Deep Dive DuckTales: Wes Looks at The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverest

Welcome back to another installment of Deep Dive DuckTales everyone.

Our episode opens with our heroes flying out to Nepal, or whatever the Duckverse pun name for Nepal happens to be in order to climb the titular Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverest. While Scrooge is incredibly Gung-Ho about the adventure, Louie is annoyed that they’re spending Christmas climbing a mountain rather than waiting for Santa. Scrooge responds by cryptically stating that Santa Clause is not allowed in his home and he knows why. Huey on the other hand is excited about mapping out the uncharted mountain to earn his Junior Woodchuck Cartography Badge. While Scrooge and Huey are bonding over their mutual determination, Launchpad informs the gang that they’ve arrived, presumably because he crashed the plane. However, when our heroes arrive, they find that the base of Mt. Neverest has been converted into a tourist trap, irritating Scrooge to no end.

Scrooge tells the boys to pay no mind to these tourists as they are true explorers. This is when Huey brings up legendary Mountaineer George Malardy. Legend has it that Malardy answered the challenge of Mt. Neverest, but was lost trying to save an incompetent fellow climber known only as the Neverest Ninny. Scrooge insists that the story of George Mallardy is just some rubbish made up to sell t-shirts and insists that he’s going to do what Mallardy never could, reach the summit of Neverest.

Meanwhile, a clearly shady con artist spots Launchpad and identifies him as an easy mark. The man warns Launchpad of something called ice fever and when Launchpad falls for it, he goes to down price gouging the poor sap for a bunch of unnecessary junk.

Finally our heroes are ready to climb Mt. Neverest, although Louie loses interest and goes for a cup of hot cocoa the second he learns that there is no treasure at the top of the mountain. Everyone else sets off on their grand adventure, although Louie and Webby are only coming along so they can sled down the mountain. Our heroes journey onward, but Launchpad is weighed down by all his gear and tumbles down the mountain into a sauna, thinking he’s gone slow blind from ice fever. This is a problem because Launchpad had most of their climbing gear, but Scrooge insists he can reach the summit based on his wits alone. As the journey up the mountain continues, Huey begins charting some landmarks, including a rather sinister rock formation that looks like a horrifying demon face which he names “Bunny Rock.”

Back with Launchpad, he is still wandering aimlessly through the sauna absent mindedly believing he’s suffering from Ice Fever. In what has to be my favorite Launchpad line in the series so far, which even this early in the game is saying something, Lauchpad says “This is not the end of Launchpad McQuack! It will be by plane crash or not at all!”

Our heroes press on, only to find that they’ve somehow looped around back to Bunny Rock. While Scrooge is sure that it’s simply an entirely different naturally occurring demon faced rock, Huey starts to think something strange is going on. In any case, it’s starting to snow, so the gang sets up camp in a nearby cave. In the cave, our heroes find some foreboding cave paintings of decapitated people and also find that the cave entrance has mysteriously vanished. In the darkness, our heroes find something far more unsettling, the decaying corpse of George Mallardy, amusingly wearing a shirt that reads “I Didn’t Survive Mount Neverest.” And evidently, Mallardy has written “Curse You McDuck” on the walls with his last ounce of strength. At first Scrooge plays it off. After all, if he had a nickel for everyone who cursed him with their dying breath, he’d be twice as rich as he already is. However, Huey insists that Scrooge is hiding something and isn’t budging until he spills the beans.

It is here where Scrooge makes his big confession. The Neverest Ninny was none other than Scrooge himself. Seventy-Five years ago, Scrooge hired Mallardy to bring him up the mountain. Scrooge had just made his first million and wanted to mark the occasion by doing something no one had ever done. Along the journey, Mallardy would mock him mercilessly for his inexperience and his excess of climbing gear. Half way up the mountain, Mallardy insisted Scrooge lighten his load, but Scrooge was worried about letting go of his supplies, forcing Mallardy to cut Scrooge loose and plunge to what would have been anyone else’s death if it weren’t for the fact that Scrooge McDuck is exceptionally hard to kill. However, despite being a backstabbing braggart, Mallardy is celebrated as a hero while Scrooge has been branded the Neverest Ninny. Because of this, Scrooge has become obsessed with reaching the summit of Neverest and proving everyone wrong. Anywho, Webby finds an exit to the cave, only for it to let out right at Bunny Rock.

Meanwhile, Launchpad is still wandering around aimlessly until Louie happens upon him. Louie can tell right away that Launchpad has been scammed since unlike Launchpad, Louie is smart enough to know that Ice Fever is not a thing. Well, Louie isn’t about to stand for this. As he says, “No One Cons My Family but Me!”

As our heroes grow close to the summit, Scrooge is overjoyed. However, Huey has had enough. They’re out of supplies, they’d probably freeze to death before they got to the bottom, the path looks so unstable that if they try to continue it will likely crumble beneath their feet and finally, the mountain seems to be messing with them somehow, sending them in circles when that should be impossible. Scrooge on the other hand refuses to give up when he’s so close and the argument between the two causes an avalanche that knocks Dewey and Webby off the edge. However, turns out their find, and now somehow even further up the mountain. This is when Huey figures it out. Wormholes! The mountain is covered in mystical portals that have been randomly zapping our heroes all around the trail this whole time, there’s just been so much snow and fog that they didn’t realize up until now. This development only further serves to fire up Scrooge jumps off the cliff and tries to warp himself to the top, but the mountain simply won’t let him. Huey begs Scrooge to let it go, and after a moment of introspection, Scrooge agrees. Just in time too as another, even bigger avalanche kicks up. Our heroes hop on Dewey’s sled and fly down the mountain.

Back at the base, Louie brings Launchpad back to the con artist from earlier and convinces the crowd that Launchpad is dying of Ice Fever, tricking him into admitting that Ice Fever isn’t real, something that earns him a beating from other rubes he’s screwed over. However, as Louie and Launchpad celebrate, the shop is buried in a mountain of snow as our heroes have finally reached the bottom. Huey and Scrooge have a nice moment where they say that there will be plenty more adventures to come even if this one was a bust. And so our episode ends with the map Huey was working on floating away in the wind and landing on the summit of Neverest.

The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverest is a fun episode. Huey and Scrooge formed a really interesting dynamic and the b-plot with Louie and Launchpad was hilarious. If I had one nitpick, it was that Dewey and Webby’s sledding subplot wasn’t that engaging, but otherwise, this episode was fun. Anyone, next time, the boys spend the day at Scrooge’s office in The Great Dime Chase.