Posted: Nov 01, 2007 12:39 pm EDT
It's like a dark comedy. We had just published parts from the Men's Journal article where it was described how soldiers kneeled and took potshots into a crowd of mostly kids on Cho Oyu, only 100 yards away from climbers. Two figures dropped to the snow, two struggled up and staggered on, one tried to crawl but then collapsed.

No one said a word, until Luis sent us a message. Russell Brice stormed down Cho Oyu and yelled at him, "Paul told me you sent an email to ExplorersWeb, are you fucking crazy?" the article said.

Just as we published the heads-up, an email arrived - from the Discovery channel: "Hi there, I’m writing because I would like to offer you content from a very exciting Discovery Channel series, EVEREST 2: BEYOND THE LIMIT! The show documents the grueling attempt bla, bla..."

We got a similar offer last year and courteously replied that we objected to the shows content, and stated our reasons (stepping over David Sharp, refusing to show the last interview with him, putting a lid on, refusing to answer questions etc).

Just a reminder...

Tuesday, we published another update, writing "A second edition of the 'Everest Beyond the Limit' series is airing; again trumpeting a commercial outfit and insignificant climbers as world's best, and - worse - with the leader accused by his guides to order them to leave a dying mountaineer behind and, according to other climbers a few months later, to hush witnesses to murder."

That's exactly when the second mail arrived: "Just a reminder that Discovery Channel's Everest 2: Beyond the Limit premieres tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 30) at 10PM (ET/PT). Any last minute push you could give on your site to let people know about the show would be great."

Lucky we have Bill. The heading to Discoveries emails reads, "Windows Mail thinks this message is suspicious and has blocked it. Images and links have been blocked for your safety."

Too absurd even for a comic strip

Well, we didn't see the show, we watched Hillary Clinton eat the other candidates in the democratic debate. Still, here's what we think about it; the show is not OK. It can't be good. It's about a bunch of people in a commercial outfit on oxygen guided by a leader who needs to answer to a lot of questions before even appearing on TV.

We know it's only Hollywood and all that - but the show is too absurd even for a comic strip!

We don't really know how to spell it out to Discovery, but here goes our final attempt: We need the video of David Sharp's last moments to be shown to an international, independent panel of high altitude doctors and climbers. There's no reason why Sharp's family should object to that.

Given the facts we have at this point, many of us believe to 100% that David would have survived a transport down to safety. The video will most probably show it, and then we must ask Russel Brice why he ordered his guides to leave the climber to die. We also want to ask him, why he treated for frostbite a soldier who shot at children and killed a nun. And finally we'd like to know, why a poor guide was "a fucking idiot" for letting the world know the truth.

Review

A member from the community did see the episode, and offered the following review:

"Last night, Discovery started its second tribute to Russell Brice and his expert guidance. Right from the start, it was disturbing when Tim Medvedz, the LA Biker, stopped to pay tribute at a memorial to David Sharp, saying that they saw him on the mountain before he died and how it is a reminder of how deadly the mountain can be.

Now, off to ABC where the team doctor gave the team their first physical to see if they were able to climb. I didn't count how many times the narrator said that Russell had led over 160 people to the summit of Everest. I lasted about 45 minutes then turned it off. Lots of reviews of the 2006 climb."

"I'll keep monitoring and fill you guys in on the progress of the show."

(Ed note: David Sharp was an independent climber, not part of Himex team. Brice met with Sharp's parents soon after his controversial death. Sharp's actual climbing mate, Vitor Negrete died two days after David, after reporting that he was distressed by his friend's fate and by thefts in their high camps. As far as ExWeb knows, no tributes or visits by Himex have been made to Vitor's or other perished climbers' relatives that year. Find previous stories in the links section.)

Seven deadly sins From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Listed in the same order used by both Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century AD, and later by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy, the seven deadly sins are as follows: Luxuria (extravagance, later lust), Gula (gluttony), Avaritia (greed), Acedia (sloth), Ira (wrath, more commonly known as anger), Invidia (envy), and Superbia (pride).

At ExWeb, guess we just bagged Ira - better hurry and purchase a few pardon points from the Pope.

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