Everest was in production at the mountain during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which another group of climbers became trapped by a blizzard near the summit. The film includes footage of these events, as the IMAX team assist Beck Weathers and other survivors. Producer and co-director Greg MacGillivray later said that while editing the documentary for release, he and Breashears decided to focus more on the tragedy, due to the popularity of Jon Krakauer's book about the 1996 disaster, Into Thin Air (1997). MacGillivray said Ten million people have read that book, so we had to address the issue. And I think it strengthened the film.