Episode 062: Tibet 2007 Series Introduction

Back To Everest. Hello everyone and welcome to the Tibet 2007 series of The Rest of Everest video podcast.

I wanted to take the time here in this episode to provide a bit of an overview of what to expect from this new series, but first I think it’s best to look back to see where we’ve come from.

I started The Rest of Everest officially back on April 13th 2006. I had hours and hours of raw footage from our film Everest The Other Side. Once I began enjoying video podcasts I got the crazy idea that people would probably be interested in seeing just what a typical Everest expedition was really like, and I was in the unique position to create a video podcast to do that. Well, the show launched and the audience numbers were small. No big deal, that’s par for the course for podcasting!

But week by week, episode by episode the audience grew, and apparently, everyone watching told their friends about it as well!. By July 2006 the donations I was receiving for the show were covering all of my production costs..as long as I didn’t pay myself my typical hourly rate for editing. No problem there, the large number of emails I was reading through on a daily basis were payment enough.

People loved the show, and I was in an interesting predicament. What do I do when all of the 2003 expedition footage runs out? I knew I wanted to continue the show, so with the help of my very understanding and patient wife I began planning both logistically and financially to return to Everest to film some new material. I knew right away that I would not be able to be part of another entire expedition, and I quickly realized that I didn’t need to be. So many of the emails and reviews I read praised the cultural aspects of the show. Obviously, people were not watching just to see climbing footage.

I knew I was going to have some friends on the Mountain climbing in the Spring of 2007 so I decided to try and meet them at base camp. As most of you know, you cannot just go directly to Everest. You have to make your way to base camp slowly, taking time to acclimatize to the altitude. I wanted to return to the North side in Tibet, but this time I would visit the capital city of Tibet, Lhasa and take in many of the amazing temples and villages along the way from Lhasa to Everest. This is a route to the mountain followed by many Everest climbers and one that was new to me, and therefore to all of you. Tibet is amazing, and I’m so pleased to show you more of this magical place.

New to the podcast is my longtime friend and traveling companion Scott Jacobs. Scott and I have been friends for 15 years and used to dream about trekking in the Himalayas when we were in college. Scott’s now a National Park Ranger in the USA and I knew if I asked him if he was interested in going to Everest he’d say yes and immediately start packing his bags. Scott had never left the continent before we went to Nepal and Tibet, so those of you with the same amount of traveling experience will truly be able to see what this trip was like through Scott’s eyes.

But don’t start thinking that this Tibet 2007 series is only going to be cultural in scope. Through friendships with other climbers, I have new mountaineering footage all of the way back up to the summit of Everest…and this time on a clear day! I’ll be bringing those climbers and their photographs and video footage into the fold once we meet them in the show. We may jump around in time a bit over the next few months, but I promise it will be very entertaining.

As far as I know, I’m the first person to travel to Tibet and Nepal for the sole reason of filming content specifically for a video podcast. I certainly hope I’m not the last. I had all of you in mind while we were traveling and a good deal of the new footage was shot to answer questions that many of you have asked me over the past 18 months. If you see anything that raises more questions please (as always) feel free to email me and I will get back to you. You see, all of you are the reason the show continues to be so popular. This new series, is my way to say thank you for all of your support.

That’s it for now. Next week, we return to Kathmandu.

Jon Miller

Total Running Time: 6:06