Blind Tibetan kids on Everest - anyone see it?

[Globalti]

Anyone see the programme about the group of American and British climbers who took a blind woman and her group of blind kids up Everest?

I missed the end - did they make it?

 

[ColinJ]

Anyone see the programme about the group of American and British climbers who took a blind woman and her group of blind kids up Everest?

I missed the end - did they make it?

I didn't see it, but according to the Guardian website...

• Then the expedition proper starts, and things start to go a bit wrong. Some of the kids do better than others, the climbers argue among themselves about the best way to proceed. Erik wants to carry on, at least with the three fittest kids. Of course he does - he's a climber and it's about achievement, and getting to the top. Sabriye isn't a climber at all, and wants them all to go down. To her it's not about getting to the top, it's about togetherness, and experiencing some amazing things along the way, and about protecting her kids.
  
  Sabriye wins, they all go down, and that's a shame, I think. Three of those children would have made it to the summit and that achievement would have meant an awful lot to them. Is it possible, I wonder, that those who look after people with disabilities are sometimes over-protective? I'm not trying to knock Sabriye, she's obviously amazing, and without her those kids would be begging on the streets. I guess that caring will attract careful people. But this is mountaineering after all, and mountaineering does involve a certain amount of risk.
  
  Anyway, in spite of not getting to the top of their mountain, they all seem to benefit enormously from the experience, and gain in confidence. And it's a touching, warm, beautiful film.

 

[Globalti]

Thanks Colin. On the one hand, yes, those who made it to the top would certainly have benefited but I wonder what real, practical, life-long improvements summitting would have brought them? On the other hand I have ski-toured with a couple of that cadre of British guides including one whose name was prominent in the programme and underneath the verneer of "all round good egg and cool guy" there's a deadly serious commercial streak and I believe the guides would have benefited from the commercial kudos and the boasting points far more than the blind kids.

 

[got-to-get-fit]

....no

They just took them to the neerest steep hill and said "thats it guys, youre at the top of everest.....suck in that fresh mountain air!"

How would they know any different?

 

[Maz]

"anyone see it?"...that's a cruel joke, RR.
You of all people.

 

[Proto]

[proud dad]My daughter has been travelling through Tibet the last couple of weeks. Made it up to Everest Base camp on the north side, where they decided to have a 5-a-side footbal match!! Doesn't seem right somehow.

Last I heard (three days ago) she was in Golmud.[/proud dad]