Calgary: Producer Heather Haldane sounds exhausted on the phone from Calgary after spending most of last month high in the Rocky Mountains making the 2 x 120 CBC miniseries Everest ’82, a copro between her Toronto-based Screen Door and Calgary’s Alberta Filmworks.

It’s been a grind, but a rewarding one.

‘I anticipated it, but you don’t know until you get there,’ says Haldane (Shades of Black). ‘On a film set, you’re so used to having craft services, monitors and little havens during the day, and we haven’t been shooting in that sort of situation for the better part of four weeks. It’s been very demanding.’

The good news for Haldane and fellow producer Randy Bradshaw of Filmworks is that the remainder of the shoot takes place mostly in and around Calgary.

Everest’s script by Keith Ross Leckie (Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion) is based on the true story of Laurie Skreslet and Pat Morrow, who, in 1982, became the first Canadians to scale Mount Everest.

The mini’s budget is major – $10.5 million – with funding from Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Television Fund, the Alberta Film Development Program, tax credits and Rogers Telefund. The U.K.’s Alchemy Television Group has picked up the worldwide distribution rights.

Graeme Campbell directs, with Mary Young Leckie and Jason Lee exec producing. Eric Johnson (Smallville) and Gord Rand (Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye) star as Skreslet and Morrow, respectively, joined by Jason Priestley, William Shatner and Leslie Hope (24).

Haldane says the elements were a little daunting for some of her cast.

‘Everybody has had to settle in and figure out they’re not going to have the usual support systems they do in the film industry, but out of it all we’ve had a great process,’ she says.

A second unit was dispatched to Nepal in late May, where footage for a companion documentary will be shot, featuring Skreslet and Morrow returning to Everest for the first time since their climb. Haldane says the doc will air near the miniseries next year and will likely be included with an Everest home video release to follow.

Everest wraps on June 19.