Everest 2009: Discovery Channel Goes with IMG!

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By: Kraig Becker
Updated:
14

Mount Everest from Rongbuk
Fans of the television show Everest: Beyond the Limit from the Discovery Channel are probably happy to hear that the show will return later this year, but it looks like it probably won’t feature Russell Brice and his Himex Team. Instead, it seems that Discovery has elected to go with IMG (International Mountain Guides) who will have a whopping 50 clients going up the mountain this year. According to a post on the IMG Blog the Discovery Team will be joining their climbers and trekkers in just a few weeks time.

I suppose it is possible that Discovery will follow both teams, but doubtful. The resources and personal to film on the mountain are quite scarce, and the logistics of trying to handle two different teams would be challenging to say the least. I’m guessing they decided they wanted a change of pace for the third season of Beyond the Limit, and IMG has a lot more experience on the South Side of Everest than Himex does.

For their part, climbers who have signed up with Himex are in for a bit longer days on the Everest. The team has staked out a campsite that is about an hour below the typical base camp location, and on those long days of climbing up to C1 and back down, an extra hour of trekking at the beginning and the end are going to be grueling.

Thanks to Alan Arnette for the news on IMG. Alan’s Everest 2009 page has nearly daily updates with all kinds of great stories on the looming season, the climbers, and more. Bookmark it immediately!

Update: Forget what I said about two camera crews. I guess Discovery has deep enough pockets and resources that they can indeed handle two teams covering both IMG and Himex on the mountain. In the comments below, Alan confirms that both teams will be featured on Beyond the Limit. He also says that IMG will have 24 climbers not 50 as initially reported. Still a good size team though, but much more manageable.

Looks like we’re going to get a double dose of Everest this year on Discovery.

Kraig Becker
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14 thoughts on “Everest 2009: Discovery Channel Goes with IMG!”

  1. There will be two film teams: one for IMG and one for HimEx. Also, IMG has 24 climbers, not 50 as I was initially told, including the 2 Discovery cameramen

  2. Thanks for the update Alan, I’ll make some updates to the story.

    And wow, two film crews. What an operation. I wonder how long this season of Beyond the Limit will be. Seems like an ambitious approach.

  3. I was just wondering a few days ago if there would be a third season of this so it’s good to see the news. Will Tim the biker be back for a third season?

  4. Good question. I doubt Tim will be back personally, unless he wants to climb from the South Side. He came back for Season 2 thanks to not reaching the summit in Season 1. Now he’s got nothing else to prove, unless he just misses Everest. 🙂

  7. I am so stoked to hear this. I was pretty bummed it didn’t air last year (probably because of all the protests and such) and figured the show for dead. Now I really am looking forward to November when it will probably air again. Sweet.

  8. Sweet. From what I’ve read, IMG always runs a top-notch deal on the South Side, I’ve heard they pretty much set the standard and sort of are the pivot point on the South Side, so it sounds like this will be very cool to watch.

  9. Yep! IMG is a top notch outfit for sure. It’ll be interesting to see the contrasts in the two teams.

  11. Thanks for the catch. I know who Russell Brice is, and was probably thinking of both him and David Tait, while writing this story some time back.

    I’ve fixed the mistake.

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