Harz’s idea was conceived from a passion for climbing and video games. “I realised I shouldn’t continue to sacrifice all the time, money, dedication and risk needed to try to make my Everest dream a reality, just for a few moments of witnessing the most breathtaking views imaginable. There had to be a greater purpose,” he said.
“[I have a] longtime fascination and love of point-of-view-style video games (Halo, Rainbow Six, Borderlands, Doom) because these types of games put you directly in the action… I wanted to provide a worldwide audience with the closest experience possible to being on Mount Everest, without all the rigorous training, planning and high risk needed to physically go there yourself.”
Much has been written about the terror of the Khumbu icefall – the 2.5 mile cascade of ice that marks the start of the route to the summit from Everest Base Camp. In his account of the first successful ascent in 1953, expedition leader John Hunt described its presence on the mountain: “This labyrinth of broken ice is moving, its surface changing, if not at the pace of water, at least at a speed which makes it a perilous problem to surmount.”