The Man Who Skied Down Everest

The Man Who Skied Down Everest is a Canadian documentary about Yuichiro Miura, a Japanese alpinist who skied down Mount Everest in 1970.[1] The film was produced by Crawley Films' "Budge" Crawley and directed by Crawley and Bruce Nyznik.

The Man Who Skied Down Everest
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	F.R. Crawley Bruce Nyznik
Written by	Judith Crawley
Produced by	F. R. Crawley James Hager Dale Hartleben
Starring	Yuichiro Miura
Narrated by	Douglas Rain
Cinematography	Mitsuji Kanau
Edited by	Bob Cooper Millie Moore
Music by	Larry Crosley Nexus
Production companies	Crawley Films Ishihara International Productions
Distributed by	Specialty Films (US)
Release date	September 19, 1975 (1975-09-19)
Running time	84 minutes
Countries	Canada Japan United States
Language	English
Budget	C$410,000

Miura skied 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in two minutes and 20 seconds and fell 400 m (1,320 ft) down the steep Lhotse face from the Yellow Band just below the South Col. He used a large parachute to slow his descent. He came to a full stop just 76 m (250 ft) from the edge of a bergschrund, a large, deep crevasse where the ice shears away from the stagnant ice on the rock face and begins to move downwards as a glacier.

The ski descent was the objective of The Japanese Everest Skiing Expedition 1970. Six Sherpa members were killed during the expedition, as well as a Japanese member who died of a heart attack. At the same time, another independent Japanese expedition (called The Japanese Mount Everest Expedition 1970) undertook a combined ascent of (a) the normal route, including Naomi Uemura who made the summit, and (b) the first attempt at the South-West Face, the tall black face on the movie poster with the Y-shaped snowy gully. Two members of this second expedition died.[2]

Crawley Films won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for this picture.[3] The Academy Film Archive preserved The Man Who Skied Down Everest in 2010.[4]