Television

Through the years, Frontline has gained a well-earned reputation for hard-hitting, in-depth reports on tough issues, ranging from the war in Iraq to the meth epidemic in small-town America.

Storm Over Everest, a two-hour Frontline documentary that premieres on PBS Tuesday, represents a dramatic departure from the program's usual investigative fare. Filmmaker and seasoned mountain climber David Breashears offers up a narrative of stunning beauty and heart-pounding suspense.

The story deals with a legendary event. In May 1996, three teams of climbers attempting to ascend Mount Everest suddenly found themselves caught in a fast-moving and ferocious storm near the summit of the world's highest peak.

Five of the climbers lost their lives on the mountain, including renowned guide Rob Hall. Several others, including Dallas' Dr. Beck Weathers, nearly died and suffered permanent injury.

One of those on the mountain that day was Mr. Breashears. He was making his third ascent on Everest and was also there to lead an IMAX film team.

The big challenge for Mr. Breashears in making this new documentary was how to deal with a story that had been the focus of intense news coverage and the subject of a best-selling book, Into Thin Air, by Outside magazine writer Jon Krakauer, also a member of that doomed quest.

How could the filmmaker create a work that would remain faithful to the events and still shed new light?

Mr. Breashears said he had no interest in simply rehashing the facts of that fateful day. He wanted to show how the story connected with such universal themes as man's thirst for adventure and how a quest can become an obsession, ideas that can be found in a classic tale such as Moby-Dick. To Mr. Breashears, Everest is very much the elusive great white whale.

"It's not really a film about climbing," he said in a recent phone interview. "It's a film about human yearning and how we get in over our heads at times."

Certainly the climbers on the 1996 expedition found themselves in over their heads and facing a painful predicament: After years of planning, having paid thousands of dollars for the chance of a lifetime, how could they turn back when they were so tantalizingly close to their goal?

"You get focused on the end and you want to succeed. It's hard to turn around despite the warning signs," Mr. Breashears said.

"When is it hardest to stop in a marathon," he added, "the first mile or the 24th?"

Mr. Breashears said he climbed Everest again in 1997, and then had no interest in returning until he was approached by Stephen Daldry, director of the movies The Hours and Billy Elliot. Mr. Daldry was interested in making a feature film of the 1996 trip. That project fell through, but Mr. Breashears wanted to do something with the footage and background scenes he had filmed.

In the end, the project became something of an obsession for Mr. Breashears, who put together his own financing for the film. Friends, including fellow climber Dick Bass of Dallas, also helped. Re-enactments of the Everest storm were filmed at Mr. Bass' Salt Lake City ski resort.

Mr. Breashears crisscrossed the world to film interviews with the climbers and Sherpas involved in the story, including Dr. Weathers. For Dr. Weathers, the 1996 climb was "a life-changing event." Temporarily blinded during the storm, he waited near the summit for his guide, Mr. Hall, who was stuck farther up the mountain. By sheer luck, another climber stumbled upon Dr. Weathers, who was near death, and led him to safety. A severe case of frostbite took part of Dr. Weathers' nose and both hands.

These days, he works as a pathologist at Medical City Dallas Hospital. "Life is pretty dull," he acknowledged recently.

But that's all right. The old Beck Weathers was addicted to action and adventure – compensatory behavior, he said, for the depression from which he suffered.

The Everest disaster "forced me to re-evaluate who I am," he said. He learned to accept himself for who he is, "not by what I have accomplished and the next notch on my gun belt."Storm Over Everest

Veteran climber and filmmaker David Breashears' documentary on a May 1996 deadly storm on Mount Everest will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday on Frontline, KERA-TV (Channel 13). 2 hrs.

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