Interactive Multi-Media Website www.ueverest.com Provides In-Depth Experience
As Climbers Trace Last Steps of George Mallory on Mt. Everest
New York, NY - June 4, 2007 - As the Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 nears the last leg of its attempt to summit Mount Everest, VOOM HD Networks, the largest and most diverse suite of HD channels available worldwide, provides amateur climbers, outdoorsmen and anyone seeking the thrill of climbing Everest the opportunity to be front and center through www.ueverest.com, the first fully interactive, multi-media website. Created to follow and track the Altitude Everest Expedition 2007, a team of the world’s leading high altitude climbers as they retrace the last steps of British climbing legend George Mallory on Mount Everest, the multi-media website follows the climb moment by moment with daily video feeds as well as photos, an online Expedition Diary and blogs from members of the expedition team. The Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 is a major multi-platform documentary project that includes a theatrical film and a behind the scenes documentary to be seen in 2008 on VOOM’s RUSH HD, a high definition channel dedicated to extreme adventure sports. All three projects are co-produced by VOOM HD Networks and British production company Altitude Films.
“VOOM HD Networks is committed to creating content that maximizes the medium of HD technology and climbing Mount Everest is a great example of capturing compelling programming that truly is unique and captivating, We are thrilled that climbing enthusiasts, and thrill seekers everywhere can experience an Everest expedition as it happens through www.ueverest.com,” said Greg Moyer, VOOM’s General Manager. “We are hoping this experience to follow the climb moment by moment will engage an enthusiastic audience leaving them eager for more, leading up to the much anticipated HD theatrical release and behind the scenes documentary on our adventure sports channel Rush HD.”
The website is one of the most innovative and ambitious online experiences yet to be launched. The daily Expedition Diary includes video dispatches from the climbers as they make their ascent to the highest point on earth, photographs from the mountain, and the personal insights from the climbers and key members of the expedition team. The website offers an incredible 3D view of the mountain designed to bring you closer to the real experience and provide an extraordinary personal journey.
A special biometrics project in the Body Zone section follows four members of the team, including an expedition Sherpa, monitoring how altitude affects them and the physical changes their bodies experience as they reach into the realms of jet aircraft. The climbers will record their heart rates, oxygen levels, altitude and air temperature using state of the art technology with the data updated on the website on a daily basis.
All three components of this multi-platform venture with Altitude Films will give unique insights into the challenges faced by the team as they fight for survival more than a mile above the death zone. The production – shot entirely in HD – will allow the audience to live vicariously during each step of the expedition in one of the most dangerous and foreboding environments the human body can endure.
In 2008, the feature length documentary film of their journey will be released theatrically under VOOM’s new theatrical initiative VOOM HD Pictures. The behind the scenes documentary will premiere in 2008 on VOOM’s Rush HD, the nation’s first high-definition network dedicated to capturing life on the edge with the adrenaline junkies of adventure sports.
The Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 is backed by a number of partners including VOOM HD Networks, RUSH HD, Altitude Films, Atlantic Productions and 9th Insight. Sponsors and official suppliers include Berghaus, DMM, Grabber Warmers, Icebreaker, Jamieson & Smith Shetland Wool Brokers Ltd, Jetboil, John Smedley, Julbo, La Sportiva, Linde Werdelin, Meteotest, Peak District National Park Authority Stanage Forum, PowerBar, Smith Optics, The North Face, Therm-a-Rest and Woodlands Organics Distribution Ltd.
About the Altitude Everest Expedition 2007
Three decades before Everest was conquered by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing, Mallory, along with his climbing partner Sandy Irvine, was spotted just a few hundred yards short of the summit before a snowstorm closed in. They were never seen alive again. The 2007 expedition team will investigate Mallory and Irvine’s last journey in forensic detail; test the durability of their clothing and equipment in the unforgiving conditions of Everest; and piece together eyewitness accounts – all to reconstruct Mallory and Irvine’s final, fateful hours. The expedition, led by explorer and mountaineer Conrad Anker, will include an attempt to climb the Second Step, the treacherous, 90-foot cliff that defied every climber after Mallory for half a century and may have stopped him from reaching the summit in 1924.
Anker, who actually discovered Mallory’s body on the mountain in 1999, 75 years after he disappeared, will go in search of the real man behind the Mallory legend and seek to resolve the great mystery Mallory and Irvine left behind: were they the first men to climb to the top of the world’s highest mountain? Anker, named as the world’s Number One adventurer in ‘Outside’ magazine, has climbed the world’s most technically challenging terrain, including the mountains of the Karakoram Himalayas, the Khumbu Himalayas, Baffin Island, Alaska, Antarctica, and Patagonia. Several times he was the first climber to reach the summit of treacherous peaks that defied dozens of attempts. Ever since he discovered Mallory’s body, Conrad has been obsessed by the mystery of his disappearance.
Accompanying Anker to retrace Mallory’s steps is British climber Leo Houlding, who has set a blazing trail through the climbing world, specializing in speed climbing and base jumping. As well as appearing on the BBC’s Emmy Award-Winning Top Gear program when he raced Jeremy Clarkson up the face of the Verdon Gorge (while Clarkson drove up), Houlding has free climbed the El Nino route in Yosemite and recently completed the first free ascent of the Casserato pillar on Fitzroy in Patagonia. Anker and Houlding will be joined by Ken Sauls and Jimmy Chin (who recently skied down Everest), two of the world’s leading high altitude cameramen and a back-up team that includes technical and medical support. Overseeing the expedition is Russell Brice, who has been leading expeditions to the Himalayas since 1974, and is now widely regarded as one of the most professional leaders of all guided expeditions to the Himalayas
About VOOM HD Networks
Rainbow’s VOOM HD Networks comprise the world’s largest suite of high-definition content for distribution through satellite and cable operators. With programming in categories as diverse as sports, movies, fashion, music and art, the VOOM HD Networks are available in the U.S. on Echostar’s DISH Network. The 24/7 linear VOOM HD channel is available internationally, is currently distributed in Scandinavia, Estonia and Latvia, and is debuting in Asia with the launch on PCCW’s now TV. Similarly, select VOOM HD programming is available worldwide and has been licensed to viewers in more than 50 countries. Building on Rainbow’s history of original programming innovation, VOOM HD was developed to meet the growing worldwide demand for quality high-definition programming.
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform programming for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world's most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, fuse, IFC, WE tv, Rainbow Sports Networks managed FSN Bay Area and FSN New England, LIFESKOOL, SPORTSKOOL, and VOOM HD Networks. The company also manages Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division, and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.
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source: Melissa Fogarty/Marie VanAssendelft
Litzky Public Relations
mfogarty@litzkypr.com
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