Conrad Anker, Mount Everest climber and star of the film, “The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest” was in Salt Lake City to promote the movie, which is screening in IMAX at the Clark Planetarium. We met with Mr. Anker at the Salt Lake REI and talked about the film.
Utah Outside: So… “The Wildest Dream.” Give me the overall run through of what the movie is about and your role in it.
Conrad Anker: “The Wildest Dream” is a biopic about the life of George Mallory, an English climber who disappeared in 1924 trying to make the summit of Mount Everest. 75 years after his disappearance, a friend and I were climbing up on Mount Everest on an Everest research expedition to look for the body of George Mallory, and came across George frozen in the snow, high on Everest. We came back in 2007 to create this documentary that celebrates the life of George Mallory and also includes an actual climb of Everest in 2007.
Utah Outside: I watched the movie and it’s much more than just your typical documentary of Mount Everest. It really goes into Mallory’s background and the depth of his relationship with his wife, and your life as well, so talk about that.
Conrad Anker: The movie isn’t really a climbing movie per se. It’s more of a story about George Mallory. Imagine what it was like in 1924, living in England, wanting to go climb Everest. It tells about Mallory, his life. It’s a celebration of his life, the person who Mallory really was, and his relationship with his wife, Ruth.
Utah Outside: Having watched the film, two of the scenes that struck me the most are when you found Mallory’s body, and when you climbed the Second Step. Talk about those two scenes and how they were personally for you.
Conrad Anker: In the film, there’s two key scenes. One of them is the finding of George Mallory’s body. It’s a re-creation in the film that was shot in a studio but then stitched into an Everest backdrop. We did that for reasons of the family. The Second Step is a 90-foot cliff band 28,300 feet up and in the film we pulled a ladder that the Chinese had put there in 1975 and free-climbed it, and that’s using our hands and feet and a rope as protection. It’s pretty sporty up there with thousands of feet below you. It’s a real challenge.
Utah Outside: It was kind of a nail-biter during that scene!
Conrad Anker: Yea, the fall on the Second Step is a real action fall and it’s not a stunt. There’s no double takes… so… *laugh*
Utah Outside: Talk a little bit more about Mallory and his obsession with Everest and also the idea that he may have been the first one to actually climb it.
Conrad Anker: Mallory was obsessed with Everest. At the time it was the greatest geographic challenge remaining. There was also… the South Pole had been met and the English were very determined to make it to the top of Everest. George Mallory was part of all three expeditions and he was really determined to make it, to be that first person. You can imagine it. It was the biggest geographic exploration challenge left and he could be the first guy. So that began his connection with it. He then was driven. Each exploration he learned more about the mountain. He knew better how to climb it. Then on the 8th of June, 1924, is when he and his climbing partner, Sandy Irvine, disappeared into the clouds.
Utah Outside: And you found the body and found a lack of evidence on the body that leads some people to believe maybe he did make it to the top.
Conrad Anker: We found George Mallory’s body on the 1st of May, 1999. And on his body there wasn’t a photograph of his wife, Ruth, which he had told her he would leave on the summit if he made it there. So it was this with a couple of other clues that leaves the question open… could Mallory have been the first to summit Everest 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay?
Utah Outside: It’s pretty cool to think about that possibility. It’s intriguing.
Conrad Anker: What they were doing in 1924 with the equipment they had was vastly limited and a lot less than what we have, so it’s a real challenge.
Utah Outside: And along those lines, you actually dressed up in the clothing of the era.
Conrad Anker: We shot several scenes in period clothing, pretty much at each elevation notch as we moved up the mountain, and it was real telling. You can see what they had, what their limitations were, how cold it was. And obviously we got better equipment these days and it does make it easier.
Utah Outside: So the movie is playing right now at the Clark Planetarium downtown. Talk about that a little bit.
Conrad Anker: The movie is showing at the IMAX screen at the Clark Planetarium downtown. It’s great to see it on that size of that screen. We’ve got excellent sound and it opened here in Salt Lake City. It’s the first theater it opened in the United States because we’re a climbing community and it will run through October.
Utah Outside: Anything else you’d like to add about the movie?
Conrad Anker: It’s a great adventure being on Everest. It began as a challenge and still is a challenge.
For more about “The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest” and for showtimes, visit the Clark Planetarium website.
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