In April 2010, Sunshine Coast resident Dianne Whelan traveled to Nepal and Mount Everest Base Camp to direct and shoot her award-winning documentary film, 40 Days at Base Camp. Her personal journey has spawned a new book published by Caitlin Press of halfmoon bay. Base Camp: 40 Days on Everest is a gripping exposé referencing Dianne’s experience on the majestic yet deadly mountain.
Each spring, more than 800 climbers attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Some make it to the top of what is considered the world’s most majestic mountain, but others are not so lucky, and in the attempt to reach the elusive summit, many more have tragically lost their lives.
In Dianne Whelan’s personal and eye-opening exposé, Base Camp: 40 Days on Everest, she shares gripping stories of Maoist rebels, avalanches, and dead bodies surfacing out of a dying glacier. From her perspective at Base Camp, she interviews climbers, doctors, and Sherpas, all living there for months on end as they wait for a weather window to summit the top of the world. In this push to achieve the summit, many do not survive. Woven into these personal stories is the devastating truth of the human impact on the mountain and the eerie and unforeseen effects of climate change. Experts believe 250 bodies are buried on the path from Base Camp to the peak, and with the glacier melting at more than four inches a day, the toll of this desire to conquer Everest is surfacing irreversibly.
This summer and fall, Dianne will be touring around Canada, the United States, and Great Britain, hosting public speaking and multimedia presentations on her book and film. She will also be at this year’s Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts as a featured author.
Dianne Whelan is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker, photographer, author, and multimedia artist residing in Garden Bay, BC. According to the Nepalese government, Dianne is the first woman to shoot a film on the world’s highest mountain. The film had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival, was the opening-night film at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, and was screened at Shanghai International Film Festival. 40 Days at Base Camp is currently distributed in 26 countries and has gone on to have more than 100 theatrical and festival screenings internationally. Dianne Whelan was the recipient of the Fleck Fellowship from the Banff Arts Centre in 2011. 40 Days at Base Camp won two LEO awards for best cinematography and best sound design in 2012.
Photo of Dianne Whelan by Teresa Karbashewski
