couldn't see it. >> ... and a journey that would test them all, physically and emotionally. >> rob wasn't leaving doug. i don't think it's possible to get somebody who's incapacitated down the hillary step. >> the rescue that would save his life was no longer coming. >> the storm, the wind, the snow, the cold-- everything is just crescendoing. >> i don't want to die. i don't want to die. >> if you're stuck up there, you might as well be on the moon. >> tonight on frontline, "storm over everest." >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. > with major funding from the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. helping to build a more just world. and additional funding from the park foundation. committed to raising public awareness. >> narrator: for over 25 years, i've been making the journey to mt. everest. i've stood on its summit five times. the mountain has given me great joy and close friendships. it's also been a place of hardship and tragedy. in 1996, a fast-moving storm trapped climbers high on the mountain and people died. stories were told forever changing the world's perception, and my own, about climbing everest. now, i've come back to base camp alone to remember, and to reflect on what it was like to be here, on this mountain, ten years ago. we were all gathered at the mountain's base that year. we'd come with a common goal. i shared their energy, optimism and desire, all those hopes, all those dreams. but most all, i remember the climbers and friends caught in that storm. this is their story. >> when we left base camp, we were all wary, of course, of mighty everest in front of us, but this was it, this was our chance. so we took off, and it was a great feeling. >> nobody can go there without thinking, "this is way cool just to be able to climb on this thing." just that idea that you're actually going to put your feet on everest. i don't care whether you're a climber or you're not a climber-- that's big stuff, that's exciting. >> we went two-thirds of the way through the icefall, and i was hooked. it was the most spectacular piece of real estate that i'd ever climbed on. it helps you to put yourself in perspective with what life's all about. >> i got through the icefall and i started crying. and i thought, "well, i'm probably hyperventilating, because i'm really, really tired." and then i realized that i was beginning to cry because it was so amazing. it's just so beautiful. >> narrator: i remember seeing them coming up the western cwm. it was may 8. i was already on the mountain. we'd set out a day ahead of the other teams, climbing up the lhotse face on our way to the summit. i was leading the imax film team, but we'd been held up by high winds, and i was worried about the conditions higher up. we needed clear weather for filming. looking down from camp three, we could see them climbing towards us. the mountain suddenly seemed crowded. we decided to go down and wait. on the way down, i met an old friend who was leading one of the expeditions, the new zealander rob hall. we talked about the weather. i took his picture. further down, i met another friend who i'd known since we were young climbers in colorado. scott fischer was leading his team of clients. the day before, he'd taken a sick climber down to base camp. it was good to see him, but he seemed tired. the next day, i watched from lower down as scott and all the others began the steep ascent to camp four on the south col. >> when you leave camp three on the lhotse face, it's the first time that you can actually see the summit. your goal is visible, and that's very thrilling. what blind faith it's been this whole time, climbing this far without having your goal in front of you. >> my very first view of everest, it was a long moment and a big, hard swallow, and the thought was, "i'm not so sure whether i can do this." >> leaving camp three, we donned our down suits for the first time and definitely could feel the altitude and the strenuousness of the climb. you know, climbing above 24,000 and into 25,000 feet is really hard. it's... i don't care who you are, it really is. it's challenging. it's hard work. >> this was the first time that i remember registering "the air is much, much thinner here than anywhere else i've ever been." >> narrator: earlier that morning, there'd been an accident at camp three. a taiwanese climber had slipped and fallen into a crevasse, but he assured his teammate that he was okay and would rest before going higher. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> you move out of an area that seems familiar. there is this sense of a desolate place. it's kind of like moving into golgotha. this is a barren, hard, inhospitable, cold... and i don't mean that in temperature; i mean that in just a sense of heaviness about the place. >> narrator: in the afternoon, we got a radio call. the taiwanese climber's health had deteriorated. the sherpas were bringing him down, and they asked us to help. we climbed fast up the lhotse face, but by the time we reached him, chen was dead. the sherpas, superstitious about death on the mountain, wanted us to bring the body down. chen's close friend and team leader, makalu gau, had just arrived at camp four on the south col. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> narrator: sitting at base camp all these years later, i can still remember my reaction: how upset i was by his response, and his decision not to come down. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> narrator: only now, after hearing his story, do i know why he decided to go on, and how little i understood about what it was like to be high on this mountain over the next few days. >> the weather was so crummy that when we first got in there, i didn't think there was any chance that we were going to climb that night. >> in our tents at camp four that night, it was living hell. it was absolutely crazy. >> it was bad weather, and the concern was, "well, what if it's like this tomorrow?" >> we thought, "we may have struggled all the way up here, and if this keeps up at all, then the whole crowd is just going to get to head back down, and party's over." >> about 8:00, the wind died off, and so we were able to snatch a little sleep, as much as you can up there. you just are basically listening to your heartbeat and thinking, "wow, the day has come, i can't believe it." >> "get ready, be ready. 11:00, we're going." i, i still remember looking at the faces of the other people. doug thought it was a bad idea. he... you could just tell it in his eyes that he didn't want to go. >> you had a little cover over your head, a little skullcap, and then you've got this massive thing like this, and you're trying to get your goggles adjusted just right, and meanwhile, you can't see to put your gloves on, and you've got your straps, "oh, gosh, i got the crampons on the wrong feet-- i'll be there in a minute!" >> ( speaking chinese ) >> you get out, you stand up, and it's a different world than the one you saw when you came in, because the night is gorgeous, the wind is still. you can see more stars than you ever dreamed that a place could have, and they're so close to you that you feel like you can touch them. >> in front of us is this great silhouette, the blackness of everest, and the milky way was just on fire. it was like a, like a row of lights above us. >> it was a vast, open sky, but there on the mountain, i could see the headlamps of rob hall's team, and i was worried that we might be behind before we'd even started. >> when you climb at night, much more so than the day, you feel like you're alone. and as you look up and you look down, you don't see the vistas. you see these little cones scattered along in a line, of the people that are all strung out as part of this silent progression of individuals, each one in their own world, separated from everyone else on their team, separated from everyone else on earth. >> you start to get in rhythm with your oxygen. you get your headlight adjusted just right and jiggle your pack around, and you can feel your body start to come alive and, you know, the blood flowing, and, you know, you're... you're climbing mt. everest. it's a pretty cool feeling. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> right before the balcony, which was several hours out, after going up fixed ropes in the dark, you started to see a little light out to the east. >> within a few steps, you just walk right up into the sunlight, and everything changes. you can see what appears to be a thousand miles out across the tibetan plains. the sun is now over the horizon and just glittering off of the glaciers, thousands and thousands of feet below you. it's an amazing experience, and, and you know why you're climbing mt. everest at that moment. >> you look across at all these other peaks that were always way above you, and now they're, they're tiny. they're like waves in the ocean. >> and you know that few people have stood here, looking out over this fantastic sight. >> narrator: by dawn, the teams were just below the southeast ridge at 27,600 feet. it had been five weeks since they'd first arrived at base camp. each team was its own small world. the clients were paying their way, and the professional guides like rob and scott promised access to a dream. >> i felt like a part of something great. i really... i really think that to do something with people for a common purpose is a wonderful thing, and to help people to achieve their dreams is something that caught me as well. so much emotion and experiences and demands of you happen in such a short space of time, six weeks of intensive living. i never thought i'd ever do this in my life. >> i think everybody has, has a place in themselves that mountains can fill. mountains carry great respect with people around the world, so it doesn't surprise me at all that many people use mountains to find this. that's what i did myself. >> i'd spent most of my adult life in profound depression. and i, i mean, i john wayned it so that i never let anybody know about it, and i discovered that if you drove your body hard, when you did that, you couldn't think, and that lack of thinking, as you punished your body and drove yourself, was amazingly pleasant. >> other people, when they have... when their life is at a difficult spot, turn to drugs or drink or credit cards. i go to the mountains. that's always worked for me. >> as long as i, or human beings, believe that by doing something, the world is going to change; by doing this, i'm going to be more happy; by doing that, i'm going to be more successful; by doing this, people are going to love me more-- then i think there will be this fantastic drive behind it. >> now that we could see the summit, you're just pulled in. you've gone so far up the mountain, you've come so far from home, and you've spent six months preparing for this goal. there's no way you're going to turn around unless things are really going south. >> narrator: they'd been climbing hard since midnight. it's vital to get to the summit and back to the camp four before nightfall. >> i felt very comfortable with the situation. we were inside of our turnaround time. the weather was still good. there were certainly some delays that were unexpected, but that's how climbing is. >> and by the time that i get up to the balcony, i realized that i pretty much was out of the game. my right eye was not really usable, 'cause it was blurred over, and my left eye wasn't good enough yet that i felt comfortable going forward. and so when i told rob this, he volunteered to send me down with a couple of the sherpa. and i'd just climbed all night to get to this place. i didn't want to go. he said, "beck, i want you to promise me that you're going to stay here till i come back." and i said, "rob, cross my heart, hope to die, i'm sticking." and it never, ever crossed my mind that he'd never come back. >> beck had a problem, and it was too bad. i... and i didn't even think that much about that because, you know, a lot of things happen, and it could have been me, it could have been anybody, but it was sort of like "tough break, and see you later." >> upon arriving at the south summit, there were a few people there, and there seemed to be some confusion about ropes and who was going first, and were we using old fixed lines, or did we have enough new line to string across the traverse to the hillary step? >> anatoli and i tied into the rope together and trekked off towards the hillary step over this very beautiful, very delicate knife-edge ridge. and there was a steady enough wind that it would take the rope between us and hold it out in this big arc. it would hold itself out for maybe ten or even 15 seconds at a time, and then drop down, and like a sail, it would, it would bulge out again. >> it was definitely not a place that you wanted to fall. you had a rope to sort of guide you that was probably staked in pretty well, but the snow wasn't that great for holding stakes. and the fact that, when you sunk your ice axe into the snow, you could look through the hole as you pulled it out and see tibet, and over here you could see nepal. so you wanted to be very careful about staying right on the border, so to speak. people were stacking up behind us like crazy, and i was feeling lucky to be one of the first people across. >> lots and lots of people were so slow getting up the hillary step, and you sort of had to wait your turn in line before you could, could climb that, that piece of rock face. and losing one hour just more or less standing still on a mountain, that is really the stupidest thing you can do because speed is the same as safety. >> i looked at my watch, and i had a sick feeling inside of myself. this is the way i was feeling: i was feeling sick at that point, because i knew... i knew it was impossible to get there by the 1:00 pm turnaround time. >> and i thought, "if i keep going now, i'll be out of oxygen, get to the summit, but i'll be coming back down to the south col in the dark and without oxygen and more tired than i am now." the risks were escalating. >> my heart was beating so hard. i felt like it was going to jump right out of my chest. i was almost shaking as i was struggling inside of myself with, "what am i going to do? am i going to keep going, because i'm so close, or am i going to turn around?" >> at that stage, rob came up past me, and i said to him, "rob, i'm going down." and i could even see behind his oxygen mask, he was visibly disappointed, probably for me, because he loved to get people to achieve their goal of getting to the top. but he said, "it's your call, pal." didn't say "mate," like an australian. "it's your call, pal. i'll see you back at the south col." and that was the last time i saw rob alive. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> and it's not difficult climbing, by rock climbing standards, but you have to imagine, you've got these massive boots with little rock holds for your feet, massive mitten hands with little rock holds for your hands, and you're all puffy like the michelin person, and you're trying to execute these moves at 28,000, 29,000 feet, and an oxygen bottle and your pack, and it's just very awkward. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> i arrived at the summit at 1:25, and for about five minutes, i really enjoyed the summit of mt. everest for myself. then i started watching this stream of people come over the rise above the hillary step. >> finally we came to one rise, and i looked to the next, and there were a group of people on top, and i knew that was it. >> in any other circumstance, you would think that somebody could cover that distance in ten or 15 minutes, but it took some of these people much, much longer than that. >> it's not very far, but it's just so hard, and even though there are not that many paces, it just takes very, very long time from there to actually get to the summit. >> and soon enough, we were joining the celebration up there, and looking down the north side, and looking down the west and the east and the south, and we could see it all. we were on the roof of the world. >> you can almost see the curvature of the earth. i know you can't, but you can feel that you're up high enough that you're looking down on the sphere. all the hardships that you've gone through and all the discomfort you've been through is completely worth it at that moment. >> what i really felt was a massive, massive contentment and sort of a feeling of everything falling into place. >> it was just this cluster of people. i couldn't believe how many were there. but everybody is perched onto this little ridge, so it just looked like this sea of colors. it was hard to even recognize who was who out of all these colors. >> it was my feeling that we celebrated a little too long. we were waiting for scott to come up so we could descend as a team, but he was taking the longest time, and people were enjoying the day. the day was beautiful. there wasn't a cloud out there. >> finally, i was just like, "we've got to go. it's getting late now. this is... no more. we've got to go." so i remember walking back up to where everybody was, and, you know, getting up close into everybody's face, each person's face that was there, and telling them, "look, get yourself ready, we've got to go down now." >> when rob called me from the summit at 2:30, it was those familiar words: "base camp, this is everest summit." oh, and he sounded sort of hale and hearty. he sounded really good. and he told us who had just started descending, and he said that doug hansen was... "he's just in sight." and he said, as soon as doug got up to him, that they'd do a really quick turnaround. and he was intending to descend straight away. and i said, "what's the weather like?" and he said, "cold and windy, cold and windy." >> rob and yasuko and i, we stayed on the summit for an extra five or ten minutes and then took some photographs, and then yasuko and i headed back down. >> narrator: yasuko namba had just completed the seven summits. it had taken her 16 years, but she was now the second japanese woman to climb the highest mountain on every continent. >> and then finally we started descending. and then getting down over the hillary step, i meet scott, who's on the way up, and i sort of really hug him. >> we high-fived, we hugged, and it was just obvious from his movement that he was intending to continue going up. >> the first thing i noticed about scott fischer was just how badly he was traveling. of all the people i saw that day moving up and down the mountain, he was the most unlikely person to be in that situation, still going up the mountain. >> narrator: now, hours behind schedule, 14 climbers were still high on the mountain. at the summit, rob hall waited for his client, doug hansen. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> narrator: doug hansen was a postal worker from seattle. the year before, also climbing with rob hall, he'd collapsed at the south summit and had to be helped down. he'd worked two jobs to save enough money to return to everest. finally, he was almost there. >> i was in front of rob hall. i told doug hansen, "okay, it's late. it's now bad weather. we're going to go down." but doug hansen, he didn't talk to me, he just shake his head, and then he's pointing his finger at the summit. >> ( speaking sherpa ) >> rob told me, "okay, i don't want to leave clients behind. you guys go ahead. you go ahead. leave oxygen bottle at south summit. go down." >> from the south summit, i recall looking back along this razorback ridge to the hillary step. i saw rob hall standing up and doug hansen leaning into the slope, resting on his ice axe. i remember giving the normal thumbs-up sign, like that, and i got the same response from the person i thought was rob hall. and it indicated to me that everything was okay and it was time to continue the descent. >> we were headed down from the south summit when i saw sandy laying in the snow.