Tom Hiddleston Walked to Everest Base Camp for a Film That Finally Puts Tenzing Norgay First

Tom Hiddleston walked to Everest Base Camp before he ever stepped on a film set, training for the role of Edmund Hillary in Tenzing, the new Apple Original Films drama that puts Sherpa climber Tenzing Norgay, not Hillary, at the centre of the 1953 story that made them both famous. The film opens in select theatres on 9 October 2026 and streams on Apple TV+ from 16 October.

What is the film Tenzing actually about?

Tenzing retells the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953 from the perspective of the Sherpa climber who reached the summit alongside New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary. Written by Luke Davies from a story by Davies and Peedom, the film follows Tenzing Norgay as he is pushed toward the margins of the British-led expedition and has to fight, with his wife Dawa’s encouragement and expedition secretary Jill Henderson’s help, to persuade Colonel John Hunt that he belongs on the summit team rather than only supporting it.

Why did the cast actually trek to Everest Base Camp?

Peedom sent Hiddleston and Phuntsok on the real trek so the two leads would build the same working trust on the trail that their characters needed on the mountain, not to collect scenery for the cameras. Hiddleston, Phuntsok, Peedom and a high-altitude medical specialist made the trek together ahead of the shoot. Speaking at the film’s European premiere at the Zurich Film Festival on 24 September 2026, Hiddleston said: “I’ve been compelled by Everest for as long as I can remember.” He had already watched Peedom’s 2015 documentary Sherpa, which examined how Everest’s Nepali climbing workforce carries most of the mountain’s risk for Western expeditions, before signing on to a script he said centred Tenzing Norgay “at the centre of his own story.”

Who was Tenzing Norgay, and why does his story need retelling now?

Tenzing Norgay was the Nepali-born Sherpa mountaineer who, on 29 May 1953, became one of the first two people confirmed to reach Everest’s summit, climbing the final stretch roped to Hillary as part of the British Everest Expedition led by Colonel John Hunt. For decades the popular telling of that climb ran mostly through Hillary’s and Hunt’s own accounts, with Tenzing cast as support rather than an equal partner in reaching the top. Peedom has spent a decade making films about the Everest region and its Sherpa community, and Tenzing is built explicitly to correct that imbalance rather than retell the expedition once more from the same angle.

What does the real Everest Base Camp trek involve, and how does it compare with the movie prep?

The cast’s preparation trek was short and medically supervised, built around a film shoot rather than a full itinerary. The trek most travellers actually book runs 10 to 14 days from Kathmandu, flying to Lukla, then walking up the Khumbu valley through Namche Bazaar and Tengboche to reach Everest Base Camp itself at 5,364 metres — roughly 3,500 metres lower than the summit Hillary and Tenzing stood on, and a walk with no ropes or oxygen required, just steady acclimatisation days built into the schedule.

Is Tenzing based on a true story?

Yes. The 1953 first ascent of Everest by Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, under Colonel John Hunt’s British expedition, is documented history; the film dramatises the internal politics of that expedition and Tenzing’s fight to be treated as a climbing equal rather than only a support Sherpa.

Can you actually trek to Everest Base Camp yourself?

Yes, with no mountaineering experience required — it is a high-altitude walk, not a climb. Most operators, including ours, run it as a 12 to 14 day round trip from Kathmandu with acclimatisation days at Namche Bazaar and Dingboche already built into the schedule.

Cover photo: Ganesh Adhikari via Unsplash (Unsplash License). Section photos: Julieta Camila Tosto via Pexels (Pexels licence); Laszlo Magyar via Pexels (Pexels licence); Sakshi Patwa via Pexels (Pexels licence); Hiteshkumar Koradiya via Pexels (Pexels licence); AXP Photography via Pexels (Pexels licence).