(melancholic music)
SPENCER: Michael was my big brother.
JANE: He was a wonderful child,
very loving, very kind.
NINA: Mike was a very happy boy.
Good sportsman.
Lots of friends.
SPENCER: He was a bit of a superhero.
You know, if I had any problems,
I'd just go to Mike.
(dramatic music continues)
(clanking)
JAMIE: Mikey was tremendously sharp.
He was at the top level
of what he was doing,
but you'd never guess it.
JANE: I think he was just doing it
because he wanted to do it.
To reach the highest peak in the world.
(screeches)
DAVE:
Mike just really wanted to test himself.
To see how far he could go,
how high he could go.
(man panting)
(shoes screeching)
(panting continues)
(grunts)
(light music)
SPENCER: He died at the age of 22.
Having just become the youngest Brit
to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
JANE: He was left alone on the mountain.
It's an awful way to die.
(ominous music)
SPENCER: Twenty odd years later
and completely out of the blue,
we're sent this photograph of a body up
near the summit.
It looks like it could be Michael.
My heart says we should go and find him.
(suspenseful music)
And if we can...
bring him home.
(suspenseful music continues)
(light music)
(bicycle rattling)
SPENCER: Attaboy.
Eyes on the front, eyes on front.
VOGUE: Theodore is called
"Theodore Frederick Michael Matthews."'
We kind of both wanted
Frederick and Michael as a first name,
because Frederick is my dad's name
who passed away,
and Michael is Spenny's brother's name.
(gasps)
Oh.
SPENCER:
I was 10 years old when Mike died.
Careful. Focus.
It seems so strange, right,
because I'm 33 now
and he died when he was 22,
so I'm much older than he ever was.
NINA: Good job, T.T.
But I see him very much
as my older brother.
I can do it.
SPENCER: And pedal, pedal.
VOGUE: When we were getting
to know each other
at the very early stages
of our relationship,
he told me about Michael,
and I just found
the whole thing quite shocking.
It's really sad.
I think losing him was more difficult
than he can even probably comprehend.
None of us had even considered
the possibility of a body recovery.
It had been about two decades
since Mike died,
and it literally just came out of nowhere.
SPENCER: We received the photo,
and it's of a body
at about eight-and-a-half thousand meters,
similar to where we believed
to have lost Mike.
It feels like we could go and get him.
SPENCER: If that is something
that we're gonna consider,
we all need to be
on the same page with it.
Particularly my mom Jane
and my sister Nina.
NINA: Do you remember we all wore
red roses at the memorial?
JANE: Mm.
-Wow.
-This is, yeah. As in...
And then just lots of
letters of condolence.
Could just read for hours actually.
Here's the Yorkshire Post.
"Young Briton missing after record climb.
Storm turns Everest joy to tragedy."
JANE: Mike was supposed
to summit on the 13th,
and I think by the 14th,
we hadn't heard anything.
SPENCER: The phone rang.
I was called upstairs.
As soon as I walked on the room,
there was just this...
awful kind of palpable tension,
and Mom and Dad
just weren't themselves at all.
They said that a storm had come in
and, um, Mike was missing,
but, um, it was too long after by then,
and I sort of knew that that was it,
he was... he was dead.
You don't know if he's fallen
into a crevasse or over the edge,
or whether he just, from exhaustion,
sat down and collapsed.
I don't think
we laughed together as a family
for what seemed like
you know, years, as a kid.
(sombre music)
SPENCER: I didn't really understand
what was happening.
It hadn't registered
that I would never see my brother again.
I just assumed that even if he was frozen
in a block of ice, that he'd unfreeze it.
-SPENCER: I love this.
-JANE: Yes.
-NINA: He loved that one, funnily enough.
-JANE: Yes.
NINA: Spen.
SPENCER: That's a great photo.
JANE: Seventeen.
NINA: Seventeen.
Do you think now is a kind
of the right time,
I mean, given that it's been so long?
I think it's the perfect time
to try and bring Mike home to rest.
-To be with him. Yeah.
-JANE: I'm sure that's what he'd love.
NINA: Absolutely.
-More than anything.
-Not just for us, but actually for...
-Yeah. For him as well.
-NINA: ...for him also.
(sombre music)
SPENCER: This is definitely something
that we want to do.
But are we getting a bit carried away...
with the dream of bringing Mike home?
All we're going on is this grainy photo.
(uplifting music)
SPENCER: There is one name
from Mike's expedition
that really stuck with me, um, as a kid,
and that's Dave Rodney.
Dave and Mike became really close.
They shared a tent and climbed together.
More importantly, Dave was one
of the last people to see Mike alive.
-Dave.
-Spencer.
-How are you, mate?
-Great to see you.
-Welcome to your Alberta home.
-Thanks so much for having me.
Come on in, come right in.
Wow, the view's insane.
DAVE: So, I wanted to show you
a little piece of history here.
This is indeed
what we shot on back in 1999.
-That's amazing.
-I know, right?
-Look at it.
-And I have a little something
I can pop in there.
What does it say? What does it say?
DAVE: That's the summit push.
Summit push.
I have, like, no video footage of Mike.
-Mm.
-Like I haven't seen...
-Really?
-...Mike on camera like ever.
Wow.
-So, yeah, I'd love to see it.
-You're ready for this?
-Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
-You sure?
-Yeah. All right.
-DAVE: All right, let's do it.
(wind gusting on video)
SPENCER: Is that the icefalls?
DAVE: This is the Khumbu Icefall
above base camp,
heading up towards Camp One.
There's Mike.
DAVE: Nicely done, Mikey!
Cheers, mate.
DAVE: Good job on you.
He took to it like a pro, he really did.
DAVE (in video): Michael will test this.
DAVE: See? And Mike's going across
like it ain't no thing.
-Look at that, skipping steps.
-SPENCER: Yeah, it's Michael.
MICHAEL (in video): Yes?
-He looks pretty comfortable, eh?
-DAVE: Oh, completely.
-MICHAEL: Yeah, pretty good.
-DAVE: Yeah.
What's up, Michael?
You had a nice base and bath
with one of the other group members
didn't you, Dave, today?
(laughs)
DAVE: That was you.
Anyway...
SPENCER: Can I show you something?
The family got an email
with photos of a body.
Oh, boy.
On Everest, saying that they thought
it could be Mike.
And I was wondering,
well, firstly, what you thought.
DAVE: Okay.
And secondly,
if you think it could be him.
-Okay.
-Here.
-Oh, boy.
-So, there's the body.
DAVE: Oh, wow...
(breathes deeply)
I don't wanna see that, that whole...
Does that look like it could be...
It might be.
I instantly recognize this.
(suspenseful music)
So, Spencer,
this is my summit suit from 1999.
SPENCER: Oh, my God!
But it also would have been
the exact same for Michael.
This is what he was wearing that day.
I've seen this suit in kind of pictures,
right, of him and on the summit,
-so it's amazing to see it.
-DAVE: Right.
It's, uh...
It's strange.
I mean, do you think it's the same suit?
From this angle, my goodness,
this red section here where we see
the loop and the Velcro,
that's it, right there.
-The Velcro...
-Yeah. There.
DAVE: And then you might say,
"Well, I don't see a black sleeve."
Well, it's because it's out of view.
This is covering it.
Right?
-Let's have a look.
-Yeah.
Then there's black as well.
-So, yeah. Look, it looks like that.
-Mm-hm.
That's the only shot we have, huh?
(chuckles)
Yes. That is all we've got.
-Oh, no.
-I know.
Um...
But it could be, eh?
It... Listen, my God, this gives me hope
that I haven't had before.
SPENCER: I feel like finding Mike
is achievable now.
(camera shutter clicks)
It could become a reality.
So, you know,
we need to look at how to do this,
how to plan it.
I'd love to go up Everest.
Don't tell mom, um,
that would be a problem.
I'm not a mountaineer,
but there is somebody
that I've known for a very long time
whose advice on this
I would really value.
(light music)
I remember we were at school
and we were in the theatre.
There were a good four
or five hundred kids,
you know, in the room,
and in walks this guy
talking all about being the youngest Brit
to climb Mt. Everest.
-SPENCER: Bear!
-Hey.
How you getting on, mate?
-You doing all right?
-SPENCER: Yeah, yeah.
Too long?
-SPENCER: How are you?
-Yeah.
BEAR: It's exciting. Come on board!
SPENCER: Thanks.
So, this is... this is fun,
this is river living, Spen, at its best.
SPENCER: This is the kind of day you wish
you had a house boat, yeah.
BEAR: After I returned from Everest
I spent a lot of time
in between expeditions going around,
you know, speaking at schools,
did lots of schools.
And, uh, one time I remember
really caught me off guard.
I remember being sat with all my peers
who thought he was amazing.
And I remember thinking,
"Well, my brother is better."
I was a c*ck little thing.
This kid put up his hand.
BEAR: Super cool, super confident.
And he said,
"Do you know Michael Matthews?"
I mentioned something to him like,
"Oh, I think my brother was
the youngest Brit to reach the summit."
You could, you know,
hear a pin drop in that place.
He knew exactly who... who Michael was
and that surprised me.
BEAR: I went down and I hugged him,
and just said,
"Your brother was incredible."
And as for the record, it was always his.
He put his arm around me
at the end of it all
and was talking to me about
how brilliant Mike was,
and how he'd met him,
and how sorry he was.
BEAR: And I remember saying to him,
"I'm never going to be able
to fill a hole of an older brother,
but I'll always have your back."
So, tell me, what's been going on
with the whole Everest stuff.
You know, Everest has been there
throughout my life, obviously,
uh, with a kind of big Red Cross on it.
I'm thinking that I would love to go
to the mountain and bring him home.
And I wanted to talk to you just about
where would you go to?
-Would you stay at base...
-Well, the problem is, the problem is,
it's one of the most dangerous parts
of the mountain, as you know,
is base camp to Camp One,
through that Khumbu Icefall.
If you think of it like water,
tumbling over a waterfall,
that's how the Khumbu Icefall is,
apart from it's frozen.
It's not about how big or strong
or determined you are,
if you're in the wrong place
at the wrong time,
and one of these giant cathedral
sized blocks of ice starts,
you know, it's game over.
In a way, it's kind of,
you go through the jaws of death
at the beginning.
What for?
To get to Camp One,
to get a little bit closer?
Stay safe,
don't let your ego rule that one.
And if you end up at base camp,
remember you're already at 18,000 feet,
you're super high.
You need to be,
you need to be compos mentis.
As soon as you start going up high,
less oxygen, worse decisions.
If you get hold of Mike,
I hear his voice screaming that one loud.
On average, seven people every year...
of those attempting Everest
will lose their lives,
and you know,
is that a stat you want to take
when you're trying to find resolution
for your family
rather than create more heartache?
Go to base camp.
Be a rock, and help coordinate stuff,
but stay at base camp.
I'll struggle with that.
-Well, that's the Matthews in you.
-Yeah.
You know? And I get that.
But at the same time, as you know,
no mountain's worth dying
for second time over.
Stay alive, you've got a lot to live for,
you've got a lot of people that love you.
Yeah.
There's only a brief window each year
in which you can physically climb Everest,
and straight away,
there's a pretty significant timing clash.
We're waiting on baby three,
which I'm very excited to have
so I don't have to be pregnant any more.
-Can you sit?
-Sit.
-Sit.
-Hear me? Sit.
SPENCER: A little boy is due
just as I would have to leave.
Good boy.
If it was our first child, um,
I think it would seem worse than it is.
But because it's the third,
maybe it's okay?
I don't know.
(laughs)
Gigi. Gigi, do you wanna tickle Theodore?
VOGUE: Gigi, go tickle Theodore.
(grunts)
(cries)
VOGUE: For Spencer,
to be able to bring his brother back
would be like a really good thing for him.
Because I think there's probably
a lot of emotions
that he's kind of paved over.
Losing your brother is a hard thing
to kind of process when you're that young.
No!
(giggles)
SPENCER: I had a fantastic childhood,
but showing weakness
and crying and showing pain
was not frowned upon,
it just wasn't really done.
You know, our family was a real,
you know, get up and crack on
kind of family,
my mom included.
(kid laughs)
VOGUE: Have I ever seen him cry?
Yeah, I have seen him cry.
He doesn't cry at the births.
(laughs)
But, uh, no,
I've seen him cry maybe twice.
Pop The Lion King on, he'll cry at that.
SPENCER: See you later, Pig!
-KID: See you.
-SPENCER: Night-night.
I love you, Gigi.
(smooches)
GIGI: Love you, Mama.
Night-night, Gigi Bear.
(sighs)
Done.
How are you feeling about the trip?
Um, I think it's going to be great,
I think you'll find it hard.
-Find what hard?
-I think you'll find it
harder than you think you will.
Oh, you mean emotionally?
Yeah.
I'll have to ID the body.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
How would you feel about that?
Well, I think if anyone has to do it,
it's probably a good thing that it's me.
Yeah.
Um...
I don't know,
I'm hoping it'll be quite cathartic,
I'm hoping it'll be quite...
-You know.
-I think it'll be like a lot of emotions
that you won't even realize
that you had about his death
and stuff like that,
I think it'll be very difficult
to see your brother like that,
I would just, I think I'd...
I think I'd struggle with it.
I think you need to prepare yourself
that it might be very difficult
to have to look at him like that,
but somebody has to.
Yeah, uh, I like, the whole thing
kind of feels exciting to me.
(suspenseful music)
We know that Mike went missing somewhere
between the summit and Camp Four,
which would make this one of the highest
search and recovery missions in history.
So, I need a search team like none other.
The best people possible.
(ominous music)
SPENCER: I've been put in touch
with a remarkable climber, Nims Purja.
Who climbed the 14 highest peaks
in the world in seven months.
We have to look all over the mountain.
NIMS: We have to look at The Balcony
face around here.
We're going to have to look
into the north side,
and we're gonna have to look here
around this slope as well.
So searching even at sea level,
like around a football pitch itself
is a huge task,
and at this big mountain
where, like, you're literally dying
because no one can survive
above 8,000-metre peak.
(suspenseful music)
We will be probably conducting,
you know, at least minimum two searches,
and in order to have two searches
we have to go four times on 8,000 meters.
Putting the abseil line,
flying the drones,
conducting the search in this death zone.
We know all too well just
how dangerous Everest can be.
And if something were to happen
to anyone else,
um, looking for Michael...
then it just wouldn't be worth it.
There's a risk involved
with everything what we do in life,
but this is, you know,
what I'm good at and I'm optimistic.
(mellow music)
(baby cries)
(shushes)
(both chuckle softly)
Otto is eight days old, Spen?
-Eight days old indeed. Yup.
-Eight days old.
SPENCER: Quite the looker already.
The timing's obviously unfortunate,
but you know,
summit season's summit season and...
I think if we don't do it now,
it's kind of next year.
-(Otto coos)
-(Vogue chuckles)
I'd prefer to be here with my family
but I think what we're doing
is pretty great, so...
(coos)
VOGUE: I don't feel great
about Spenny leaving, I'll be honest.
SPENCER: It's okay, my love.
I'll be in touch all the time.
No, you won't.
-I will!
-You're on Everest.
-Yeah, there's Wi-Fi there now.
-Okay.
I think the kids are going
to drive me insane when you're gone
because they'll want you to be back.
I'm going to have a full bed
with three kids.
(light music)
It's a good thing what we're doing,
I think,
and we'll be back before you know it.
-Yeah, hopefully with Mike.
-Um.
VOGUE: God, I hope you find him.
I just can't wait till it's done.
-SPENCER: I'm gonna miss you, darling.
-VOGUE: I'm gonna miss you, Spenny.
Come back in three weeks.
I'm gonna come back...
as soon as we can find him,
but it won't be, it won't be long,
don't worry.
(ominous music)
(epic music)
(epic music continues)
SPENCER: It's amazing to actually
have boots on the ground.
There's so much thought
that's gone into being here.
-Here, sir.
-Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
SPENCER: I did, brother.
SONAM: Good. Yeah. Let's go.
SPENCER: Sonam, the guide
who is with me, is fantastic.
Feels good to be in such good hands.
-SPENCER: This is the team.
-MEN: Yeah.
This is our team who is going with us
all the way to base camp.
Strong, strong.
(laughs)
(Sonam in Nepali)
SPENCER: Thank you, brother.
We have an eight-day trek to base camp
in which we'll be acclimatizing
to the altitude,
and we're gonna take
the exact same route that Mike took.
I'm really looking forward to re-living
what he went through in his final days.
-SPENCER: Prayer wheel?
-SONAM: Yes.
-Should I make a wish?
-Yeah. You can, you can.
SPENCER: Mike went to Everest
with a guy called Jamie Everett.
JAMIE: We worked in the same office
in London.
And one afternoon,
Mikey was sitting at his desk,
and I just came along
and just through down a brochure and said,
"Shall we go and climb Everest?"
And I remember it vividly,
he just looked up at me
and went, "Yeah, all right."
JAMIE: We'd both done some stuff before.
Switzerland,
we did some climbing out there,
and then we went to Aconcagua
in south America.
Special Interview Jamie Everett,
Camp One, nine o'clock.
We called him The Bull, actually,
like the old bull,
he would just go slowly off
and just keep going and going and going.
And then we went to Everest.
The trek in with Mike was amazing.
It was like being in your own little
sort of National Geographic movie.
They had to walk in to acclimatize,
so I joined on.
JAMIE: Jayne and I just got engaged.
And we had a video camera.
JAMIE: It's lovely.
We're at Chaurikharka,
and this is the little lodge
we're staying in tonight.
Very much to have a record of
leading up, you know, to getting married.
JAMIE: We've got here,
it's a quarter past two.
We're sort of the advanced party.
Mike was always one
of the first to arrive.
JAMIE: Whereas Mike got here
about an hour ago.
The advanced advanced party.
We were all exhausted and he was there,
he'd showered, he got ready.
I was always the fat slow one
and Mikey was always the one
who was, you know,
up the mountain
like a rat up a drain pipe.
(bell clanking)
JAMIE: Wow, the yaks really run
across that bridge, huh?
(bleats)
(Spencer chuckles)
No hands.
JAMIE: Mike says it's just like a jacuzzi.
I'm pretty sure it's the same river. Look.
(shivering)
SPENCER: Oh, that's fresh.
Yeah, Mike chose a good spot for a swim.
(light music)
SONAM: We're near by the Namche.
SPENCER: Wow, it's amazing.
How does stuff get in there?
JAYNE: We have made it.
A nice little climb up a hill.
I remember getting there.
A little bit of civilization.
That's like a full on pharmacy.
-SONAM: It is, it is. Yeah.
-SPENCER: It's wild.
JAYNE: Here's Jamie
and Mike playing pool in Namche.
Highest pool table
in the world apparently.
I actually read about it
in the guide books
and thought it was a swimming pool.
(laughs)
Very good.
SPENCER: Honestly, I wasn't expecting
the trek to be as beautiful as it is.
I thought it was very much a kind
of head down, get on and go.
The trek will be the boring bit.
But actually, I'm absolutely blown away
by what we're seeing.
SONAM:
You'll be able to see Everest here.
Is it the one there
-or the one to the left?
-Yeah, in the middle.
-It looks like a pyramid, you know.
-SPENCER: Oh, wow.
There she is.
JAMIE: Well, that's it.
First ever view
of the highest mountain in the world.
It became instantly clear that it really
is quite a big thing that we're doing.
-Perfect. Yeah. Give us a hug, brother.
-And it's beautiful. Yeah.
SPENCER: We're here.
-Finally, huh?
-Fantastic.
(Sonam laughs)
JAMIE: This is the closest I've been
to Michael in 23 years.
And knowing that Mike is literally
just there brings a sense of...
magnitude to what we're doing.
(birds chirping)
(light music)
JAMIE: You can see how fast the wind
is coming off it.
It's probably blowing about
a hundred miles an hour up there.
This is the, uh,
this is the monastery of Tengboche,
-and there's a mug.
-(laughs)
(bells clinking)
(mouths)
Come here.
JAMIE: I think there was a willingness
to engage with the idea that...
by doing things in the correct manner...
(bell rings)
...then fortune might be more favorable.
(chanting)
JAYNE: It's very important to them
to have the blessing of the monks.
It was part of almost the passage
to then continue up.
-(monks chanting)
-(bell rings)
(chanting continues)
Yeah, you don't take it lightly.
(drum beating)
SPENCER: You kind of felt like prayer
in there was almost necessary,
and I found myself praying
for a successful trip
and that we would find Mike,
and you know,
he was really prominent in my thoughts.
(mellow music)
(monk chanting)
(wind gusting)
SONAM: So, there is one memorial
around the corner,
for the people who died on Everest.
For everyone that's been lost
on the mountain?
Lost on the mountain.
Oh, that's cute.
That date.
God, it goes back to the 1920s.
SPENCER: 1922 is the earliest on record.
And they were all Sherpas, wow.
1924, 8th of June, George Mallory,
Andrew Irvine.
(Spencer mumbles)
God, there's so many of them.
There you go.
Michael Matthews.
-British, 13th of May. Sonam, look.
-SONAM: Yes?
-It's my brother, here.
-Oh, yeah?
Look.
-Yeah. Michael Matthews.
-Oh, Michael Matthews.
British, 13th of May.
That would be end of next week.
-Oh, it is, it is, yeah.
-Imagine if... Imagine if we found him
on the 13th of May, that would be amazing.
(dramatic music)
SPENCER: We've had no choice
as a family but to live with Mike's death.
And seeing his name written
in cold metal dredged up old feelings
of kind of anger, I suppose,
for the way in which Mike passed.
(dramatic music continues)
(light music)
SPENCER: Base camp.
(dramatic music)
It's massive. It's like a city.
This is it. The mission starts now.
-Cheers, brother.
-Cheers, brother.
-Thank you so much for everything, yeah?
-Yeah. Good luck.
The best guide in all of Nepal.
I'll see you, my friend.
-I hope to see you.
-Yes.
Have a great trip home
and safe journey, yeah?
You also.
Brother.
-I'll head out.
-Alright.
-You've got quite the camp here, bro.
-Yeah, man.
SPENCER: It's amazing.
All right, Spence.
-Hi, guys, how you getting on?
-Hello, hello.
Welcome to the planning tent.
Can I start by saying thanks
so much for being a part of this, uh,
very important search
and recovery mission,
it means the world to us.
NIMS: So...
(in Nepali)
Cool, so by now, what the plan
is balcony is 8,450 meters
and South Summit is, as you see here,
it's 8,750 meters
and obviously this is a huge area.
Once we get into the position
we'll fly the drone.
We've got Suman and Brodie.
SPENCER: Okay, great.
-SPENCER: Fantastic.
-NIMS: So...
SPENCER: Thank you.
So we can fly the drone from 500 meters
from where we take off.
So from Camp Four, we should be able
to get to The Balcony,
and you know, we can fly pretty close
to the mountain to check.
Fantastic. That's what he was wearing.
Uh, the same backpack, the suit,
a red North Face Himalayan down suit,
exactly the same as this,
so this is what we're looking for.
SPENCER: Yeah, obviously
it will be different colors now,
but just so that you can see
where the patches are, maybe...
He had a Russian oxygen system
but with a UK or American bottle,
and it was a gray-blue color.
His boots were black,
and he was wearing a blue North Face hat
with a black trim,
and he was wearing
a stainless steel Rolex,
this kind of bracelet.
A similar watch to this on his left wrist.
-NIMS: So that's what we need.
-SPENCER: Yep.
On the back, you should see a picture
that may or may not be him,
it was taken by somebody in 2017,
which is kind of part of the reason
why we thought it might be possible
to recover his body in the first place.
(mellow music)
(indistinct chatter)
What these guys are saying
is this picture is below The Balcony.
-MAN: Below The Balcony.
-But this guy is saying...
Of who?
-SPENCER: That's not him.
-NIMS: That's not him.
SPENCER: The only kind of lead that we had
that we thought could be Mike
was kinda blown out
the water straight away.
Wnd we were just told
that it was an Indian climber.
None of us knew for sure that
that was Mike,
it was just a promising lead.
NIMS: So I think from us,
-we'll search everything that we could...
-Yeah.
...between The Balcony and South Summit,
and we take everything,
-like, one step at a time.
-SPENCER: That would be fantastic.
(Nims speaks in Nepali)
Good luck. Good luck.
SPENCER: I have a lot of faith and trust
that the team are amazing,
and they will scour
the entire search area.
Good luck for you, brother.
SPENCER:
If Mike is visible, they will find him.
It's important to remain positive,
we're here.
We're just gonna have to look harder.
(chanting in distance)
NIMS: There are so many elements
to think about.
The altitude is one,
the weather conditions.
The amount of searches
we're going to do at the Death Zone.
-Thank you.
-All right, pal, I'll be on comms.
-Cheers, Spencer.
-Be safe, brother.
-You bring them down.
-Yeah.
-SPENCER: Bye, brother.
-NIMS: Bye, brother.
-SPENCER: Keep safe, yeah.
-NIMS: Yeah.
Right out of the gate,
it's a jumbled mess of ice towers
that come crashing down
without a moment's notice.
(ominous music)
NIMS: The Khumbu Icefall
is dangerous but it's amazing, man.
DAVE: It's a river of ice that's coming
at you, only a metre a day on average
but it might not move for 10 days
and all of a sudden,
it can come hurtling down
and just completely wipe you out.
That's why we go so early
when things are still frozen in place.
You just don't know
what you're gonna get that day,
you don't know if where that
big long ladder horizontally
was yesterday has smashed shut...
(rocks clatter)
...or if a rope going up vertically
is no longer there and it's now flat.
You don't know.
I know Mike and I enjoyed that area a lot.
DAVE (in video): Hello there, Michael.
MICHAEL: Hey, dude.
DAVE: It's awesome, isn't it?
So you just fixed this ladder here?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
It's like this, you know.
DAVE: Yeah. Yeah.
Now it's okay, let's see if he's okay.
GUIDE: Nice, nice!
(wind gusting)
DAVE: What do you think, Mike,
is it all right now?
-MICHAEL: Yeah, pretty good.
-DAVE: Yeah.
(clanking)
NIMS: Once you get through
the Khumbu Icefall,
you will reach the big slow climb
towards Camp Two,
we call it Western Cwm.
(suspenseful music)
And you know what,
we call that the frying pan
because it is so hot.
When the sun's ray hit the white snow,
and the reflections comes in...
-No wind. Sunny day, it's too hot.
-No wind.
(in Nepali)
CLIMBER: Uh-huh.
Climbers literally get sunburn
on the palette of their mouth
because they're gasping...
(gasping)
...for air and UV is burning them there.
And you can either let it drive you crazy
or you can have a few laughs.
(humming and chanting)
(light music)
DAVE: We're really very happy
to see Camp Two,
you see our dome tent on the right.
Mike Matthews and I share that one.
(indistinct chatter in distance)
(exhales deeply)
(snow crunching)
To get from Camp Two to Camp Three,
it can be 30, 40, 50, 60 or 90-degree ice.
And oh, my goodness, it is so harsh.
(sniffles)
(exhales deeply)
(coughs)
(sighs)
NIMS:
(panting)
Dave: My challenge
is to get those two things up this rope,
all the way...
(sharp exhale)
...to there.
(pants)
(in Nepali)
BRODIE:
(panting)
Altitude's really, unbelievably tough.
DAVE: It became very obvious that
Jamie was having some serious trouble.
I started to get something
called a "cerebral oedema".
Your body starts to dump
all this liquid into your brain.
It was causing him more and more pain.
My legs stopped working
and then I couldn't sit up.
It got so bad that we had to put Jamie
in a Gamov bag.
JAMIE: A tiny little clear window
so that you're not sort of feeling
like you're in your own coffin.
So Jamie's been in here
for about 15 minutes now.
Pump it up to simulate a lower altitude,
almost like flying him down
without doing so.
They did that for me
for about five or six hours.
When I got out of the bag I just thought,
If I stay here, I will die.
So...
(imitates g*nsh*t)
I'm done.
He didn't want to not continue to climb,
but he had to.
Picked up some stuff.
Said goodbye to Mike.
And that was it.
Yeah, it's really hard for him
that he came back.
(heavy breathing)
(dramatic music)
NIMS:
(heavy breathing)
(heavy breathing continues)
NIMS: Once you hit the beginning
of the South Col, you'll be like, "sh*t!"
(dramatic music continues)
DAVE: I'll never forget the first time
that I saw Camp Four.
A place where human beings
probably should never go.
NIMS: Literally, man, you know,
you see people on the survival mode.
They don't really care about anything.
They just wanna go to the tent
and lie down.
You are like literally worried
about your life.
DAVE: There are only 14 mountains
on planet Earth
that are 8,000 meters or higher,
and that is what is known
as the Death Zone,
where human life simply
cannot be sustained
no matter how much supplementary
bottled oxygen that you get.
It's simply a matter of time.
It's been a rest day, although
there's been a fair bit of nerves,
which has made it not so restful.
There's quite a big concern regarding
the amount of oxygen bottles that we have,
and regulators and masks
and all that sort of stuff.
A few of us had very serious concerns
about oxygen on the mountain.
SPENCER: They were supposed to be provided
with Russian Oxygen systems
but what transpired was that they had
the Russian systems
but UK and US bottles,
which didn't fit the systems.
DAVE: Back down at base camp,
I'm hearing, "Oh, if you file off
the edge a little bit on this one
and put that regulator on,
that should work."
(wind gusting)
DAVE: What a day this has been,
boy, did I ever suck wind.
If it wasn't for my good friend,
Mike Matthews,
with a little pep talk, I don't know
if I would've made it, buddy.
How you feeling, pal?
I'm feeling just fine.
-Oh, yeah?
-Slight cough because of the dry air,
but I'm sure Dave's soup
will make everything all right.
DAVE: All right. Anything to add
for the viewers at home?
Well, just the soup over here,
just how wonderful it looks.
-DAVE: Yeah, let's take a look.
-MICHAEL: Yeah, the end of it.
DAVE: Whoa, it looks like
we're ready to eat, buddy.
(Dave laughs)
Before we head off to sleep
and onward to the summit push.
Hey there, Michael?
SPENCER: I'm sure Mike
would have felt really excited
ready for the summit push but also...
potentially nervous or even fearful.
The only consolation
is he couldn't have possibly known
that he was only hours away
from his death.
It might have been
about 10 o'clock at night
where it was time to gear up
and get ready to go.
I was climbing with Denis.
DENIS: This is the big one.
Let's hope the weather's good for us.
Great.
Denis and I were on the upper mountain
a little quicker than the other two.
On the top of Mount Everest,
I looked down at the entire world below me
and I saw the clouds bubbling up
from down below.
It was a cauldron.
I'll never forget...
the moment that I saw Mike
at the base of the Hillary step.
I was on my way down
and he was still on his way up.
And he looked right into my eyes
and I looked right into his,
and he said, "Did you make it, buddy?"
And I said, "I sure did
and now it's your turn."
(dramatic music)
DAVE: I went down to the South Summit
and something told me to turn around
and look for him one more time,
and he had just gotten
to the top of the Hillary step,
and he turned just as I did it seemed.
And I looked up and gave him one of these,
and he did the same thing.
We waved.
(sombre music)
I thought the wave was,
"See you soon, my friend,"
not "goodbye."
(sobs)
(sombre music continues)
I despise looking at this picture.
All I see is a young man,
you know, in the process
of losing his life.
He's clearly struggling.
He can't breathe.
He's in agony.
You know, he's just...
he's literally gripping
on to what I now know
to be a prayer scarf.
You know, gripping...
these literal final threads of hope.
It bothers me.
I hate the picture.
So it's 5:15 on May the 14th.
Should be probably
one of the happiest times of my life.
Lying here...
thinking about Mike.
He was 22.
(sobs)
The best explanation that we were offered
was that his guide was going
in front of him, below him,
because the winds were so high.
(wind gusting)
At one point between the South Summit
and The Balcony,
his guide turned around
and Mike was nowhere to be seen.
(ominous music)
SPENCER: I do still find the whole thing
to be completely unjust.
I'd love to just move through it but...
I kind of don't want to let go
of it either.
(wind gusting)
I'm so sorry, Mike.
Oh, God.
(light music)
BRODIE:
SPENCER: I feel quite confident
that if Mike is visible
that we will find him.
(Brodie sighs)
So up here,
this is the South Summit.
This here is The Balcony,
and the area we're here,
this is known as The Triangular Face.
SPENCER: We have an awful lot of resource
on the mountain.
We have a drone.
We have 10 seriously
experienced local Sherpas.
NIMS:
(ominous music)
(ominous music continues)
NIMS: The level of energy, the level
of strength it takes is massive.
People struggle to just take the iPhone
out of their pocket
and take one picture.
(drone buzzing)
BRODIE:
(Suman in Nepali)
Nimsdai, Nimsdai, can you hear me? Over.
(radio statics)
(indistinct chatter over radio)
BRODIE:
SPENCER: I'm beginning to think
that the identification process
might become quite difficult.
You know, the red summit suit,
it could be any colour,
you know, it could be orange,
pink, white, gray.
(indistinct chatter over radio)
Do you want to try channel 15? Over.
MINGMA: Camp Four, base camp.
Camp Four, base camp, Spencer?
Spence, you copy that?
(indistinct radio chatter)
(indistinct radio chatter)
(suspenseful music)
(Suman in Nepali)
(indistinct radio chatter)
(exhales deeply)
(suspenseful music continues)
NIMS:
(panting)
(radio statics)
(indistinct radio chatter)
(radio statics)
(suspenseful music)
(breathes deeply)
(panting)
(radio statics)
NIMS:
(clock ticking)
Brodie, Nims, do you copy? Over.
(indistinct radio chatter)
I can't hear anything at all. Over.
(suspenseful music)
NIMS:
(breathes heavily)
Oh, sh*t.
(radio statics)
Nope.
(indistinct radio chatter)
Nims, is that you?
(radio statics)
Santosh, can you, regularly,
so, every 15, 20 minutes just ask Camp Two
to ask Camp Four what's happening?
Thanks.
Nothing else we can do.
(drone buzzing)
(ominous music)
(metal clanking)
(breathes heavily)
(climber in Nepali)
(Suman in Nepali)
(Mingma in Nepali)
(Suman in Nepali)
SANTOSH: Suman relayed the message to me,
so, it's like all of them
are on the mission.
-All of the are out on the mission?
-Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I guess they have seen something.
(Mingma in Nepali)
SUMAN:
SPENCER: Anything on any bodies?
Has the drone seen any bodies?
According to what I heard,
uh, it might be a positive result.
-Sorry?
-That we might get a positive result.
(climber in Nepali)
SUMAN:
SPENCER: Camp Four, base camp.
Camp Four, base camp.
Spencer, this is Mingma, can you hear me?
Over.
(radio statics)
SPENCER: He radioed down from Camp Four.
I took the call,
he said he's found some bodies, but...
and then it cut out.
So, we haven't had coms all day
and then...
(indistinct radio chatter)
Base camp, Camp Four, copy.
Copy, Spencer, how are you doing?
SPENCER: Good, mate, looking forward
to hearing how you guys are doing.
Yeah, we are all doing good.
Fantastic. Any luck up there?
Up there.
So one dead body we got like similar.
Oh, my God.
MINGMA (over radio):
(breathes heavily)
So, do you think it's him, or not?
(indistinct chatter)
NIMS:
MINGMA (over radio):
SPENCER (over radio): Okay, thank you.
Okay.
(sniffles)
You know, sometimes my wild optimism
doesn't see me through, you know,
and it's just...
I was really hoping for a, just a strong,
like, bash we found him result.
(sighs)
(sighs)
It's so frustrating.
If we have to go home
and leave him on the mountain,
it's just gonna be all for nothing,
and it's just gonna be
like a total travesty.
And, yeah, it's just, it's, you know,
it's not great.
SUMAN:
You know, we will be back up next week,
we'll have another look.
BRODIE: And hopefully, we'll find Michael.
(somber music)
SPENCER: There he is.
-How are you, bro?
-NIMS: Good.
SPENCER: You okay?
-NIMS: Yeah.
-SPENCER: Good.
My brother.
Oh, thank you, thank you.
There has been a lot of snow right now,
and whole of the mountain
is covered in snow.
(chuckles)
Yes.
-You okay?
-Yeah, all good.
So glad to see you safe, mate. So glad.
It's quite possible that
they've literally walked right by Mike,
but, we know, if he's under the snow,
he's under the snow.
We can't, we can't expect them
to run a rake over the mountain.
-You all right, feeling good, healthy?
-Oh, yeah.
I am keen to review all of the footage,
just in case we see a boot, a glove,
you know, anything at all
that could lead to another clue,
another lead, you know,
in the next search.
-SUMAN: So, this is South Col.
-SPENCER: Yeah.
SUMAN: So, this is South Summit.
-Is that? Are those people?
-That's people of course.
What?
SUMAN: Yeah. We can see the person,
here a climber, here a climber.
SPENCER: Oh, my God. It's huge.
So, we are looking for a body that size?
-They're like specs.
-And two parts in there that's...
-SPENCER: Person.
-SUMAN: Yeah.
-I understand the difficulty now.
-Uh-huh.
SPENCER: Flying the drone isn't giving us
the results that we'd hoped for, you know.
Bodies, you know, all over the mountain,
lots of leads to try and identify
and that just simply isn't the case.
We still have ideas to explore.
But there really is a kind of
harsh realization
that it is quite possible
that we won't find Mike.
You know, this is, uh,
this is not a given.
Coming across other bodies,
I'm realizing that there are many families
that are in the position that we are in
without the opportunity
to bring home their loved ones.
Two Nepalese climbers, a climber from USA,
China, South Korea, New Zealand.
Another Nepalese.
There's many more bodies
still on the mountain.
SPENCER: I'm starting to feel that
if were completely unable to find Mike,
and we have the resource
and ability to help another family,
then we should absolutely
be exploring that.
I'm just wondering whether or not
it makes sense at all,
or whether it's too dangerous,
let's just talk about it,
to take, you know, a different body.
A Sherpa, you know, who, who...
who's family would love
to recover the body.
I'm just wondering if you knew
of any bodies that we could help with.
This is a great idea.
Some people, some family, you know,
they wouldn't be fortunate enough
to bring the body.
Continue to look for Mike,
but also try to do good for somebody else
at the same time as a Plan B.
Yeah.
(water sloshing)
NIMS: I have bigger hope
from the second search.
Because we're heading towards the summer.
And if the weather is like this, you know,
obviously it will melt the snow,
and hopefully,
the body will be discovered.
But it is very dangerous with the heat
and everything,
the whole of Khumbu Icefall is melting.
At any place, you know, that could crack.
(clanking)
If I don't find Michael,
then, you know, why not we do a good thing
on the way down.
SPENCER:
The priority is still to find Michael.
But if that's not possible,
then recovering a body whose location
is known on the mountain
certainly seems a valid option.
Mike had a strong connection
to the Sherpa community in his final days.
So, I've been through my list,
and I've come across Wang Dorchi Sherpa,
who died last year.
And Nims' team say that his body
is just outside Camp Four.
And they also know his brother
down in Kathmandu.
-Namaste.
-SPENCER: Namaste. Mingma?
Yes, my name is Mingma Sherpa,
nice to meet you.
-Spencer, how do you do?
-Oh, Spencer.
I'm very glad to meet with you.
-Thank you, thank you.
-Okay, please, have a seat.
-Hello, darling, how are you?
-This is my mother.
-Nice to meet you.
-Okay.
MINGMA S.:
-Thank you.
-You're very welcome.
Can you tell me what happened,
to... to your brother?
Like where he was lost? How he died?
-SPENCER: Sorry to hear that.
-Yeah, thank you very much.
Have you tried to recover him?
To bring him down?
SPENCER: Okay.
How, how old are you?
-I'm, uh, 33 years old now.
-Me too.
-Oh, same.
-Yeah.
-Okay, same.
-Same, same.
-And we both have lost our brothers.
-Yes.
Yeah, 23 years ago, I was 10,
and he... he also summited
and died on his way down and...
um, I've recently with my family,
been trying to find him.
-It's proving very difficult.
-Yes, very difficult to find, yeah.
-Because 23 years is very, very long.
-Yeah.
I heard about your brother, and your son.
Um, and if we can't find Michael,
if we could help you instead.
-Because...
-Yes, you have nice thinking.
If it's possible,
we would like to explore the option
of returning him home to you.
MINGMA S. (in Nepali): Stay round here.
-Worry.
-It's okay.
(speaks Nepali)
It's okay.
-My, my mother and father, very painful.
-Same, same.
Um...
-Apologies if I upset your mother. Sorry.
-Yeah, no problem. Yes.
-Very important.
-Yeah.
Can you, um... Can you tell me
a bit more about Wang Dorchi?
My brother have a wife but his wife
already died before two years ago,
because she had a cancer
and she had three child,
and she had three child.
One child is 9 years old,
one is 7 years old,
one is 6 years old now.
I have liked this photo, it's possible?
-SPENCER: Yeah. yeah.
-MINGMA S.: Yes, this the... here.
-Look at that. Happy birthday.
-Oh, yeah.
-And it was his birthday when, recently?
-Yeah.
-SPENCER: And you got this?
-MINGMA S.: Yes.
-Wow. And this is your child here?
-Yeah, small one.
Hello.
(Spencer chuckles)
Yeah. Look at this, sweet.
Hello.
I can't guarantee...
-Oh, yeah. Exactly.
-...you know there's a number of factors.
We are, just so you know,
we're still looking for Mike.
MINGMA S.: Yes.
Um, if we can help you,
Michael would've wanted that,
-and our family would want that.
-Yeah.
-Okay, thank you very much.
-No problem.
This is just what I think we should do.
(light music)
(grunts)
SPENCER: This is our last chance now.
Obviously, as Mike's brother,
I would love to find Mike.
There she is, just making an appearance.
You can see everything,
you can see the summit,
I can see the South Summit.
I can even see The Balcony,
Triangular Face.
And there's hardly any snow.
Total result for the search.
NIMS (on radio):
BRODIE: Yes, copy.
(drone buzzing)
SPENCER: I've often wondered recently
what that moment of finding Mike
would feel like.
I've never sat down with someone
and fully discussed...
the effects of Mike's death on who I am.
So, it could trigger some kind of release.
(suspenseful music)
SUMAN:
(Mingma in Nepali)
BRODIE:
(suspenseful music)
(Mingma in Nepali)
(wind gusting)
(Mingma in Nepali)
NIMS:
(ominous music)
The whole point of the second search
being this late in the season
was to give us the best chance
of there being less snow,
and it's snowing.
(wind gusting)
(light music)
NIMS (on radio): Spence, Nimsdai.
Radio check, over.
SPENCER: Yeah, copy, Nims. Got you.
So, Spencer, obviously,
there has been a lot of snowfall.
But we check the area
that you were concerned,
there is no dead body...
that as Michael.
Over.
Did you say that you did not find Michael?
And do you believe that you
and your team have done...
the absolute maximum
and bottomed out the search
for Michael, yes?
Hundred percent mate, hundred percent.
This was our second search and...
now, we're gonna stop searching
for Michael,
and we're gonna switch for plan B
with your permission, Spence.
Hard copy, over.
If it's your recommendation
to move to plan B, that's fine with me.
Clock is ticking,
and we're still at 8,000 meters.
We're going to crack on, brother.
(light music)
(line ringing)
Hi, darling.
Did you find him?
No. No, no. Uh...
The search is over.
And, uh...
They didn't find Michael.
I find that really sad.
Yeah.
-It is sad.
-I kind of thought you'd find him.
I just feel, I think your mom is going
to be really upset.
Oh, it makes me feel like crying thinking
of your mom.
I thought you were calling me
to tell me you'd found him.
I think she'll be really upset.
(sobs)
Let me get a tissue, sorry.
(Vogue sobs)
How are you?
Feel a bit deflated.
We, uh... I mean...
So, what happens now?
You, you're going to pick up the Sherpa?
Yeah, recovering Wang Dorchi
is, um, still, still very dangerous
and pretty complicated,
but much simpler than recovering Mike
because obviously, we know where he is.
Yeah, I suppose,
it's an amazing thing to do for them,
it's just really sad about Mike.
It's certainly not the result
we were after.
Oh, I can't, I just feel so bad for her.
(breathes deeply)
You know,
seeing Vogue cry like that, it's...
um, kind of not what I was expecting.
(breathes deeply)
You know, I didn't think that by embarking
on this journey
if it failed, it would hurt anyone.
I don't want to make my mom cry.
(message chimes)
Vogue just said, "It's good to remember
that it's just his body, not his soul."
I feel like it's his soul that...
we've disappointed.
(sighs deeply)
(heavy breathing)
(sombre music)
Looking at the summit suit,
the boots, all the gear
and also,
from all the intel we had, obviously...
(all panting)
(in Nepali)
NIMS:
MINGMA:
(grunts)
(Mingma mutters)
(light music)
NIMS: Spencer's family
helping to get him down
when Wang Dorchi's family couldn't afford
to do this, is a great thing.
Shove up!
(engine rumbles)
NIMS:
(helicopter engine rumbles)
SPENCER: I'm leaving Everest,
and potentially forever.
This chapter of looking for Michael
is well and truly closed.
You know, I'm literally flying down
the valley with somebody else.
(melancholic music)
The real priority now
is returning Wang Dorchi to his family...
and giving them what we wanted so much.
-Hey. How are you?
-Namaste, thank you so much helping me.
-I'm sorry. Thank you.
-It's okay, my brother.
MINGMA S.: Yeah.
MAN: I got it.
(indistinct chatter)
(kid cries)
Is she okay?
SPENCER: Hopefully,
this will give her the opportunity
-to mourn her father properly.
-Yeah.
-Yes.
-Okay.
(crying)
Hey, it was successful.
-You're successful.
-Okay, thank you.
-Are these his children?
-Yes, his children, yeah.
I'm sorry for your loss.
(crying continues)
-Thank you, again.
-It's, honestly, it's... it's a pleasure.
Okay. Thank you, I know.
It's okay, listen, at least something good
came out of the mission.
-Thank you, brother.
-Thank you very much for helping me.
-No problem. Listen, it's...
-I'll never forget your help in my life.
Well, thank you.
(car engine rumbles)
I'm not gonna get his daughter's
crying out of my head for a while,
I don't think, that was, uh...
it's just incredibly raw.
(serene music)
-(mournful music)
-(chanting in Nepali)
JANE: I thought it was a wonderful thing
that they did
to bring another climber home,
to his family.
(chanting continues)
They were going through a terrible time,
and I think it will have given them
great peace.
It's just a shame that, uh...
Mike was never found.
(melancholic music)
NINA: Mike was so generous
and open-hearted,
he would've wanted us to have done
what was then done with Wang Dorchi.
And, you know, funny enough,
if there'd have been one ticket down
the mountain,
he would've probably given it to him.
He was that kind of man.
(melancholic music continues)
SPENCER: Seeing Wang Dorchi's daughter
have that opportunity
to grieve kind of helped me,
even though the body wasn't Mike.
It felt quite full circle.
(melancholic music)
Go say hi to Nanny Jane.
-Mama.
-Hi.
(all laugh)
How are you, darling?
-SPENCER: Hello.
-Hi.
JANE: Great, great to have you home.
VOGUE: Yes. He does.
Hey, sweetheart.
(gentle music)
SPENCER: I felt more emotionally charged
on Everest than I ever have in my life.
Pretty much all we did was talk
about Mike, think about Mike,
what happened to him, losing him.
And I think it allowed me to move through
the feelings of pain
and arrive at a place...
you know, all these years later of calm.
I have a much clearer sense
of who he was now,
and I found myself admiring him.
Heading through the Khumbu Icefall
at four in the morning, you know, aged 22,
you know, in the dead of night,
takes guts and courage.
We wanted to let you know
that we came to find you Mikey,
and we will always remember you
and we love you with all our hearts.
(gentle music continues)
NINA: It's hugely important
that Mike continues
to be part of all of our family
for the next generation.
SPENCER:
Uncle Mike went to climb Mount Everest,
which is the world's biggest mountain,
and he had an accident
and didn't come back.
-Dad, is that mountain Everest?
-Don't know.
No. That is a small hill in Scotland.
VOGUE: How Spenny went to try
and find his brother,
and what Mike's journey was like,
will be fascinating for the kids.
And, and he's alive there.
Yeah, there he was alive.
SPENCER: I'd love Uncle Mike
to be a figure that my kids can relate to
and aspire to be like.
I'd love to see him in them.
Knowing that he is buried
and not, you know, in plain sight,
has made it easier for me to understand
that he's resting properly.
Just because we didn't find his body...
doesn't mean that I didn't find him.
(emotional music)
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Finding Michael (2023)
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