Calgary – Alberta ski destinations Sunshine Village and Fortress Mountain are standing in for Kilimanjaro and Everest on the new A&E MOW Touch the Top of the World: The Erik Weihenmayer Story, now halfway through shooting.

A coproduction between Calgary’s The Producers Limited and L.A. prodco Jaffe/Braunstein, Touch the Top of the World is a dramatic biography about Weihenmayer, who went blind at 13 yet still managed to scale several mountains. The script, based on Weihenmayer’s memoir, was written by Peter Silverman (Harlan County War). Peter Winther (The Librarian: Quest for the Spear) is directing.

Sisters Fiorella Cole (It Must Be Love), Nives Lever (Goose!) and Eda Lishman (Undercover Christmas) are producing, with Michael Jaffe (Elvis) and Howard Braunstein (10.5: Apocalypse) serving as executive producers.

The mid-budget MOW is funded in-house and with Alberta labor credits.

‘It’s an extremely ambitious project, where we’re climbing mountains and shooting them like we’re on Everest, but on a movie-of-the-week budget,’ says Lishman. ‘It’s a big thing to pull off, but so far it’s going really well.’

Peter Facinelli (Hollow Man 2) stars as Weihenmayer, with Sarah Manninen (Burnt Toast) and Kate Greenhouse (The Dark Hours) costarring. Production is scheduled to wrap on Feb. 14, and Lishman is hopeful post will stay in Alberta. Touch the Top of the World is expected to premier on A&E in June.