Apple TV+'s new feature film 'Tenzing' puts the Sherpa climber front and centre in the story of Everest's 1953 first ascent — and it did it the hard way. Director Jennifer Peedom, who previously made the documentary 'Sherpa', rejected studio sets entirely, shooting in sub-zero alpine conditions across Nepal and New Zealand. Cinematographer Stefan Duscio told Outside Online what that took.
The film stars Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing Norgay, who summited the 29,032-foot peak with Edmund Hillary (played by Tom Hiddleston) in May 1953. History has often framed that moment as a British achievement funded by the Royal Geographical Society; the film reframes it around the Nepali-Indian Sherpa who spent two decades pioneering Himalayan routes and revered the mountain — Chomolungma, the sacred mother goddess — as a spiritual calling.
The two-country shoot is a deliberate mirror of the pair's shared legacy. Nepal stood in for the cultural and lower-elevation scenes: Tenzing's early life was filmed in the high-altitude desert of Lower Mustang and the ancient village of Dangarjong, a convincing double for the Tibetan Plateau. The expedition's Kathmandu walk was shot at Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, and the team hiked into the Khumbu Valley with special government permission to film landscapes at Everest Base Camp outside the climbing season, using ground cameras, drones and helicopters.
The technical alpine sequences moved to New Zealand's Southern Alps, where peaks sit low enough that no supplemental oxygen was needed. Veteran mountaineer Guy Cotter, CEO of Adventure Consultants and a 25-year Everest expedition leader, served as mountain safety supervisor and helped match locations: the Darwin Icefall near Aoraki/Mount Cook doubled for the Khumbu Icefall, while the Remarkables near Queenstown and Malte Brun Pass recreated the Hillary Step and summit push. Conditions were brutal — temperatures hit minus 25°C, and crew wore more layers than they would on a real Everest expedition.
Authenticity ran deep. Twelve Sherpa climbers, with more than 65 Everest summits between them, joined the cast and advised on safety. The crevasse-rescue sequence — where Hillary slips in and Tenzing hauls him out — took months to plan, with Phuntsok and Hiddleston anchored by safety lines in a real crevasse and icefall; Hiddleston insisted on cutting his own steps out.
For travellers, the film doubles as a stunning location scout. Nepal's Mustang region, Patan's Durbar Square and the Khumbu Valley all feature, as does New Zealand's Aoraki region, where Hillary trained as a young man and where Tenzing's son Norbu was formally welcomed by Māori leaders during the shoot. If 'Tenzing' inspires a trip, either homeland delivers the landscapes on screen — minus the minus 25.
