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A Documentary by Geologic Dome
PEMBA.
The first humanoid robot on Everest. A once-in-a-generation story about a dying mountain, an invisible people, and the machine that tells it right.
Unitree  +  Netflix
geologicdome.com
April 12 to June 1, 2026
The Problem
Everest is dying.
The world is not listening.
Waste
95t
Waste collected from Everest in 2024 alone. 40 to 50 tons still at South Col and high camps. Microplastics at 8,440m — highest ever recorded on Earth.
SPCC / NPR / ScienceDirect 2024
Ice
2,000
Years of ice lost on South Col Glacier in 25 years. Khumbu retreating 30m/year. Thinning rate has doubled since 2009. Gone by mid-century at current pace.
Nature / National Geographic 2022 to 2025
People
4,035
Sherpa fatalities per 100,000 workers. Miners: 25. Fishermen: 124. Sherpas cross the Khumbu Icefall 15 to 20 times per season. Western climbers: 4 to 5.
Outside Online / NPR / Alan Arnette 2025
The Human Cost
Sherpas take 4x the risk.
Earn one-tenth the pay.
Pay Gap
10x
Western guides earn $50,000+ per season. Sherpas earn $4,000 to $5,000. Same mountain. More crossings. The most dangerous terrain on Earth.
Alan Arnette / Borgen Project 2024 to 2025
Population
250K
Sherpas in Nepal per 2023 census. 150,000 globally. Their story has driven a global industry. They have never told it themselves. Until now.
Nepal Census 2023 / Joshua Project
Media Precedent
Mountain Queen
Lhakpa Sherpa documentary. Netflix. July 2024. Sherpa-led. Proof the audience exists. PEMBA tells it at 8,000m through a machine that speaks every language.
Netflix / Deadline July 2024
Our Solution
We put a humanoid on the summit.
Once in a lifetime.
The Robot — Unitree G1 EDU
-47.4°C
Tested February 2026, Xinjiang. 130,000 steps across Arctic ice. Beidou satellite nav. NVIDIA Jetson Orin (100 TOPS AI). 360° LiDAR. 4-mic array. 35kg. $43,500.
Interesting Engineering / CNEVPost Feb 2026
Unitree Robotics
$1.7B
Valuation June 2025. $137M revenue 2024. Projecting 10,000 to 20,000 G1 units in 2026. Backed by Tencent, Alibaba, Ant Group, Geely Capital.
The Robot Report / CNTechPost 2025
The Story
Any language.
Any altitude.
Speaks directly to Sherpa communities. No Western intermediary. Gets closer than any crew camera. Sherpas talk to 325 million people in their own words.
The Impact
88%
Of Blue Planet II viewers changed real behavior. 100% increase in searches for ocean plastic dangers. 55% increase in recycling searches. A robot on the summit is more viral than any narrator.
Ipsos UK / Rapid Transition Alliance
Traction
Confirmed.
Confirmed / Distribution
Netflix
325M subscribers. $45.2B revenue 2025. $18B content spend growing to $20B in 2026. Documentary TV: 5.12 billion viewing hours on Netflix in 2024.
Confirmed / Partnership
14 Peaks Expedition
Tashi Lakpa Sherpa leads logistics and community relations. Nima Sherpa on team: youngest mountaineer to summit all 14 peaks above 8,000m.
Confirmed / Hardware
Unitree G1 EDU Acquired and Tested
Cold-weather performance validated. Autonomous trucks already run at altitude in China. Caterpillar has 690 units deployed globally. This technology works at altitude.
Confirmed / Expedition Window
April 12 to June 1, 2026
Spring climbing season. Permit secured. Nepal raised permit fee 36% to $15,000 in September 2025 — government commitment to regulated, high-value access.
Market
325M subscribers.
A story they have never seen.
Distribution Reach
325M
Netflix paid subscribers end of 2025. $45.2B annual revenue. Combined top 4 platforms: 622M+ subscribers. Documentary TV: 5.12B hours watched on Netflix in 2024.
Netflix Q4 2025 Earnings / Variety Jan 2026
Comparable — Nature, 2024
Our Living World
Netflix. April 2024. Cate Blanchett. Number one globally the week of release. 21.4M views opening week. Beat every scripted title on the platform.
Netflix Global Top 10 / April 2024
Comparable — Extreme Altitude, 2021
14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible
Nirmal Purja. All 14 eight-thousanders in 6 months. Sunday Times Top 10 book. Rolex, Garmin, Bremont partnerships. $20K speaking events. PEMBA has the same altitude, a better story, and a robot.
Nimsdai.com / Amazon / CelebClive 2025
The Bigger Picture
This is a proof of concept
for a $38 billion industry.
Labor Pool
29M+
Workers in extreme environments. 21.4M in mining (ILO). 8.27M in oil and gas (IEA 2024). Fully-loaded cost: $100K to $150K per worker per year.
ILO 2021 / IEA 2024
Already Proven
5,600m
Altitude where autonomous trucks already run in Xinjiang. Yimin Mine: 100 electric trucks at -40°C. Caterpillar: 690 deployed, 2,000+ by 2030. Everest base camp: 5,364m.
China Daily / Huawei / Int'l Mining 2025
Annual Savings
$290B
Annual savings from AI in mining by 2035 per McKinsey. Autonomous trucks cut labor costs up to 50%. 30% productivity gains industry-wide.
McKinsey / Caterpillar 2025
Robot Market
$38B
Humanoid robot market by 2035 per Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley: $5T by 2050. PEMBA is the first real field test at the world's most extreme publicly accessible altitude.
Goldman Sachs / Morgan Stanley 2024
First Mover Advantage
The team that does it first
owns the narrative forever.
01
First robot on Everest
Guaranteed global media coverage no budget can buy. Every subsequent expedition-robotics project will be compared to PEMBA. This category does not exist yet.
02
First autonomous interviews with Sherpa communities at altitude
250,000 Sherpas in Nepal. Their story has never been told in their language, at altitude, without a Western intermediary. The robot removes the barrier.
03
First locomotion and sensor dataset from extreme terrain
Biometric, environmental, and mobility data from 8,000m+ is scientifically unprecedented. Every robotics lab, mining company, and defense contractor needs this data.
04
First conservation documentary where the main camera is a humanoid
New format. New audience. New distribution model. The robot is not a gimmick. It is the protagonist, the camera, and the proof of concept. Simultaneously.
The Team
Built for this exact mission.
Project Leads
Pablo Berlanga + Titania Freire
Ex-WWF, Microsoft, and UN. Strategy, global partnerships, and narrative direction.

Chief Conservation Scientist
Samson Grunwald
MSc UCSB Bren School. BA Geography & Environmental Studies, UCLA. Field research in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru. WWF ecotourism project lead. GIS specialist, fluent in Spanish.
Robotics Leads
Elsa Walston + Oljen Gurelli
Elsa Walston  776 Fellow. Dyson Lab. Langland Intelligence + WCS. Multiple government climate tech contracts.

Oljen Gurelli  Google DeepMind Scholar. MEng Robotics & AI, UCL. Former Google DeepMind + ESA. IEEE SMC 2025.

Robotic Operating Leads, Reflex Founders
Arnaud Denis-Remillard + Lukas Miranda
Founders of Reflex (tryreflex.ai). Autonomous systems and software architecture.
Expedition Leads
Oswaldo Freire + Nima Sherpa
Nima Sherpa: youngest mountaineer to summit all 14 peaks above 8,000m. Oswaldo Freire leads expedition operations. Summit strategy, safety, and high-altitude execution.
Logistics + Community Relations
Tashi Lakpa Sherpa
Head of 14 Peaks Expedition. Leads ground logistics and all Sherpa community relations. The bridge between the machine and the people it is here to amplify.
The Ask
$200K
Title, ad, and robot clothing sponsorships. Be part of the first chapter of a story that will be told for decades. First mover pricing. First mover legacy.
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Email
p@geologicdome.com
Website
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