The Man Who Skied Down Everest is a 1975 film directed by F.R. Crawley and Bruce Nyznik.
It is a documentary feature about Yuichiro Miura, a Japanese daredevil skier and one-time holder of the speed record for downhill skiing who had the idea to, well, ski down Mt. Everest. Or rather, ski down about 8000 feet of Mt. Everest. Miura, his Japanese team, and their Sherpa guides set off in 1970 in an 800-man party and make the arduous climb up the mountain. Tragedy strikes when a glacier collapses and kills six Sherpas. Undeterred, Miura makes it to an altitude of 26,000 feet, then turns around and goes off on his downhill flight, in which he reaches speeds of over 100 mph even with a parachute to create drag.
Voiceover narration was provided by Douglas Rain, better known as the voice of the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Tropes:
- Boring Return Journey: Does the film say anything at all about the journey back down the mountain? Nope!
- The Cameo: Miura stops at a hospital high up in the mountains paid for by money from New Zealand, and meets none other than Sir Edmund Hillary—one of the first two people to summit Everest, along with Tenzing Norgay. Hillary says that if he were younger he'd go along.
- Captain's Log: Rather than providing strictly conventional narration, Douglas Rain reads from a translation of Miura's diary, describing in first person his trip up the mountain.
- Documentary: Yuichiro Miura's grand ski down Everest, as shown on film.note
- Earthy Barefoot Character: One shot shows the Sherpas carrying supplies up the mountain, barefoot. Miura marvels at how the Sherpas were "born to walk."
- The Ken Burns Effect: The only instance of this in the film shows a still of a man kneeling in the snow. The camera then zooms out to show the whole expedition, looking at the wrapped-up bodies of the six dead Sherpas in the foreground.
- Mood Whiplash: A whimsical sequence shows the expedition camped out high in the mountains, watching TV, having fun sliding around on a piece of ice—one man is caught pooping. This cuts directly to the sequence involving the collapse of the Khumbu Glacier and the deaths of six Sherpas.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: As the Japanese begin their descent, the camera pans up to the sun, before the film ends with a shot of the summit of Everest in the distance.
- P.O.V. Cam: Used for a couple of shots, like when the expedition is crossing a rickety rope bridge, and the camera points down to the crevasse below the rope bridge, which looks very deep indeed.
- Rule of Cool: Discussed Trope. Sir Edmund Hillary says that humanity has to keep challenging itself, that such is what it means to be human. Miura echoes this in his diary, saying "Challenge is what makes man."
- Scenery Porn: Naturally, filled with jaw-dropping shots of the heights of Everest.
- Shout-Out: At one base camp they've managed to lug a TV and VCR. As Miura muses that this must be the highest tape player in the world, the Japanese and Sherpas watch Seven Samurai and Bonanza.
- Stock Footage: Only a little bit of Miura's earlier skiing career, like when he broke the downhill speed record in Italy.
- Vader Breath: Heard when Miura and other members of the expedition put on breathing apparatus and start breathing canned oxygen, as the air has gotten too think. It underscores the difficult conditions as they approach 26,000 feet.
