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Discovery to chronicle Everest avalanche

NEW YORK — With its dreams of televising a daredevil’s attempt to jump off Mount Everest over, the Discovery network said Tuesday it will instead make a documentary on last week’s avalanche that killed more than a dozen mountain guides.

Discovery President Eileen O’Neill said the network hopes to air the film within the next few weeks. Discovery will encourage viewers to donate to a relief fund for families of the Sherpa guides killed in Everest’s most deadly disaster.

“It gives us a sense of responsibility because we are there and have the resources and wherewithal to tell the story,” O’Neill said. “We want to have the right tribute.”

Several of the Sherpas killed were helping prepare for American Joby Ogwyn’s planned jump from the summit in a wingsuit. Discovery planned to show the stunt on television worldwide on May 11. Thirteen bodies were recovered from the avalanche at the mountain’s treacherous Khumbu Icefall, with three people still missing.

Ogwyn said in an interview Tuesday that while he agreed with the decision to end his project, he hopes to jump off Everest sometime in the future.

Sherpa teams were preparing the climb for several expeditions, including Ogwyn’s team and employees of Peacock Productions, the NBC-affiliated firm that was producing Discovery’s telecast. Discovery announced Sunday it was abandoning the attempted jump.

Discovery pulled the plug both out of sensitivity toward the Sherpa community and an inability to assess the stability of the mountain, O’Neill said.

“The success rate of such an ambitious project that needed to have everything go right was greatly compromised,” she said.

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