Mount Everest:Quest for the Summit of Dreams
Mount Everest:
Tibetans call her Chomolungma, Mother Goddess of the Earth. Rising 29,028 feet above her planet, she sings a siren song to a chosen few willing to test the extreme boundaries of strength and endurance.
For those who aren't quite up to the journey, Mount Everest: Quest for the Summit of Dreams is a stunning piece of multimedia vérité. This CD-ROM uses 24-bit color photographs, HI-8 video clips, and actual radio transmissions to recount the stories of eight international teams that attempted to climb the mountain's more difficult north side in the spring of 1994. Many of these photos are nothing short of astonishing. If you've been waiting for a CD-ROM to test the 16 million colors on your video card, this is a worthy candidate.
It takes intense preparation to climb Mount Everest, an ethic which also applies to viewing this CD-ROM. Since the program offers no overview, a viewer jumping right in might feel a little lost. That's why it's a good idea to watch The Summit of Dreams, a videocassette included in this package. The CD-ROM itself is subtitled Volume 1, The North Side. Any future disk will most likely deal with the southern approach from Nepal. However, unlike some multi-volume disks, this program stands completely on its own.
The main menu provides five routes. You can follow the paths of the eight climbing teams, watch one of ten narrated adventures, learn more about high-altitude mountain climbing, visit Nepal and Tibet, or get a look at the equipment and services required by mountaineers.
Like the videocassette, the narrated adventures are a good starting point. The sections on "Getting There" and "Life at Basecamp" set the stage for many of the other topics covered. Other sections include self-paced adventures that combine text and photos. One surprising segment reveals growing litter and pollution problems on and around Everest. Even subjects covered only in lengthy text reports are fascinating, especially American team leader Eric Simonson's discussion of the difficulties of climbing the mountain's north side.
This CD has a lot of strengths. The level of writing is quite good, and the writers (some of them Everest veterans) obviously know their subject. Menus, background screens, and icons are colorful and pleasing to the eye. The program also boasts a stirring original score.
On the downside, the user interface is less than intuitive, and does not allow easy jumping from place to place. Part of that problem is caused by the lack of hypertext capability. The program also seems a little too directed at the serious climber, which could limit its appeal.
Mount Everest: Summit of Dreams is not a glossy, idealized look at the men and women who struggle towards the top. This is a document of beauty, sadness, and painful reality. There are gritty photos of a frostbite victim. One Sherpa guide suffers a stroke. Four team members lose their lives in the mountain's infamous "Death Zone." Is it worth the eerie view of a sunset viewed from Everest's peak, or the cold stillness as the moon rises over the mountain? This CD-ROM raises important questions about the balance between man and nature, and between each person and their own limits. Fewer than 600 people have ever summited Everest, 20 of them paying the ultimate price of adventure. To tag along, the rest of us need merely pay the price of this CD-ROM.
For PC: 486/25 processor or higher with 8MB of RAM, Windows 3.1 or higher, Super VGA video card supporting 65,000 colors (16.7 recommended), 16-bit sound card, double-speed CD-ROM drive, mouse
Mike Butzgy is a multimedia writer and freelancer who lives in Raleigh, NC. His e-mail address is atomicrom@aol.com.
