Review: High Ambitions in the Himalaya (2005)

HIGH AMBITIONS IN THE HIMALAYA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2

The best documentaries take you to places that you've never been before --
and probably aren't ever likely to go. But the best of the best do this in
a way that other documentaries don't. So it is in HIGH AMBITIONS IN THE
HIMALAYA, in which Curt Dowdy, both a filmmaker and a high altitude mountain
climber, takes us on an arduous journey up the sixth highest mountain in the
world, Cho Oyu, a next-door neighbor of Mount Everest.

Okay, I know what you're saying to yourself now. I've seen plenty of films
about climbing Mount Everest and other big peaks, so why would I want to see
another. The answer is simple. This isn't like most such films, in which
most of the emphasis is on the final climb to the summit and on the extreme
sport aspects of such a dangerous journey.

This film takes a completely different approach, as it spends almost all of
the movie with two intertwined parts that happen before the final ascent.

In one, we watch the men of this team as they do all of the harsh prep work,
walking from a base camp and back, all to acclimate themselves to the
altitude and the conditions. Depending on the mountain, climbers spend one
to two months in this getting ready phase. Most movies are devoted mainly
to the day of the final ascent to the summit.

The second part of the picture concerns the interviews that Dowdy does with
each member of the team. With a series of insightful questions, he gets
into the soul of each climber, finding what drives them and causes them to
risk their lives, all for the chance of getting to the top of another
mountain. And chance it is, since less than half of the climbers ever make
it to the mountaintop, and a significant number die along the way or suffer
serious and sometimes permanently debilitating injuries.

Coming into this film, I knew little of what it meant to climb a 26,000
mountain like Cho Oyu. Growing up in Texas, the extent of my snow
experience consisted of snow ball fights and the building of small snow men
in the few inches of snow that might fall each winter. Also my experience
with high altitudes came from camping in the Sierras here in California at
the 10,000 foot level. The first base camp at Cho Oyu is 18,700, higher up
than I've ever been and taller that the highest mountains in most countries.
And, cold to me is below freezing, but the temperature on the slopes of Cho
Oyu can reach forty-five degrees below zero, and that doesn't take into
account the wind-chill factor. In short, I have had no experience with
truly harsh environments.

"It's not the mountain that we conquer but ourself," the film opens with in
a quote by Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest. Based
on the interviews with the team members of this climb up Cho Oyu, which
include "Into Thin Air" Mount Everest survivor Dr. John Taske, age
sixty-one, the men's reasons for making the ascent vary widely. Taske sees
it as necessary preparation for another attempt on Everest, while another
climber views mountain climbing as the next step in his life's progression
after winning triathlons.

Certainly looking at the drop-dead beauty of the mountains with their sharp
whites cutting through the deep blues of the sky, it is easy to see how
climbers could become entranced by them. The film features haunting music
to go along with the gorgeous cinematography and scenery. But the reason
this movie is so incredibly mesmerizing is its "you are there" aspects in
the climbing preparation. We vicariously experience the same exhaustion,
exhilaration and soul-searching of the other team members on what becomes
our ascent.

HIGH AMBITIONS IN THE HIMALAYA runs 0:57.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 27-March 9, 2008.

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Email: Steve.Rhodes.TakeThisOut@InternetReviews.com

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