Discovery preps Everest search and rescue

Discovery has ordered a series looking at the work of the search and rescue team working on Mount Everest.

The 6x60mins series, Everest Rescue, will go out on Discovery Channel in the US and its international channels.

Discovery-owned prodco Betty will make the series. It will follow the search and rescue helicopter teams and medical units that come to the aid of climbers in trouble on the iconic mountain.

The series was shot a year after the Nepal earthquake that claimed thousands of lives, and subsequent avalanche that took 22 lives on Everest, as climbers returned to the highest mountain in the world.

“With this powerful series, we explore dramatic new physical and emotional territory,” said Marjorie Kaplan, president of content, Discovery Networks International. “We are honoured that these men and women who risk their own lives to help others in the world’s harshest and most unforgiving terrain have allowed our cameras into their world.”

Discovery has worked on several Everest projects. In 2014 it was planning a live event, filming Joby Ogwyn as he jumped from the summit of the mountain.

That was cancelled after an avalanche that claimed the lives of twelve sherpas. A film crew captured footage of the deadly avalanche and Discovery cancelled the Ogwyn special and instead created Everest Avalanche Tragedy.

Its other Everest projects include Bear Grylls: Man Vs Everest and Sherpa, about the mountain guides that help climbers to the summit, which it acquired late last year.