Blu-ray Review: The Man Who Skied Down Everest

I don’t always – or even often – agree with the Academy’s choices for best films, but one film that certainly deserved its Oscar was 1975’s The Man Who Skied Down Everest, which received the best documentary award. It is a beautiful and engaging film, and it is now available on Blu-ray thanks to The Film Detective and its Restored Classics series. And the picture quality is excellent.

The film depicts the journey of Yuichiro Miura in his attempt to become the first person to ski down Mount Everest in 1970. The film uses excerpts from Yuichiro Miura’s diary (read by Douglas Rain) as its only narration, which serves to make the film a more intimate portrait. The narration helps explain some of the footage we’re shown, but more often reveals his character, his thoughts and frame of mind. The film starts in Katmandu, and gives us a feel for the place before any narration occurs. An early excerpt gives us an idea of the scope of the undertaking: “There are twenty-seven tons of luggage. We will need eight hundred porters to carry it all. The ski team needs supporting mountaineers. There are scientific research teams, a film crew, photographers.”

The film features some incredible footage, even on the lower well-worn path to the mountain. There is also some fascinating material, such as that on the villages they encounter during the journey, especially the village of the Sherpas, footage of which includes a dance. The documentary also includes footage of some of Yuichiro Miura’s earlier skiing exploits, including skiing down Mount Fuji. But of course it is the footage of the ascent itself that is the most compelling. An excerpt from Miura’s diary reads: “March 28th. We have traveled the one hundred eighty-five miles from Katmandu in twenty-two days. It will take us forty days to go the next three miles.”

And those next three miles provide the most gorgeous, stunning footage of the film, such as that of the experienced mountaineers attempting to find a safe passage through the ice. This footage is both beautiful and terrifying, and yes, things do begin to go wrong at that point. And sometimes the beautiful footage is matched by the poetry of the narration, such as this excerpt: “I’d dreamed of skiing on the virgin snows of the Himalayas. It’s almost like the beginning of love. You can do anything.” Yuichiro Miura is allowed to be basically the only voice of the film through these excerpts. No one is interviewed in the documentary, which helps its intimate, personal feel. This is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen.

The Man Who Skied Down Everest was released on Blu-ray on December 13, 2016 through The Film Detective. The disc contains no special features.