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The Approach March March 19 - April 3, 1996) Written and Photographed by Liesl Clark Kathmandu It is possible, on a clear day, to peer through the fumes, dust, and haze of modern-day Kathmandu and glimpse the highest mountains in the world—the Himalaya. Today, amid the ancient temples, crowded markets, and barefoot beggars, an international team of mountaineers has gathered. Four climbers, a scientist, and a filmmaker will climb Mount Everest, make the first IMAX/IWERKS large format film of the journey to the summit, and gather data on the movement of tectonic plates in the Himalaya. Ultimately, the information gathered will help predict an inevitable earthquake in eastern Nepal that is 400 years overdue. The Team 
(1) The team was chosen for this expedition by award- winning filmmaker and mountaineer David Breashears, the first U.S. climber to summit Everest twice. David is directing, shooting, and co-producing the IMAX/IWERKS large format film with MacGillivray Freeman Films of Laguna Beach, California. In his 22 trips to Nepal, he has made 9 films on and around Everest. (2) American Ed Viesturs, whom David describes as "the Chevy Truck of mountaineering," is a three-time summiter of Everest. If successful, this will be his third summit without oxygen. (3) Araceli Segarra of Catalonia hopes to be the first Spanish woman to stand atop Everest. (4) This expedition's Deputy Climbing Leader is Jamling Norgay, the son of Tenzing Norgay, who was the first to summit Everest in 1953 along with Edmund Hillary. (5) Sumiyo Tsuzuki of Japan will be the second Japanese woman to summit Everest. The first woman to summit Everest was Japanese and in the 20 years since that historic moment, no Japanese woman has summited. (6) Joining the climbers is Dr. Roger Bilham, a geo-physicist from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Roger's aim is to make minute measurements of the movement of the Indian subcontinent toward Tibet to help predict the next earthquake in the region, and to set up the world's highest weather station. continue Lost on Everest | High Exposure | Climb | History & Culture | Earth, Wind, & Ice E-mail | Previous Expeditions | Resources | Site Map | Everest Home Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule About NOVA | Teachers | Site Map | Shop | Jobs | Search | To print PBS Online | NOVA Online | WGBH © | Updated November 2000 |
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