TVB made this awesome 5 episode series on a trek to 玉珠峰. It's a snow capped mountain in 青海省, western part of China, near one of the stops on the Tibet railroad. Peak elevation is 6178m (20,269ft). To put things in perspective, Vail's summit elevation is a meager 3527m (11,570ft).
The series totally captures the beauty, the challenges and hardships of such an expedition. The commentaries from the 3 celebrities are so genuine and down to earth. I just cannot appreciate enough the ordeals and suffering that they had to go through, and can only imagine how rewarding such an experience must have been. From my experiences, I've been stuck in blizzards, have gone on long hikes, have been in situations where I can barely take another step, have wanted to just stop, sleep and drop dead. However, the crew in the series had to put up with all of that in a single trip. Just unfathomable.
My favourite comment from the show is that, when you get to the top, you realize that being at the top is really insignificant. It's the shared journey and friendships that you build that become forever memorable. When you get down to the basics of life and extend yourself beyond your typical limits, you'll realize how much more there is to the world. The little things that bog down our daily lives are really, truly inconsequential.
Highly recommend this series to everyone. You can watch online here (First 5 links). Jaw dropping, fascinating, breath taking. Gives you a sense of why I love these wild and crazy excursions. XD
Other than that, I agree with you. It must be awe inspiring to have made it at the end, doing something few humans have attempted.
Did you know that for the Olympics game, they are going to put the torth relay torch on the summit? I think they are doing it in this month actually, because March is suppose to be the ideal month for ascent.