AllMovie

This 60-minute TV documentary commemorates the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary's first successful ascent of Mt. Everest. (As for his reasons for climbing the mountain, he once explained, "because it is there.") Still hale and hearty in his eighties, Sir Edmund shares his reminiscences with the audience, while his son Edmund Hillary Jr., together with the sons of Hillary Sr.'s co-climbers, Tenzig Norgay Sherpa and Dr. Barry Bishop, endeavor during a two-month expedition to repeat their fathers' truly lofty achievement -- despite the fact that, to date, 175 climbers have died on the snowy slopes of Everest. In America, Surviving Everest was first seen over cable's National Geographic Channel.