by My way to the top of the world started in the App Store. Aside from filling out the paperwork to apply for a climbing permit, my first step was to download the software needed to enter the virtual world.
Because – as Everest’s 2024 climbing season draws to a close, after another year of overcrowding and fatal accidents – you don’t need to set foot on the sacred slopes to reach its 29,032ft summit – thanks to the released. of a new virtual reality experience.
The man behind The Quest: Everest VR, which cost around €250,000 (£213,000) to create, is Alex Harz, an American filmmaker who achieved his childhood dream of climbing Everest in 2018. He combines footage from five different real life journeys.
After fumbling with the download progress, I put on the Meta Quest 3 headset for the first time. I’ve climbed plenty of mountains, and I’d feel right at home mapping out routes, organizing trip packing lists and planning the logistics for a trip. However, all those skills were worthless when I set out to climb Everest in virtual reality. I had never entered the virtual metaverse and it was completely alien – a world of cartoons, moving parts and invisible boundaries to prevent me from tripping over the kitchen table.
Two hand controllers allowed me to navigate the software and download the three-part series to begin the condensed 52-day trek to Everest. The first nine-minute episode takes viewers from Kathmandu up to the mountainous Khumbu region where the trekking trail begins, in the town of Lukla. The film lacks the hair-raising flight to the world’s most dangerous airport, but once you start moving you will soon be immersed in the magic of Nepal’s most famous region.
I found standing, and the ability to turn 360 degrees, the most immersive test method, but it can be done just as easily from the comfort of the couch.
Harz’s simple yet informative commentary brings the experience to life. He shares “melodic reminders of life on the road” and details the main routes. Spectators are also given a seat at a traditional puja ceremony – a Buddhist tradition performed before any climb. The sounds of ringing cowbells, hooves and flying prayer flags brought back memories of my own visit to the Khumbu. Along the way I recognized the streets of Namche Bazaar – the main Sherpa town on the way to Everest – the iconic slopes of Ama Dablam above Dingboche and the tin-roofed buildings of the last settlement post in Gorakshep.
The film is no-frills and exciting – unlike the vast library of cinematography that tells the stories of Everest, in virtual reality you see the experience from a more personal perspective. It’s a first-hand view of every weary climber’s face and every bit of rubbish left – on reaching Camp Four, you see first-hand the sea of abandoned tents and oxygen bottles that make the news so often – no drones or Photoshop to distort. the reality.
Harz’s idea was born out of his passion for climbing and video games. “I realized that I shouldn’t continue to sacrifice all the time, money, dedication and risk required to try to make my Everest dream come true, just for a few minutes after after seeing the most amazing comments imaginable. There was a need for a greater purpose,” he said.
“[I have a] a long time interest and love of video games such as perspective (Halo, Rainbow Six, Borderlands, Doom) because these types of games put you right into the action… I wanted to provide an experience as close as possible to you on around the world. on Mount Everest, without all the training, planning and high risk required to physically get there yourself.”
Much has been written about the horror of the Khumbu ice – the 2.5 mile ice cascade that begins the route to the summit from Everest Base Camp. In his account of the first successful ascent in 1953, expedition leader John Hunt described his presence on the mountain: “This labyrinth of broken ice is moving, its surface changing, if not speeding the water, at least at a speed that leaves. it is a dangerous problem to overcome.”
Headset on, at the start of episode eight minutes two, the size of the ice cliffs and the depth of the gaping crevasses came to life with stunning clarity. Harz described this route as “the climbers’ equivalent of playing Russian roulette.”
Further up, Harz takes the camera over one of the many aluminum ladder bridges, which Sherpa teams put up to allow climbers to cross gaps in the glacier. Staring down to the hollow, the depth seems endless – and my feet are slipping. I thought of the local Nepali guides who risk their lives every year and are often not respected. Continuing on, the viewer gets a sense of the vast scale of the Western Cwm, and the slow progress up the 5,000ft Lhotse Face.
Episode three is where the magic happens. It takes less than 10 minutes to ascend, in virtual reality, from the South Col at 25,938 feet to the summit (29,032 feet) – in reality, it takes the average climber up to nine hours. Continuing up the route, more scientific sights emerge – the south summit, where you can see the first full profile of the true summit, and the Hilary Stage. I turned around to see the summit of Lhotse (27,940 feet), I looked to the left to the vast landscape of Nepal, and to the right to the Kangshung Face, which falls into Tibet.
I paused the footage as Harz ascended the Hilary Step and cast my mind back to the accounts of how Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first ascended this pitch. Climbers now use fixed ropes, but in 1953 both had only ice climbing equipment. First Hillary and then Tenzing tackled the obstacle like climbing a rock chimney – they bent up a little at a time with their backs against the rock wall and their feet stuck in a crack. From the comfort of my living room on a warm May evening, headphones on and breathing normally, I admired the early pioneers of mountaineering.
Arguably – with early reports estimating 600 successful summit attempts this season – when you reach the top it’s empty (in fact, Harz spent 45 minutes alone up there with his guide Tashi Sherpa). A huge cornice hangs from the edge, but the “beautiful snow cone summit,” as Hillary described it, is decorated with tributes and prayer flags and surrounded by a panorama of the world’s most dramatic peaks. Fewer than one in a million people experience the sight in real life – in virtual reality, it’s open to all.
The Quest: Everest VR is a unique way to learn more about the world’s tallest mountain. For anyone, like me, who is an admitted Everest obsessive, it brings to life a mountain that captured the 19th century imagination in a way that blockbuster movies and social media often miss.
Fundamentals
Quest Everest VR can be experienced on major virtual reality platforms, and 2D VR360 for computers, mobile phones and tablets. For more information and where to watch, visit TheQuestEverest.com.
Lucy used a Meta Quest 3 headset, which was available to buy for £479.99
