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If you search the Internet for reviews of "Desperate Heights", a large number of them will point out the rhythm of the film. If you're not a mountain climber or a hiker, you're most likely to fall asleep in the first half of the movie, because you'll find it hard to find excitement during the boring push. This may also be the difference between "Dead Altitude" and some commercial movies about mountaineering.
The film is two hours in total, and there is no turbulence for nearly an hour before. You will have the illusion that you are watching a documentary, and all you see are the climbers walking forward unhurriedly in different scenes. .
The second half of the film suddenly becomes dangerous again with barely too much excess, leaving the heart twitching and fidgeting.
After you've spent another hour in a state of apprehension, the movie ends in a place that doesn't quite resemble the ending.
You may have never seen such a meaningless movie, without the explanation of why the alcoholic urchin is so oblivious to physical health and drinking and having fun, without the passionate last-minute rescue of a super blockbuster, without the family summons that can create miracles of sensationalism.
But that's the truth about the "ugly" mountaineering.
I am a trekking enthusiast myself, and I have also experienced trekking in Nepal. I think that, compared to other commercial films, "Desperate Altitude" is more reductive and can resonate more with a hiking enthusiast. Although it is the end of a disaster movie, I highly recommend it to fans of outdoor sports.
If you're not very interested in outdoor sports, I suggest that you try watching the following content before going to the movies. This can greatly reduce the viewing fragmentation that occurs due to not knowing what the characters are doing.
The mountaineering we see in the movie is obviously different from most of our own mountaineering experience, so what is the difference?
First and foremost is the concept of high altitude.
Everyone may have heard of altitude sickness, and seeing the word is always shocking and creepy.
Altitude sickness refers to the reduction of oxygen dissolved in the blood vessels of the lungs due to the drop in air pressure in the high-altitude area after a person reaches a certain altitude, the ability of hemoglobin to bind oxygen is reduced, and the amount of oxygen transported by blood to various human organs is reduced. A series of natural physiological responses.
The symptoms of altitude sickness are generally: headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest tightness, insomnia, vomiting, purple lips, loss of appetite, general malaise, muscle aches, etc.
It usually occurs 6-12 hours after arriving at high altitudes, and a few occur after 1-3 days. The faster you enter high altitudes, the easier it is to reverse. Therefore, many people choose to enter Tibet by train instead of plane. That will allow more time to acclimate to the high altitude environment. In addition, we generally think that young people are more likely to have high reactions than the elderly, and men are more likely to be high than women. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. The occurrence of altitude sickness is not necessarily related to age, gender, and physical strength. Whether it is high or not depends on the innate oxygen-carrying capacity of cells. People who have grown up in high altitude regions for generations are better adapted to an oxygen-deficient environment than we are, all because they have different genes from ours.
After arriving at high altitudes, the general principle is, don't be too skinny, don't sprint, sprint, and do physical exercise. Don't overeating, keep your minds low, and do less things, that's the best way to go. no zuo no die
In most cases, after 3-10 days after the high reaction occurs, you will slowly get used to it, and the symptoms will be relieved.
Of more concern are two other altitude sicknesses, high altitude pulmonary edema and cerebral edema.
The main symptoms of pulmonary edema: severe headache, chest tightness, extreme difficulty breathing, unable to lie down, paroxysmal cough, accompanied by bloodshot pink foamy sputum. The description of pulmonary edema in the mountaineering movie "Vertical Limit" is that the lungs will be filled with fluid, and finally the person will be drowned by his own body fluids.
Cerebral edema is more serious, and the main symptoms are ataxia, which affects the coordination of limbs because the brain cannot work normally. The mental state appears amnesia, hallucinations and even semi-coma. The incidence of cerebral edema is not high, but once it occurs, it can easily lead to death.
It is very dangerous to catch a cold on the plateau, and it is easy to cause pulmonary edema and cerebral edema, so it makes sense that the Tibetan people rarely take a bath. Once they catch a cold and catch a cold, the consequences are disastrous. As tourists from low altitude areas, it is even more important to pay attention to this.
The most common way to deal with altitude symptoms is to use the drug dexamethasone. It also appeared in the movie, and it was the drug injected by Scott, the leader of Crazy Mountain. Dexamethasone is a synthetic adrenocortical hormone that reduces the permeability of cells and capillary walls and reduces inflammatory fluid exudation in the lungs. In the "Vertical Limit" about climbing K2, some subtitles are directly translated as "life-saving medicine".
Of course, what we may be more familiar with is "Sedum Red", which is usually taken for a period of time before entering high-altitude areas such as Tibetan areas. It has the effect of helping the human body to adapt to the plateau environment, but eating "Sedum Red" after a high reaction has no effect.
In addition to drug responses, the best physical responses are rest, oxygen, and lowering altitude. In serious cases, seek medical attention immediately.
In addition to hypoxia, the plateau environment has other factors that are not conducive to human survival
such as cold
For every 150 meters above sea level, the temperature decreases by 1 degree. As a result, the temperature in the plateau region is colder than in other regions of the same latitude. The annual average temperature on Mount Everest is minus 30 to 40 degrees below zero. You might say that such temperatures are also common in the Northeast. That's right, but there will never be winds like those on Mount Everest in the northeast. At the same temperature, there is a world of difference between whether there is wind or not.
In addition, low humidity, dry
The low humidity in the plateau increases the excretion of water from the body. It is estimated that the water discharged through breathing on the plateau is 1.5 liters per day, and the water discharged through the skin is 2.3 liters. On the premise of excluding sweating, it is twice the sum of all body fluids discharged by the human body in the plain area of the same latitude. In this case, the blood will become more and more viscous and the blood resistance will be large, which may cause pulmonary edema.
And strong sunlight
The intensity and penetration of UV rays into the skin at high altitudes is three times higher than at sea level. In addition, the reflection of these rays through the snow is also very strong. It is determined that snow can reflect 90% of ultraviolet rays back to the surface, while the reflectivity of grass is only 9%-17%. In other words, the human body will be exposed to double radiation of ultraviolet rays due to the action of snow. Therefore, you must wear goggles when climbing a snow-capped mountain. In some mountaineering films, the actors may take off their snow goggles to allow the audience to see the actors' performances, but doing so is against common sense.
Then the question comes again, what is high altitude, let me introduce the internationally accepted classification standards
In fact, more than 1500 meters, even if it is a high altitude. The highest peak of Mount Huangshan is more than 1800 meters, so the top of Mount Huangshan can also belong to a high-altitude area. All the way up to 3500 meters, which is the first stage of high altitude.
Will there be altitude sickness at this stage, and there will be. I'm not afraid of shame. When I went to Qinghai Lake, I had a headache when I stayed in Heimahe Township the night I just arrived. You must know that Qinghai Lake is only over 3,100 meters above sea level. But the symptoms disappeared the next day, and it was easier to adapt. Generally speaking, below 2700 meters, symptoms of high reflectivity are rarely seen.
More than 3500 meters, less than 5500 meters, belong to the ultra-high altitude area. People living in low altitude areas will have high anti-symptoms more or less when they come to more than 3500 meters, but different physiques determine whether they can adapt to the high altitude environment. The Huanglong Scenic Spot in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan is 3,900 meters away. Therefore, many people who have gone to Huanglong Scenic Spot have reported symptoms of high reaction. The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, also a famous tourist attraction, has an altitude of 4,680 meters. The cableway entrance is 4506 meters above sea level, and the final height to climb is not too high, but many people have to rely on oxygen to complete the final summit.
When the altitude exceeds 5,500 meters, one has reached a very high altitude. At this altitude, the function of the human body will be severely degraded. No one can stay at this altitude for a year. Even Tibetans and Sherpas generally live in the area below 5,500 meters. .
In fact, in addition to the lack of oxygen, the human body will have various symptoms. The human body can't bear it from a place with low oxygen content to a place with high oxygen content all at once. This is the legendary oxygen enrichment. If the Tibetan people suddenly go to Shanghai at 0 altitude, Also dizzy and tired. The human body is so delicate.
After having a general understanding of the climbing environment in the movie, let's take a look at Rob's 40-day summit plan.
Most of the moviegoers have no experience of climbing Mount Everest. Seeing the actors staggering in pain and difficulty in the repetitive scenes, they will be somewhat confused. Since the movie did not explain the whole process of the summit in more detail, we would have the feeling of being dragged away by the movie.
So it is necessary to introduce to you the whole itinerary for climbing Mount Everest.
In addition to climbing Mount Everest, you can start from Tibet, China, but also from Lukla, Nepal. The pace of commercial mountaineering in Nepal is much faster than that in China, and more climbers will choose to start from Nepal, just like Rob's team in the movie. The route taken in Nepal is usually called the south slope route, and the route taken in China is called the north slope route. In terms of difficulty, it is easier to go from Nepal than from China.
The rallying point in the film is Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Of the 14 peaks above 8,000 meters in the world, 8 are in Nepal, so Nepal is also known as "a hiker's paradise".
Then, the players took a small plane from Kathmandu to Lukla. Note that here I added an attribute "small plane" in front of the plane. That is, the kind of small plane that can directly see the rotating propeller on the wing from the window, and carries about 20 passengers. The cruising altitude of the small plane is usually about 4,500 meters, so it is different from the passenger plane we usually take. They fly under the clouds, the mountains and rivers on the ground, the village trees are clearly visible. But the trouble is that it is very affected by the weather, and it is impossible to fly if there is a slight disturbance. It is common for the plane to be delayed at Kathmandu Airport.
The flight from Kathmandu to Lukla is one of the most dangerous in the world, and Lukla's airport is also one of the most dangerous to take off and land in the world. Since 1970, the number of accidents has reached double digits.
Lucara Airport is located on the edge of a cliff at an altitude of 2,860 meters. The runway is only 460 meters long. The conventional runway is about 3,000 meters, which is less than 1/6. The airport has no radar or navigation equipment. Observation and judgment and the strength and proportion of the hands, this Nima is called the real technology. But in the movie, everyone is not riding a classic small plane but a helicopter. Maybe a chartered flight.
From Lukla to Everest Base Camp, it is time to embark on a trekking tour. There is a well-known route in the hiking industry called EBC (Everest Base Camp), which is the English abbreviation of Everest Base Camp. The classic move is a two-week loop. That is, starting from Lukla, arriving at Everest Base Camp, and then looping back to Lukla from the other side. The altitude span is 2800 meters to 5500 meters. You can see 4 peaks above 8,000 meters, including Mount Everest. You can see the super-long suspension bridges, villages, base camps and other scenes that appeared in the movie in EBC. Of course, the movie is not the whole journey of the loop. Instead, it goes to the base camp of Mount Everest.
During the trekking process, you will see many local Nepalese people. They certainly can't be casual tourists, they make a living by serving tourists or mountaineers. It is very difficult for ordinary people to climb the mountain without the assistance of local people, and it will even be difficult to the point where they cannot take care of themselves. So this also gave birth to two local occupations - guide guide and porter. The guide is responsible for the itinerary and has strong communication skills, but usually the task of bearing the load will be lighter. When the technical route needs to be taken, the rope will be arranged in advance. The backs are often ruthless, and they mainly help climbers carry heavy luggage. They are equivalent to SF Express on the mountain. For the locals, mountain climbing is as common as eating, and it is a part of life. What we call hiking, in their opinion, is walking from one village to another, and that's what they usually do when visiting a relative or friend. When hiking in the Pokhara area of Nepal before, I often saw Nepalese people wearing slippers carrying heavy packages and climbing steadily upwards, but we were wearing hiking shoes, holding trekking poles, and carrying backpacks that reduced the sense of load. , Climbing the ground is extremely hard.
There is also a special local ethnic group in Nepal, they are Sherpas - "Himalaya porters". The number of Sherpas does not exceed 20,000. They were born and raised in high mountains. Most Sherpas have lived in villages with an altitude of 2,740-4,270 meters for generations, and have adapted to the high-altitude climate physiologically.
Their blood levels are thinner than ours, their mitochondria work more efficiently, and their bodies are arguably better at using oxygen. If alpine guides were to be graded, the highest grade guides would have to be Sherpas. How to distinguish whether a Nepali is a Sherpa, one is by their looks, they look more like East Asian faces, and the other is by their names, all Sherpas have an English word added to their names Sherpa. And Sherpa is actually a Tibetan word meaning "people from the East". Four or five hundred years ago, their ancestors moved south from Tibet, China, and traveled thousands of miles to their current habitat.
Of course, Sherpas will also have altitude sickness, but Sherpas will regard high reaction as a shame. Danger to life due to errors. That's how one of the Sherpa guides on the Crazy Mountains team died.
A very important stop of EBC is the 5364-meter Mount Everest Base Camp. We saw the place where the colorful tents were set up, and the place where Rob called everyone for a meeting. This was followed by three adaptive mountaineering sessions for a month or so, each time returning to Everest Base Camp again. When the body has not yet adapted to the high altitude environment, climbing Mount Everest quickly is tantamount to suicide, so such training is quite necessary.
During the training process, every time I have to pass through the dangerous ice waterfall area, this place is called the Kunbu Glacier, and some people also call her the Terror Glacier. 20% of the deaths on Mount Everest occur here.
Compared with the death zone, which is more than 8000 meters above sea level, this area of 5400-5900 meters above sea level is actually the most dangerous place for climbers. The Khumbu Glacier is right between the Everest Base Camp and Camp 1.
In the movie, you have to rely on a ladder to pass, and where someone almost fell, the only scary scene in the early stage may be in the Khumbu Glacier.
The most terrifying thing about a glacier is that it will melt as the temperature rises and become extremely unstable, and there are also collapses in the movie.
Passing through here is equivalent to traveling between several huge snow blocks, which are still very unstable and collapse from time to time. There were also ladders between the blocks of snow, and those rickety ladders looked frightening enough on their own, and had to be pulled on either side. Below the ladder is a bottomless glacier crevice.
Therefore, the strategy of passing the Khumbu Glacier is usually to start at 12 o'clock at night, and pass quickly before the sun goes up the mountain. It is necessary to equip professional crampons. A stumble on the glacier may lose his life, so Rob saw South Africa. Someone on the team shook his head as he was still learning how to use crampons and said it was crazy.
After completing the adaptive training, you will officially enter the journey to climb Mount Everest, which is when everyone in the movie takes a group photo.
Next, before reaching the summit of Mount Everest, there are 4 important camps. The name is particularly easy to remember. It is called Camp No. 1, 2, 3, and 4. In some places, it is code-named C1234.
As long as you can pass the Khumbu Glacier smoothly, you will reach the No. 1 camp at an altitude of 5943 meters.
The next thing to pass is the Xikum ice bucket. The so-called ice bucket is a depression surrounded by mountains on three sides, which is a U-shaped. There are fork roads leading to Mount Everest, Lhotse and Nubute. The ice bucket is relatively flat, and it is not as difficult to walk as the Khumbu Glacier. The more troublesome problem here is the high temperature. At an altitude of 6,000 meters, the atmosphere is thin, and the sun shines directly on the flat ice bucket, and after reflection, the temperature rises rapidly, which can reach 37 degrees. In the movie, where Scott goes back and says that he is going to return to Camp 1, it should be the Seacomb Ice Crater.
Passing through the Xicombe Ice Crater, reaching her easternmost point, you reach the No. 2 camp at 6,400 meters, which is equivalent to the "launching station" for the final summit. Climbers take a break here to replenish their energy.
The next stop is to reach the side of Lhotse, which is also an accident-prone area, because the steep cliffs and hard ice here make it difficult for climbers' crampon boots to hold steady. So climbers have to be fixed on the climbing chain by ropes here to ensure safety. There is a scene in the movie where the guide Harold is hit by a falling block of snow and falls, probably on the side of Lhotse.
Next, we arrived at Camp 3 at 7,162 meters. In the movie, it was explained in the movie that when Rob arrived here, Scott was still at the 5,364-meter base camp. Therefore, when Scott caught up with the large army again, he was already severely physically exhausted, which was also a very important reason for his final death.
From Camp 3 to Camp 4, climbers must also pass through the "yellow band" (yellow band), which is usually mixed with ice and rocks or mixed with snow and rocks. The technical difficulty is not too high. In the movie Basically a one-off.
After passing through the yellow belt, after arriving at Camp No. 4 in the South Col, at 7951 meters, it is time to prepare for the final summit push.
The area above 8,000 meters above sea level is called the "death zone", and the English name of the recently popular documentary "Everest Scavenger" is called the death zone. The human body cannot adapt to this area. No matter how much training is done, without supplementary support, climbers will die within 48 hours. Oxygen levels here are only 1/3 that of sea level, which means that the body consumes oxygen faster than it is replenished. This affects both the physical and mental state of the person, with the climber experiencing hallucinations, deteriorating bodily functions, then losing consciousness and finally suffocating to death. Arriving at the death zone, all but the most intrepid climbers must rely on oxygen to stay awake.
As described by Rob in the photo, human physiology is not suitable for the cruising altitude of a Boeing 747, and once we reach an altitude of 8,000 meters, our bodies will begin to die.
Dick Cowboy has a well-known song called "30,000 Feet", which is about the altitude at which the plane flies. Thirty thousand feet is 9,144 meters, which is only 300 meters away from the top of Mount Everest. As a plane passes by, the pilot can clearly see that you are greeting him.
The official summit usually starts in the middle of the night, and it takes about ten to twelve hours to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
In the process of rushing to the top, you will pass through a balcony, which is 8,400 meters above sea level. In the movie, Withers' eyes can't see clearly and stop and wait for Rob's place.
Continue to reach the top of the 8749-meter South Peak, its relative height is only 11 meters, is a sub-peak of Mount Everest. Generally, the guides will put some oxygen cylinders on the South Peak in advance in case of emergency. In the movie, when the guide Harold checked the oxygen cylinders here, he found that none of the oxygen cylinders were full. It is very likely that the readings on the bottles were frozen, and at such a high altitude, people's ability to think and judge is also not enough. affect people's behavior.
After passing the South Peak, it is immediately the last difficulty before reaching the top of Mount Everest. The Hillary Step is a 12-meter-high almost vertical exposed rock section at 8,790 meters halfway between the South Peak and the summit of Mount Everest. The reason why this place is named after the person is to commemorate the first warrior Edmund Hillary who reached the top of Mount Everest. An explorer from New Zealand, he and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay completed the first human feat of summiting Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
In the movie, everyone waited on the Hillary Steps for a long time because they could not move forward without a safety rope, which also took more than an hour of safe return to the camp.
After passing the "Hillary Step" at an altitude of 8,810 meters, victory is in sight. Continue to climb along the ridge and reach the top of Mount Everest at 8,848 meters in about an hour.
The above is the whole process of climbing Mount Everest. Combining this route to go to the movies, you can find some sense of direction.
Let's talk about the real events in 1996
On May 10, 1996, a total of 33 climbers attempted to reach the summit, of which 8 climbers died. Two guides and two customers of the Adventure Consultant Mountaineering Team were killed, one guide of the Crazy Mountain Mountaineering Team was killed, and three Indian policemen of the Indian Border Police Mountaineering Team were killed, but they were on the northern slope of China, so there is no explanation in the movie.
Although it is a real event, the restoration of the real event is still fragmented, and the different information conveyed by different perspectives may often run counter to each other.
A very important reason is that after people arrive at high altitudes, due to lack of oxygen, their intelligence level is far less than that at sea level, and their memory will also be greatly affected. Secondly, in such a tired mountaineering state, people have no time to take care of the things around them, and it is thankful to be able to ensure that they can retreat.
Later, this mountain disaster became a Rashomon in the mountaineering world. For a long time after the incident, the survivors were still arguing about who was responsible. Of course, there was no clear result in the end of the discussion. It is almost certain that the factors of this mountain disaster, natural disasters and man-made disasters all exist, natural disasters are a sufficient condition, and man-made disasters are a necessary condition.
The most complete record of this incident is Jon Krakauer's bestselling book "Into the Thin Air." But it can only be said that it is relatively true. After the movie was released, Jon Kracauer was quite critical of some of the plots in the movie. For example, when he returned to Camp 4 to rest after reaching the summit himself, he stated that no one had ever asked him for help, unlike Anatori shaking his head for help in the movie. Explain that at least the director and his advisory team did not fully agree with the content of the book.
Anatoly, the Russian guide who was on the cusp of the mountain disaster, responded to the incident with an autobiography "The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest" written by others. It is a fact that he did not carry an oxygen cylinder when he finally reached the summit. As a mountain guide who earns money to relieve disasters, he should bring oxygen to provide more convenience for the successful summit of his customers. There is indeed a suspicion of negligence. And it is also true that he finally braved the blizzard to save the customer, which may also have something to do with the energy he saved during the previous summit.
Anatoly has always argued that the guide's indulgence of customers is a mistake. "If the customer cannot climb Mount Everest without the great help of the guide, then he should not appear on Mount Everest, otherwise there will be endless troubles." In fact, I think this statement is reasonable. In extremely dangerous situations, everyone Including the guides, it is difficult for the mud bodhisattva to cross the river, and the rescue behavior will put more people's lives at risk. Rob is an experienced mountaineer, and he is the one who should have the least accident, but he lost his life because he stayed to take care of the other team members. Everything should be done according to one's ability, especially when climbing Mount Everest.
Last question, why do you want to climb the mountain?
People in the film were also asked this question, and their answer was the most classic one - "because the mountain is there".
This sentence comes from the British mountaineering adventurer George Mallory, who used this extremely simple but philosophical answer when answering questions from reporters. Mallory was killed on June 8, 1924 while trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Although he failed to complete his dream of conquering Mount Everest in his lifetime, his feat inspired countless later generations to embark on the road of challenging the impossible.
Mountaineering is no zuo no die. What is the point of climbing? Even if there is, is such a meaning worth our life to exchange?
We saw that in "Desperate Altitude", all death seems to be lighter than a feather, it may be just a turn, it may be just a stumble, and a life disappears without a trace in the white snow. The film does not give any expression of the aesthetic ritual of death.
This is similar to the film "The First Man on the Moon" starring High Commander in 2018, and it is also an adaptation of a real event. It tells about the exploration journey of human beings on the moon. also played a role. The character sacrificed his life on the path of human exploration, dying in an absurd blunder that resembled a guinea pig test, and the movie takes death lightly. To some extent, I think the themes of the two films coincide.
People are also full of doubts about the moon landing. It took so much human, material and financial resources to catch up with the precious lives of many outstanding human elites to do something that looks glamorous but has no immediate output. What is it? Isn't it worth it? This seems to be completely different from the value that our profit-seeking society pursues to maximize profits.
Before asking why people climb mountains, think about what is the meaning of human existence?
Although Mallory didn't necessarily think carefully when he said "because the mountains are there," he said the most essential truth by accident. This sentence does not sound like a rhetoric at all, but it is full of calmness that comes naturally. Because Mount Everest is in our world, so I want to climb it, and because there is a restaurant nearby, I want to taste it, there is no essential difference. Just do whatever comes to your mind, it’s that simple, let nature take its course, it may not conform to the universal values of society, but it is very human nature.
Whether it is mountain climbing, going to the sky, or going to the sea, it may be meaningless, but is it important? The existence of human beings may be just an inconspicuous coincidence in the vast universe, and there is only one more coincidence in the universe. For example, the earth just happens to be within the range of a comet, and all the meanings established by human beings will disappear in an instant. . All the greatness that is advertised in textbooks is futile in the face of nature. Thinking of your own insignificance, let nature be the best destination for human beings.
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