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Hero image for Mount Cook - Footsteps to the Sky

Part one of four from this full length documentary.

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Part three of four from this full length documentary.

Part four of four from this full length documentary.

The credits for this documentary.

Part one of four from this full length documentary.

Part two of four from this full length documentary.

Part three of four from this full length documentary.

Part four of four from this full length documentary.

The credits for this documentary.

Mount Cook - Footsteps to the Sky

Television (Full Length) – 1994

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From Māori myth to climbing and photography, to gliding and paraponting around its peak, Aoraki-Mt Cook is vividly captured in all its moods in this award-winning NHNZ portrait. Filmed for the centenary of the first ascent of a mountain that has claimed over 100 lives, it follows mountaineers as they climb toward the summit, re-enacting Tom Fyfe's pioneering pre-crampon route. Climbers, including Edmund Hillary, reminisce about encounters with NZ's highest and most iconic peak; and Bruce Grant takes the quick way down: a vertiginous ski descent.

When I first went over to Nepal and saw the biggest in the world I was quite worried about coming back to New Zealand, I thought it might have dwarfed Aoraki and the mountains back here. But absolutely not, they lose nothing in comparison to anything else in the world in my view. And Aoraki’s the greatest of them all.
– Mountaineer Jim Wilson