The video that takes you to the heart of Everest, as if you were climbing it

A single drone flight led by Chinese photographer Ma Chunlin this past spring captured images of indescribably beautiful footage of the entire route of the ascent of Everest from its north, or Tibetan, face. The breathtakingly detailed shot comes after five years of effort by the photographer, who managed to complete his project on May 19, even overcoming the restrictions on drone flights imposed by the Chinese government in Tibet .

The video begins at dawn at Advanced Base Camp (6,400 meters), from where George Mallory and Andrew Irvine set off up the slope in 1924, never to return. It then tackles the steep and treacherous slopes leading to the North Col (7,000 m), where an avalanche claimed the lives of seven Sherpa porters. This was in 1922, and Mallory never forgave himself for pushing his team to the limit. The images then pan across the endless, wind-exposed strip of snow leading to Camp 2 (7,790 m) and into mixed terrain of snow and rock. A final high camp (8,300 m) gives way to the yellow bands of rock that protect the summit ridge, with its three steps ( many believe that Mallory and Irvine never made it past the second step, which was too technical for the time and whose verticality can be seen in detail at the end of the video).

The images show the climbers slowly advancing toward the summit, and once at the top, other climbers can be seen reaching the summit from the south, Nepal . A condensed version of beauty.