High Ice, also known as Challenge of the High Ice,[4] is a 1980 American adventuretelevision film directed by Eugene S. Jones and starring David Janssen, Tony Musante, Madge Sinclair, and Gretchen Corbett. Its plot follows a park ranger and army lieutenant attempting to save three rock climbers stranded on a mountain ledge. The film was released in the United States as an NBC Movie of the Week in early 1980, but was given a theatrical release internationally. The extended theatrical cut of the film shown in foreign countries includes nude sequences that were excised from the television version.
Premise
A park ranger (David Janssen) clashes with an army lieutenant colonel (Tony Musante) regarding the rescue efforts of three rock climbers stranded on a mountain ledge in Washington.
Filming took place in Darrington, Washington in the summer of 1979.[3] The production budget was approximately $2 million.[3]
Release
Upon its airing on NBC in January 1980, High Ice was met by approximately 25 million viewers in the United States.[3] The film was subsequently given a theatrical release internationally, with nudity which had been cut from the television version reinstated.[3] The film aired on television again in the late 1980s on MTV.[5]
Critical response
James Brown of the Los Angeles Times deemed the film a "visually breathtaking, but dramatically stuttering diversion... Director Eugene Jones further hampers his own cause with some choppy transitions, confusing flashbacks and muddled dramatic focus."[4]
