Local Media Company Assists with Documentation of K2 Climb

Gearbox Studios Teams Up With Earth Treks’ “Shared Summits” Youth Program.

K2, or Mount Godwin Austen, is in the Karakoram Range in Jammu and Kashmir and is the world's second highest peak. Photo courtesy: student.britannica.com

(MCMINNVILLE, Ore.) - NBC Sports will broadcast a special one hour show documenting a team of mountain climbers who set out on a 9-week expedition to the peak of K2, the second highest mountain on earth, located in the Himalayas.

Throughout the decades there have been only 246 successful climbs to reach the 28,253 ft summit. This team was from Earth Treks, a professional guide service specializing in rock and ice climbing instruction and international mountaineering expeditions since 1990.

Gearbox Studios, a multi-media production company located in McMinnville Oregon, worked closely with Earth Treks to develop a web site, sharedsummits.com where the team could upload daily video bulletins, blogs and photos throughout the entire journey.

Through the use of state-of-the-art technology the team was able to digitally document the entire excursion. Along with the usual mountain climbing gear they packed a laptop, a BGAN mini satellite dish and hand-held camcorders. This allowed students of the Earth Treks’ “Shared Summits” Youth Program to become virtual participants in every step of the ascent.

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Heading the climbing team, Chris Warner notes that just ten years ago it would have taken 6 days to get word to the press. He continued, “Now we are the media. Our website hosts the content, which can be uploaded as fast as typing an e-mail. We have direct contact with our audience. They write to us, ask us questions, giving us story ideas.”

He also reminds us that sending live video feeds from the most remote locations on earth has been with us for more than a decade – if you could afford the equipment. “What blows my mind is that I can do it, and for so little money,” Chris stated. “This is not a big-budget media event. It is truly five guys in the field, trying to climb a mountain, supported by three guys, working part time on this, in the US.”