If you thought the influence of finite content sharing network Snapchat stopped at college, you’ve obviously never climbed a mountain. Two mountain climbers have been documenting their ascent up Mount Everest on Snapchat and the results have been nothing short of tremendous.
The professional mountain climbing duo Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards have been creating what has been described as the world’s first serious Snapumentary. The two are members of the Eddie Bauer Athlete team and have been documenting the journey on their Snapchat account ‘EverestNoFilter.’
Looking out from the “death zone”
The duo left base camp on Thursday and recently, after climbing nearly 25,000 feet, found themselves battered by a serious storm with winds approaching 50 miles an hour. With bodies battered and starved of oxygen, they considered turning back. However just one day afterwards decided to continue pushing on to over 26,000 feet. This elevation is more commonly known as “The Death Zone.” Here’s what Richards had to say…
“As you go higher your body just simply can’t regenerate, and every minute spent above that altitude puts you without trying to be too dramatic here puts you closer to death. The margin for error drops to zero. If you screw up, you die… we need, without oxygen, to never stop moving. If we stop moving we’ll freeze.”
The two are regularly checking in with a doctor via radio at basecamp who is ensuring they sound okay and are eating regularly to keep their strength up.
A serious story for Snapchat
The climb has been one of Snapchat’s most serious stories so far in the network’s history. The two have been sharing daily video entries that capture all the aspects of mountain climbing from mundane yet crucial activities like maintaining body heat and watching American Horror Story on Ballinger’s phone at an altitude of 25,000 feet, to jaw dropping vistas from the mountain side…
Cory Richards was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012, when he captured his surviving of an Avalanche in a documentary called Cold. He believes that social media absolutely has a part to play in the sharing of adventures.
“I’ve captured content in just about every beautifully quiet corner of the world bringing access to my adventures to so many. But through new innovations in social media, those adventures are now even more raw, unfiltered and in 100 percent realtime and that’s exhilarating.”
