In 1978, Italian and Austrian mountaineers Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler made mountaineering history, becoming the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest without the use of additional oxygen. Known as the death zone, above 8,000 metres in the Himalayas there is only a fraction of the oxygen at sea-level. Climbers suffer sickness and headaches and risk life-threatening oedemas. As they struggled up the route through the Khumbu icefall into the Western Cwm, then up to the South Col and summit, Messner and Habeler faced all these dangers and more.
Award-winning filmmaker Leo Dickinson followed them through it all and his classic film is the real-life record of their ascent.
