As the Himalayan climbing season gets under way, no one can forget the controversy of last year.

On Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, climbers allegedly walked past a dying climber on the way to the summit.

On Tibet’s Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth highest peak, Chinese police shot and killed a Tibetan nun as she tried to escape exile into Nepal. The shooting was filmed by a Romanian climber.

J.J. Justman of Bend left last week on his seventh Himalayan climbing expedition. The guide for Mountain Link Guide Service in Bend is leading a group of climbers and Sherpas on Cho Oyu, a 26,906-foot peak just west of Everest.

In an attempt to show the public what really happens on climbing expeditions, the group will film parts of the climb to be shown on Internet video podcasts on the Web sites www.mountain-link.com and www.podclimber.com.

The show is called ”The Guiding Life,” and it will include video snippets – of a couple minutes each – of certain parts of the expedition. There is no charge to view the video.

”Everybody really focuses on the tragedies,” Justman said last week in Bend, just before leaving for the Himalayas. ”They love that drama. What’s cool about this show is you’ll see what it’s about. You’ll see the decisions we make and why we make them. We’re making decisions for our clients, totally based on safety.

”There have been more cases where people are so concerned about reaching the top, they push themselves into a scenario where it gets ugly.”

Justman reached the summit of 29,035-foot Everest in 2004, and he participated in an Everest expedition last year but did not reach the top. That group made video that was available on the Mountain Link Web site, but Justman said this spring’s video will feature more human involvement.

Justman and fellow guide Mike Horst of Seattle will take turns filming with a hand-held digital video camera. Using a laptop and a small satellite dish, they can download the video, edit the material and send the clip to the Mountain Link office in Bend, where it can be posted on the Web sites.

”It’ll actually be true reality TV,” Justman said. ”We want it to be real and raw – what you see is what you get.”

He said the group figures to make from 20 to 40 video clips, each available for viewing on the Web sites one or two days after they are filmed.

Justman said the Cho Oyu expedition will be the first of many series of ”The Guiding Life.”

According to Justman, Cho Oyu is regarded as the easiest to climb of the world’s 14 8,000-meter peaks. He described it as moderately technical, similar to Washington’s Mount Rainier.

”But that altitude will always kick in,” said Justman, adding that the climbers plan to use supplemental oxygen.

Nangpa La Pass on Cho Oyu is where Tibetans try to reach Nepal to escape exile, Justman explained.

”That’s where they cross over,” Justman said. ”Hopefully, we won’t see any of that.”

Justman said he is looking at sometime from the third week of May to the end of May as a possible summit date.

”The main priority is safety,” Justman insisted. ”If we summit, that’s the icing on the cake.”