East Idaho cinematographer and photographer Mark Fisher recently got an invite two weeks ahead of time to join and film an Everest expedition.

The founder of Fisher Creative has plenty of experience with international travel and expeditions of this magnitude, and wasn’t too concerned about fitness. But he said it was still intense figuring out the logistics for a six-week trip in the Himalaya as the solo cinematographer.

“It was pretty overwhelming to plan and pack in two weeks,” Fisher said. “There were a lot of moving parts. I felt like I was in good shape mentally and physically, it was more of a logistical hurdle.”

He was hired by CNN Vision to film two British celebrities in their Everest bid: Victoria Pendleton, a track cycling gold medalist and Ben Fogle, a TV travel star and author. Guiding them was mountaineer Kenton Cool, who was attempting his 13th Everest summit.

Fisher met Cool on an expedition to Bhutan four years ago and since then they’ve forged a strong friendship that has resulted in reciprocal work opportunities, which is how Fisher got the Everest gig.

“That’s the way I approach my career—being constantly open to new experiences and opportunities and people. It’s a conscious and unconscious effort to slowly build up my connections and capabilities over time. A combination of those experiences let opportunities like this arise.”

The members of the CNN expedition enjoyed base camp support from Madison Mountaineering.

Amenities included wireless Internet, showers, and great food.

“It’s not white tablecloth luxury, but it’s was very comfortable and the group had a good vibe.”

Base camp was big and spread out, with at least 1,000 inhabitants between climbers, clinicians and other support staff. There were also frequent visits from trekkers and nonstop morning helicopter traffic. Fisher spent his time at base camp working, but was also able to stay in contact with family and friends back home.

Once his team started their climb Fisher could no longer communicate with Teton Valley.

“There’s not any one part of Everest that’s extremely hard—it’s staying healthy, acclimatizing well, and keeping a positive mental state, to just keep going,” he said. “It’s easy to let your mind wander and think of home. Every day has its own challenges.”

The most physically challenging day was the push from Camp 3 to Camp 4, when an unexpected storm blasted the team with high winds. On summit day the three climbers (Pendleton had opted not to summit) and three Sherpas enjoyed great weather but experienced a series of oxygen regulator failures.

“We were feeling pretty good about getting down safely but were worried the regulator issues were going to jeopardize our summit,” Fisher said.

They sent down two Sherpas to save oxygen and then, when his regulator failed, Cool climbed the final 100 meters without oxygen.

Fisher said he brought only a DSLR camera to the top of Everest; it was better to keep his systems simple in the face of the tough final push.

“I know it’s cliché but the views from the summit were spectacular,” said Fisher, whose previous high-altitude experience topped out at 7,600 meters.

Other highlights from the expedition were the people and the scenery. Fisher said that getting to know the Sherpas and other mountaineers was amazing, and that the scenery in the Western Cwm in particular was incredible.

He anticipates that CNN will release the TV show by late June, but he’ll already be on the road again by then. The car brand Infiniti is sending him to document an expedition in Mongolia that will include NASA scientists and paleontologists.

“It’s an exciting time for me professionally,” Fisher said. “But it’s nice to be home now—a lot of times it takes going away to be reminded of how great this place is.