go. >> and that was the point where i just said, "you know what?

i don't know if i'm going to make it through the night. maybe it's just easier to just go under that sleep before hypothermia takes you and just go on and get it over with, 'cause this is too much." >> certainly these were real feelings that people were having, but it was like, "well, you know, we just can't go there. you know, we're going to be okay, we just got to figure out how to get through the night. it's just about living hour by hour, minute by minute." >> narrator: makalu gau was caught by the storm far above the climbers on the south col. he was alone with scott fischer, who lay helpless only a few feet away.

( speaking chinese )

"i am sick. i am sick." >> this is a situation where people die. this was the real deal and there was no mistaking the danger of the situation that we were in. we were on knife's edge.

>> i could almost objectively watch what was happening to me. and that was fairly eerie; not so much as being an out-of-body experience, but monitoring myself for my downfall. >> you're in this little, tiny world of incredible noise and cold. and you're going past just shivering and shaking uncontrollably, where you have no ability to stop your body from trying to generate enough heat-- you can't get it to stop.

>> i think it was neal who spotted the upper slopes of mt. everest. and once he spotted them, he yelled out something and i saw the same sight and quickly, like neal, were able to figure out where we were in relation to camp four. >> i associated camp four and the tents as our salvation. if somehow we could just get there and alert people to our position; that, to me, was how the situation was going to go from extremely bad to better. >> there was hope again to get up and walk back to camp. but i had already let myself get so cold and mentally so detached that every time i stood up, i just fell down.

finally, people had to keep moving and go save themselves. >> yasuko i had on my arm the entire time in the huddle. and when i grabbed her to try to stand her up, she kept falling to the ground. you know, i tried to drag her and help her along, but i couldn't do it. >> trying to get up, trying to get on your feet with a pack on your back on unstable ground and in the condition that i was in was not possible in the amount

of time that i needed to stay with neal. >> we were staggering about like really drunk people and absolutely no resources left to even try to move. but as it was everybody's only chance of surviving, we did it anyway. >> and i tried to go with them, but i had beck and yasuko and i literally had... i think i had one person on each shoulder. but after 20 meters, yasuko had fallen over twice and it was just a hopeless situation. >> so everyone moved off, and

though we tried a few times to get going, and we could see people getting further and further away from us. i remember lene on klev's arm, shuffling along slowly but moving, and me wanting to be with her, but just not able to physically go.

>> narrator: we'll never know what happened to rob that night. it must have been a desperate struggle as he tried to move doug along that ridge only a few feet at a time, so far from the safety of camp. and what happened to doug? did he still have enough life in him to reach out to rob and say, "don't leave me"?

or did doug ever look at rob and say, "rob, just go, save yourself"? and where was andy harris? >> we were so lucky that the direction we went in led us to camp four, because we could have missed the tents by just a few degrees and kept walking past.

we could have been wandering on the south col forever. >> eventually, we sort of just staggered into the tents and more or less collapsed. >> anatoli was like, "where's scott?" he kept asking, "where's scott?" and i remember telling anatoli that he wasn't with us-- "no scott, not here, not here, but people," and i remember turning around and pointing. >> narrator: anatoli boukreev, a strong russian climber, was one of scott fischer's guides. he'd climbed to the summit without bottled oxygen and had descended to camp four on the south col hours ahead of his teammates. >> anatoli gathered some thermos with hot tea, whatever could be utilized to really revive people for at least a little while, and then he set out into the snowstorm. >> and at that point, i really

felt like i had passed this baton to anatoli. and i just assumed that this same set of actions was happening for rob's team and that yasuko and beck would make it back as well. >> there was certainly a great deal of hope when i saw the group move off towards the tents. that meant that somebody would know where the rest of us were. surely someone would come out and find us. >> that clearly was what needed to be done. i thought, "it's not going to be very long. we'll have help to come back out here, and we'll be back in the tents. it couldn't be more than half an hour, and folks will be back."

>> we could see a headlamp coming vaguely in our direction, but certainly not striding purposefully, but it was a light, and with a light was a glimmer of hope. and soon it became clear that it was anatoli. >> he just grabbed me and said, "i'll be back" for the rest of the group and sandy and tim. and he hooked arms with me and assisted me to my feet, and we started to walk back. i tried once again to sit down

every few feet and rest, but he told me not to do that; that was impossible, we had to keep moving. finally, i came into a tent and there was neal with a huge, hot, hot, hot cup of tea. and i remember him handing it to me, and i couldn't hold it because my hands were shaking so violently, that he had to feed me the first few sips. and then i could put my hands around that cup and warm them enough to be able to stop shaking as much and drink myself. >> anatoli had promised me that he would be right back. at a certain point, i lost hope that he was going to come back 'cause it seemed like it was taking so long.

it was... it was a glorious sight seeing that little, tiny headlamp in the distance growing larger and coming closer to us. he came back. >> anatoli spent the whole night trying to rescue those people. he would have wanted to bring back both beck and yasuko at that point, but if he had done that, he probably would have died himself. >> the last part being there, i couldn't see anybody.

i could still feel somebody next to me, and i remember thinking it was probably yasuko. at that point, there was no pain left; there was just a sense of just detachment and calm, and i didn't feel uncomfortable, i didn't... nothing hurt. it just was sliding away, gradually fading to black.

>> when rob called in the morning, i scrambled out of my sleeping bag, and i just remember climbing over bodies to get to the radio. i just had to get there. and i picked up the radio, and i said, "rob, where are you?" i was really hoping he was going to say "south col." and he said, "i'm at the south summit." and my heart just hit the floor. rob once said that if you're stuck up there, you might as well be on the moon. >> rob called, saying that he

couldn't move and "come and get me." and when we asked rob about doug, all rob could say is that "doug is gone." at that stage, he asked about andy harris. he said, "andy was with me last night. does anybody know where he is?" >> in the morning, we went through, looking for namba and beck. 350 or 400 meter from south col, beck was lying down.

i pick up yasuko namba, but she wasn't respond to me. and then i told them, "okay, namba is dead here. you guys go down, look beck." >> (speaking sherpa) >> they went down, they look, they thought, "totally not moving." they told me "same like namba; he's totally lie down." >> narrator: at base camp, they called the united states and told beck's wife that her husband was dead. >> ( speaking chinese )

>> during the morning the winds became so strong. the sherpas tried their hardest to get to rob. they had to turn around somewhere up on the southeast ridge. there came a point that they realized it was too dangerous for them to continue. >> it was still blowing and hard to see, hard to find the path. we both decide, we may not reach there or we may... something going to be happening for us, too. >> they were very upset that they had not been able to get up to rob. they tried their hardest, but these guys were very exhausted.

>> i was so sad. i came all the way up there to help rob, but i didn't met him. i have to return, close to by him. >> they were about a hundred vertical meters below him, and they had to turn around. and they left some tea in the hope that rob might possibly get to it, but... when i heard that news, i was in tears, and guy had to speak and tell rob. >> that was a very hard call to make, to have to tell your friend and long-time climbing partner that the rescue that would save his life was no longer coming. >> nobody can come that day; it's already too late. he has been out already one night he spent outside there. and then, yeah, i already

thought when we left, "he's going to die." >> i was now the person responsible for this... the survival of the team. and i was certainly in no condition to even mount a rescue for those who were still outside or get the survivors of our team down to safer ground. >> the decision to leave beck and yasuko where they were was not really a difficult decision, with probably partly my medical background, but also what we'd been through the night before was... this was horrific. to see mike come in very close

to death-- my estimate would have been half an hour and mike would not have been able to move. and here were these other people exposed to phenomenal winds, at least 80 miles an hour, 20, 30 below zero all night. we thought it was kinder to leave them rather than cause them pain, even in a semiconscious state by dragging them over to where we were. they were basically dead. >> when i initially began to come around, i thought i was in my own bed. it was pleasant, it was warm, i was not the least bit uncomfortable. there was nothing to hurt, because all the parts that were exposed were dead, and dead flesh doesn't hurt. and it wasn't until i got far enough along that i opened my eyes and could see the ice in

front of my face, and then i managed to look over, and i saw the claw that was my frozen hand, that i really... at that point, i knew exactly that i was somewhere on that col, somewhere on that mountain. i was on my own. i was as good as dead. then when i saw my wife and children just directly in front of me-- that... that's what drove me, and that got me up, and that got me moving. i fell down a bunch of times. i was just trying to keep from going in circles. i remember one thing that was pretty unsettling. i can see the sun-- not the rest of the stuff around, but i can see that big yellow ball up

there. and i'm looking at it, and it's about there, as i'm looking above the horizon. and, as you well know, when that sun goes down, the place changes rather dramatically from something which is survivable to something which is just horror on earth. i'm shuffling along, aware that i'm hallucinating. and as i was getting closer to these blue objects-- and i'm really not aware yet that the blue things are the tents; it rolls through that they might be, but i don't really know that. and it's only when somebody stands up in front of me, and we look at each other over one of these blue rocks, do i realize that i... that i'm back. i'm in the tent, i'm in a sleeping bag, and they know that i'm here.

>> an hour before dark, i radioed rob to tell him that his wife, jan, was calling from new zealand on the satellite telephone at base camp and that i was going to patch him through to her. and he said, "hold on a minute, mate, i've just got to put some snow in my mouth to moisten it; i'm a bit dry," before he could talk to her, which, you know, was rob just wanting to make sure that when he did talk to jan that he came across sounding good and probably to reassure her that he was okay and this was just a bit of a fix, but he was going to get his way out of it. >> and i guess nobody wanted to admit it to themselves that it was going to be their last call. it was something that was just never said. and as i put the call through

and held the microphone of the radio against the satellite phone, i was almost doubled up holding my hands up with the phone because i was crying so much. and i felt that in some ways i... you know, it was terrible to be doing... it was a terrible thing as well as a really good thing. it nearly broke my heart, but i was glad that i could do that for them. and every time he spoke to jan, he... he lifted. and so that's... that's the most important thing i think i've

ever done. >> on the second night, the winds blew up even more than the first night. and at one stage, the moorings that were holding the tent to the rocks started to give. i didn't realize that beck was alive. and what surprised me more was when i heard that the whole night he had been in a tent no more than ten feet from where i was. >> during the night, i woke up and realized that i was completely alone and i'm incredibly thirsty. so i call out enough till finally one of the sherpa comes

over, and he has a thing of hot tea. he's right outside the door of the tent, and i try to get him to come into the tent, and he won't come in. we sit and stare at each other for a while; i can't get out and he's not coming in. and eventually he wanders off. i think there was something about me that had an air of death. >> on the morning of the 12th, i

tried to raise rob on the radio from base camp, but there was no response. we tried repeatedly through the day. and we always were monitoring the radio, but we didn't hear from rob again. there were so many people needing assistance and help from south col that there was just no possible way to initiate another rescue effort. >> in the morning of the 12th, still laying there, thinking about what we're going to do, mike groom unzipped the door of the tent and said, "we've got to get out of here." "hey, mike, how you doing? boy, good to see you."

you know, i thought mike was gone. but all of a sudden mike made a miraculous survival and he's back and he said, "20 minutes, we're going." >> i did the rounds of the tents and said, "we're going to leave in half an hour. make sure you've got your oxygen and whatever personal belongings you want to take back to base camp and be ready to leave in half an hour time." and i passed one tent, and what caught my eye was the fact that the front door was open and the back door was open and a pair of climbing boots sticking out the end of the tent. and i really didn't think much of it except to think, "well, that's one unfortunate person that didn't survive last night." and i didn't recognize the person because on the upper part of their body there was a sleeping bag draped loosely over the upper part of their body and the head, which you sometimes do with a dead body.

and people have asked me, "why didn't i look to see who was underneath it?" but i've seen enough dead bodies in my life not to want to have to do that, so i just dismissed it as someone who didn't survive the night. but i didn't know at the time that that was actually beck weathers. >> narrator: no one had told him that beck had come back. beck had been put in a tent alone, left for dead once again. >> i really don't know what the time is. i've lost sense of how much time has passed. it's daylight. i'm yelling out to try to get some connection again, some attention that you can...

to see another person; that's what i really wanted. >> narrator: incredibly, one of the last people leaving camp heard beck calling out. the news traveled down the mountain. the man everyone thought was dead was coming down. >> after descending the lhotse face, i came across david breashears, who was holding out a water bottle to me. and as i was drinking, he said, "do you know beck's alive?" you could have slapped me in the face and not surprised me as much as that. and i uttered some expletive deleted and said, "that's not true." and then he said, "have a look for yourself." and i looked up across the lhotse face towards the geneva spur, and there were two people helping this fellow down in a

suit, which was obviously beck's suit. >> i was alive again. i was coming back. even if i just fell apart at this point, i was going to get off the mountain. and the hardest part, the dangerous part, the part where you're gonna get wounded is all behind you, and now it's simply a matter of getting home. >> for days, people have been dying all around me, and i'm having no emotion. my emotions were as frozen as my body almost. but what's in fact happening is they're all storing up inside of me for this moment.

it wasn't until i got through the very last section of the ice fall and i can see people up ahead from our base camp, and i sat down and i cried and cried and cried. i've never cried like that in my whole life, i don't think. >> when we got down to the base camp and i walked in for the first meal into the mess tent, that was probably the second biggest shock.

the enormity of it all hit me in one fell swoop, looking around and seeing all these spaces-- half of the people that i knew weren't there anymore. >> that leaving was so hard, and i remember being so slow as i couldn't stop turning around to look. it was so hard to turn your back on the mountain with rob and andy and doug and yasuko and scott fischer all lying up there.

>> everybody always says that the definition of character is what you do when nobody's looking. and when we were up there, we didn't think anybody was looking. and so everybody did pretty much what their inner person, the real them, the exposed them, would do. and some individuals come out of that, i think, justly proud of their actions. others would probably never want anybody to know. i was fortunate i got to be witness to those acts, the good ones, the bad ones. and the individuals that came

through, that did well, that were selfless, i mean, they... every one of those people, every one of them is to me a hero even if nobody knows that. >> narrator: for as long as people are drawn to everest, this line of memorials will continue to grow. the mountain doesn't care whether we're here or not. it doesn't compete with us; it isn't burdened by our hopes and dreams. everything it means to us is only what we bring to it. it's what the mountain reveals about us that has any lasting value.

>> this story continues on our web site, where you can explore an interactive map of the mountain... >> you know, you're... you're climbing mt. everest it's... it's a pretty cool feeling. >> ...with a time chart showing where the climbers were as they recount what was happening to them. >> and i was feeling lucky to be one of the first people across.

>> and as we was getting closer to these blue objects-- and i'm really not aware yet that the blue things are tents. >> read filmmaker and climber david breashear's interview about making the film and what he learned. >> stories were told forever changing the world's perception and my own about climbing everest. >> read interviews with the climbers and sherpas on some of the tragedy's major themes. why the quest for everest? >> and you know that few people have stood here, looking out over this fantastic sight. >> by doing this, i'm going to be more happy. >> what's the responsibility of a team's leader? >> i think i had one person on each shoulder. >> what are the rules and ethics of mountain climbing? >> there came a point that they realized it was too dangerous for them to continue. >> and more on what it was like to be trapped at 26,000 feet in 80 mile an hour winds and temperatures of 30 below.

then join the discussion about this film at pbs.org. >> next time on frontline... >> i felt like someone completely different. >> she became someone online. >> i felt like i was famous. >> he got all a's. >> i'll be honest, i can't remember the last time i read a book. >> these girls became notorious. >> people were, like, "yo, i just seen you all on youtube." >> and he learned something deadly. "growing up online." watch frontline. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. > with major funding from the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. helping to build a more just world. and additional funding from the park foundation. >> this is pbs. >> they are a new generation, breaking from tradition and transforming china.

this is their story-- a story about love, ambition, and the conflict between the past and the future. "young and restless in china." watch frontline. >> narrator: coming this fall: for 20 years, through five presidential elections, frontline has painted intricate portraits of the candidates. in-depth reporting of their lives, their character, and what makes them run. in 2008, this historic race, it is more important than ever to know how they think, what makes them tick, and what they really believe. >> ♪ democracy is comin'

to the usa ♪ to the usa... ♪ before the vote, the choice 2008, coming this fall to frontline. >> in the early 1980s, america was just coming out of a devastating recession, ronald reagan was president, a secret war was being played out in central america, aids was about to emerge as the new plague, and a terrorist bombing of a marine barracks in beiruit would put america on warning. like now, it was a serious world, and public television responded with a new

documentary series >> david fanning: from the very beginning, the idea was to grab hold of the best of narrative documentary, of finding that connection between journalism and filmmaking. it always set its sights at being a series about ideas, but that at the heart of those ideas there would have to be stories. >> you communist son of a bitch, you asked for the klan, here we are. ( gunshots ) >> there have been times that i've thought, "how can you murder your own child?" if the decision is wrong, if we're playing god, then i'll have to live with that, and i'm willing to do that. >> one of the birds went down. one of the choppers went down. we got ambushed right there on that intersection. >> the volume of fire was just so intense, i don't know how any

of us made it out alive. >> more than 500 films and countless awards later, frontline is the only place on television to consistently, week in and week out, take the long hard view of the day's tough subjects. >> david fanning: the series has turned into a record of the last 25 years. it has been in the best sense of journalism as the first draft of history, archiving in effect foreign policy bungles, domestic tensions, cultural upheavals, and miscarriages of justice. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty of first-degree sexual assault. >> i hate you! i hate you! >> i just wanted to scream at them, "you're wrong. he is not guilty."

>> david fanning: much of television is about making disposable television. what we try to do is to make television that lasts, television that says, "we respect your intelligence, we respect your curiosity, we respect that you value ideas as much as we do." >> this will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil. >> david fanning: 9/11 was a story we'd been covering for almost 20 years-- back into the 1980s, the first war on terrorism. we were, over those weeks after 9/11, using the best of our producers-- their knowledge and their experience and the institutional memory of the series-- in service of a collection of films that would become tremendously valuable in the weeks immediately after 9/11. >> the first weekend after the attacks of september 11, some

people at camp david were arguing that the war against terrorism should include saddam hussein >> david fanning: frontline has gone on to devote more than 40 hours of documentaries to the struggles that followed. >> are you okay? garcia? >> david fanning: from on the ground in iraq... >> he got hit, came back up mortally wounded, he went out fighting, and he died like he should. >> david fanning: ...in the offices of power back in washington... >> there's a war going on inside the administration. they don't even agree what they're doing in iraq. >> david fanning: ...and in search of al-qaeda in the remotest regions of afghanistan and pakistan. >> the situation in afghanistan is more dire than we've seen publicly portrayed. >> david fanning: it has been a commitment to the most important story in our country's recent history. if frontline has any legacy,

it's about saying we can take on difficult, tough subjects, do them smartly and thoughtfully, and we can live up to the promise of television. if we give up on the idea of doing these kinds of films, then we give up on the idea of this medium and the best of what it can be.