David Breashears, famed mountaineer who died March 14, was a legend in Colorado
Former Vail resident Dick Bass, who became the oldest person to make it to the summit of Everest in 1985, credited Breashears with getting him there
Arcturus Motion Pictures/AP
David Breashears is best known as the filmmaker who co-directed and co-produced the 1998 IMAX documentary “Everest,” but before he reached legendary filmmaker status, he was a legend in the Colorado climbing community.
Breashears died March 14 at the age of 68 of natural causes. He was found unresponsive at his home in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Breashears was born in Georgia to a military family and moved around the country and the world before settling down with his mother in Denver. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver, where he “paid the barest lip service to school,” he wrote in his 1999 autobiography “High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places.”
“I spent my spare time bouldering, buildering, and reading about climbing, figuring out what I’d need in order to test my skills on a real mountain,” he wrote.
After the school day, Breashears would visit the Denver Public Library, finding books about mountaineering. His favorites were “The White Spider” by Heinrich Harrer and “Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage: The Lonely Challenge” by Hermann Buhl.
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Breashears made a name for himself climbing Kloeberdanz in Eldorado Canyon State Park in the early ’70s. He is recognized as the first person to use a heel-hook, static-move method to get over the lip of the climb, as opposed to the swinging, dynamic moves previously used. Breashears’ method was witnessed by Roger Briggs, a member of the Boulder Sports Hall of Fame who is recognized as one of the leading rock climbers of his generation. Briggs was also attempting Kloeberdanz on the day Breashears bested it.
“Taking wild swings out from the wall, Roger kept peeling off the lip of the roof and falling, his rope catching him each time,” Breashears wrote. “Looking up, I thought that it didn’t look too difficult. I mentioned my observation to him and Roger surprisingly suggested ‘Why don’t you give it a try?'”
Breashears used Briggs’ technique on his first try. He was unsuccessful and decided to try it his way instead.
“On my second attempt, I reversed the approach, hooking my heel behind a small projection and lowering my body out horizontally instead of swinging,” Breashears wrote. “No one thought I was going to make it, but I got both hands on the lip, and a moment later I pulled myself over the roof. It was a defining moment for me.”
After high school, Breashears moved from Denver to Boulder, spending as much time as he could climbing the walls of Eldorado Canyon and Flagstaff Mountain.
Breashears met Jon Krakauer, author of “Into Thin Air” while bouldering on Flagstaff Mountain.
“At the time, of course, he wasn’t a bestselling author, just one of the Boulder tribe struggling to make a dime and keep climbing,” Breashears wrote.
Krakauer says Breashears’ most remarkable feat was his discovery of a new climbing route up the Mickey Mouse Wall outside Boulder in 1975.
“It was a visionary ascent, one of the boldest achievements in the annals of North American mountaineering,” Krakauer wrote.
Some of the jobs Breashears took on to make ends meet while living in Boulder involved working on film crews in the Denver area, and he combined his talents for film and climbing after developing a fascination with Mt. Everest in the 1980s.
Breashears and Krakauer both became known for their experiences on Everest when, in May of 1996, they were both on Everest when eight climbers were killed in an event Krakauer chronicled in “Into Thin Air.” Krakauer was on assignment from Outside magazine and Breashears was shooting “Everest,” his IMAX documentary.
Breashears stopped shooting to assist the climbers but was later able to finish the documentary, which went on to become the highest-grossing IMAX film of all time and solidify Breashears’ name among the legends of Mt. Everest.
Vail resident Ellen Miller, best known as the first American woman to climb Mt. Everest from both sides (Nepal and Tibet), said she met Breashears twice, once in Kathmandu, Nepal, and another time at Everest Base Camp.
“He was smart, funny and charming,” Miller said. “I was captivated by him because he was the first American to summit Mt Everest more than once, and his IMAX movie blew my mind.”
Another former Vail resident, Dick Bass, owes his climbing legacy to Breashears.
Bass was one of Vail’s best-known locals after investing in Vail in 1962, building the home at the base of Vail Mountain which President Gerald R. Ford lived in while he was president, and serving on Vail’s board of directors from ’66 to ’71. In the 1980s, Bass set out to climb the tallest peaks on all seven continents, a feat known as the Seven Summits. He was joined by former Disney President Frank Wells, another part-time Vail resident.
Wells and Bass climbed six of the seven peaks together but were unsuccessful in their two joint attempts to summit Everest. Wells bowed out of the effort but Bass persisted, hiring Breashears to guide him in a third attempt up Everest in 1985. The third time was the charm, and Bass became the first person to accomplish the Seven Summits challenge. The famous photo of Bass at the top of Everest, in which he was the oldest person to have summited Everest age 55, was taken by Breashears.
The book “Seven Summits,” written by Rick Ridgeway, chronicles Bass’ achievement and also details much of Breashears’ story.
After nearing the top of Everest with all his camera equipment in ’83, Breashears decided to come back down without the summit shot after snowfall downgraded the conditions. ABC producer John Wilcox “had $750,000 squeezed from his annual budget riding on that summit shot, and if he returned home without it he might as well go straight to the unemployment office,” Ridgeway wrote.
Then a call came in to Camp 2 on Everest.
“Breashears calling … I was going down when weather improved, so I’m going back up, heavy pack, all camera equipment, going fast to catch up.”
Camp 2 exploded in excitement, Ridgeway wrote. When Breashears radioed in next, he was at the top.
“Breashears calling the guys at Everest view, you guys got a picture down there?”
“Move the microwave,” one of the engineers said excitedly. “There, coming in better, better. Unbelievable, great pictures. I can see all you guys standing there on the summit!”
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Bass did not make it to the top with Breashears in ’83; two years later he hired Breashears to get him to the top once and for all.
Breashears warned Bass that the summit itself wasn’t the end of the journey.
“That’s when the difficulties really begin,” Breashears told Bass.
And that proved to be true. When Bass reached the top, he was out of oxygen. Breashears gave Bass his remaining tank and took on the descent without the use of oxygen himself, Ridgeway wrote.
“It’s our victory together,” Bass told Breashears. “You got me up — and I know you’ll get me down.”
