Special Film Screening: "Skiing Everest"
TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING, “SKIING EVEREST” EXPERTLY EDGES TO EARTH IN A SPECIAL SCREENING EVENT
Tuesday, March 6, 2012, Carey Auditorium, Hesburgh LIbrary, University of Notre Dame; event co-sponsored by the IEI
THE TOP OF THE WORLD – As seen on ESPN, this is an exhilarating documentary about an elite group of skiers who scale the world’s highest mountain, and challenge its most dangerous slopes. Skiing Everest will screen in a limited theatrical benefit event – March 6th, 2012. To view the trailer, visit www.SkiingEverest.net.
Filmed by co-director Mike Marolt, Skiing Everest follows a group of close friends over ten years of incredible adventures. The film features Aspen natives Marolt and his twin brother Steve who grew up taking , on 14,000-ft. peaks with their father, 1960 Olympic skier Max Marolt. Leading a small group of extreme skiers, they go on to ski the treacherous slopes of Alaska and the world’s highest volcanoes in South America before becoming the first Americans to ski above 8,000 meters (26,247 ft.). Eventually they tackle the summit of Shisha Pangma in Tibet. This leads them to the ultimate challenge – Mt. Everest – skiing without using supplemental oxygen, without employing Sherpas to carry their gear, or hiring guides to help them up the peaks.
Skiing Everest follows the Marolts and their childhood friends, Jim Gile and Olympic cross-country skier John Calhoun, in what many people consider the toughest physical challenge on Earth – climbing and skiing in the “Death Zone”. Without using bottled oxygen under weather conditions as perilous as the thin air, they navigate hidden crevasses and 10,000-ft. sheer faces far above the surrounding landscape of Nepal and Tibet.
“It is hard to do anything at such altitudes,” wrote Forbes adventure columnist Jim Clash, “where death lurks at every turn, let alone ski and survive to tell the tale.”
Writer and co-director Les Guthman, who produced three of the “Top 20 Adventure Films of All Time” according to Men’s Journal magazine, was drawn to the Marolts’ story. “The reason I decided to make Skiing Everest with Mike was my deep respect for the skiers’ approach to these expeditions, which are magnificent human adventures in the purest sense,” says Guthman. “These guys remind us of what adventure really is, in an era when words and concepts have become cheap commodities.”
The film also tells the history of high-altitude skiing, dating back to the 1930s. It includes interviews with Hans Kammerlander, the first to ski from the summit of Everest; Laura Bakos, the first woman to ski from the summit of an 8,000-meter peak, and Chris Davenport, two-time world extreme skiing champion and avid ski mountaineer.
Written by Les Guthman, and directed by Mike Marolt and Les Guthman, Skiing Everest is a production of Montezuma Basin Productions, XPLR Productions and West Post Digital. The executive producers are Jeanne Andlinger and Jack Jacobs. The producers are Mike Marolt, Les Guthman and Kenny Fields. The director of photography is Mike Marolt. The editor is Les Guthman. The composer is Richard Horowitz.
For more information on the event, visit the website www.jhceevents.com
For more information on the film, visit the website at www.SkiingEverest.net
Tickets on sale at the LaFortune Box Office and online at http://lafortune.nd.edu/tickets/
Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Place: Carey Auditorium, Room 107, Hesburgh Library, Notre Dame
Evening Screening: 6:30 – 8:30 pm, includes post film Q & A with film maker
Pizza and Pop Event: 6:00 pm, for students and faculty with ID and ticket purchase
Tickets:
ADVANCE PURCHASE - $15 or $5 for students with ID
DAY OF EVENT: $20 or $10 for students with ID
Pre-screening Pizza and Pop included with tickets for students and faculty with ID, located in the lounge next to Carey Auditorium.
SPONSORS: Institute for Educational Initiatives, Notre Dame Ski Team
HOSTED BY: Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., Drew Clary, and Richard Neustedter
All proceeds to benefit the Jimmie Heuga Center Endowment fund.