New Zealand and Everest

Rating: 8/10 (15 September 2015)

Just to correct Adarsh Bohra's review on here "Another Classic from Jake Gyllenhall", where he incorrectly states " The fact that some engaging, friendly Aussies are front and center as the main tour organizers and guides may account for a good deal of the films immediate accessibility; they're the competent, reassuring type you'd feel good entrusting yourself to on such an expedition." The main tour organizers, principally Rob Hall (played by Jason Clarke), are in fact New Zealanders. Hall's wife Jan Arnold (Keira Knightley) who he communicates with via satellite phone, is a New Zealand academic, at the time of the disaster teaching Sociology at my alma mater, the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch, like Nepal has sadly been devastated by an earthquake in recent years, with 80% of the city centre destroyed.
New Zealand has close links with Nepal since the first conquest of Everest in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Many climbing parties continue to be lead by Kiwis just as Rob Hall's in the movie. Edmund Hillary preferred to be remembered for the many schools and hospitals he built in Nepal. He regretted the commercialisation of Everest climbing and the volumes of rubbish left on the mountain.