Episode 039: Reality TV Reality

Posted by on Feb 20, 2007 in All Podcast Episodes, Season 1, 2003 Everest Expedition | Comments Off on Episode 039: Reality TV Reality

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words. After the party was over we spent some quality time kicking back watching some TV. You know, most teams don’t think of taking a dozen television sets with them to Everest…but this wasn’t any camp!

The Chinese camera men were very generous and allowed many of the climbers who participated in the live broadcast to hang out and watch the rest of it in their tent. Is was mighty surreal. We were at Everest and watching live TV. Yes, I had satellite communications gear at my camp, but that stuff is small and lightweight. These were full-sized living room TVs! I wonder if they get reruns of Seinfeld on that thing?

After the broadcast was finished for the day, Richard (my friend from Northern Ireland) and I headed over to my camp for some coffee and email. We were stopped short by the cook from the St. Petersburg team. He recognized Richard from another expedition at another mountain. On that other mountain, the two had become friends and Richard had given this kind Nepali man a passport photo of himself. Now at Everest, the cook took out his wallet and right in the front of it was that picture of Richard. All clean shaven and almost unrecognizable!

I was speechless. What a wonderful day. Base Camp isn’t as barren as it seems. There are some strong friendships taking root here.

Jon Miller

Total Running Time: 20:17

From: Susan Miller
To: Jonathan Miller
Subject: Hello!
Date: Thu, 12 May 2003

Hi Jon,
I know about the Chinese broadcasts from everestnews.com. I read that they were going to be doing that. Is there an adventure contest group there from the US? There’s some show on OLN tonight about their push for the summit. Last night I saw a National Geographic Explorer special about Everest taped in 2001. So I spent a lot of time at base camp (looks really comfortable-not!) and watched them go through the icefield on the way to the south approach. You didn’t have to go through anything like that did you? (Don’t tell me until you’re home if you did). How is the weather now? The news from everestnews.com makes it sound pretty severe. How windy has it been at base camp?

Anyway, good to hear from you and I’ll check on the Chinese climbers site and look for your picture! 1 billion fans, huH? If we email you our
questions for the English 9b essay on persons of courage, could you
respond? You could be written up in an English 9b essay. How’s that for fame?

Love, Mom

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