IMAX Crew Tracks Mount Everest

Every year, we have the pleasure of meeting inspiring adventures at the Outdoor Retailer Show. In 2005 we met backcountry ski pioneer Andrew Mclean (a.k.a. Paw Prince), who uses a GPSMAP 60CSx to track his winter ski pursuits and a Geko 301 for his unicycling rides challenges. This past year, we met Michael Brown, a pioneer of adventure filmmaking. His company, Serac Adventure Films, has been awarded with over thirty international film festival and industry awards, including three national Emmys from five nominations.

Michael approached us with an interesting project, he wanted to track an upcoming Mount Everest Expedition. As a filmmaker, Michael’s objective isn’t the summit, he’s been there bagged that, for him it’s about capturing the experience. Beyond just film, he wanted to capture every step with the latest technology.

The project reunited the original “Everest” stars Jamling Norgay and Araceli Segarra, in the “Return to Everest 3D.” That’s right, an IMAX film in 3D. It’s set to premier in March 2009.

In every IMAX film I’ve ever seen, they always labor over the size and weight of IMAX cameras, much less 3D IMAX. So, Michael wanted the smallest, lightest Garmin device. The Forerunner 305 was the obvious choice, but what about battery life? Fortunately, Michael has friends in the right places, like Stuart Cody's Automated Media Systems. After some fancy work under the hood, Michael’s Forerunner was official pimped and ready for Everest.

Here's a look at Michael's four-day journey up Mount Everest. As the man behind the lens, Micheal's route takes some interesting turns. Who else would go up, down, and back-up again on an Everest summit day. All 34 plus hours in the "Death Zone" (above 26,000) while maintaining an average heart rate of 53%. Clearly, he's climbed a few mountains. Check out Michael's MotionBased Digest to see Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro.

Everest Day 1 Everest Day 2 Everest Day 3 Everest Day 4 (summit day)

Summit Day Elevation

Comments

[kara]

Wow ! I need to incorporate some Hills into my workout.
Love the satellite imagery.

[Michael Brown]

This was my track. It includes a trip to the 'Balcony' two nights before summit day (the first 'hump'). These were actualy the second and third trips up toward the summit. In all I spent six days above 8,000 m, sometimes on O2 sometimes not.

The battery died somewhere around the South Summit which is a bummer because it would have been fun to have the summit data. I was also interested in the heart rate data which had me down at 28 bpm twice over the two days. In both cases I experienced a profound sleepiness and did fall asleep for a few minutes in each case. On another occasion we measured 33 bpm with a pulse oximiter, once again fell asleep just after - strange effects of altitude? Also a little scary, though feeling fine now.

[Gino Bacchi]

sono interessato ad un orologio per ferrate e sentieri dolomiti bici da corsa e quant'altro grazie Gino