Amir Bar-Lev’s film captures the dark drama that unfolded during an attempt to summit K2 in winter. Yet, the film grips the viewer without ever needing to reach those dizzying heights.
Over the last decade, the mountaineering documentary has evolved into a genre unto itself. Spectacular films like *Free Solo*, *The Dawn Wall*, and the 2024 Sundance smash hit *Skywalkers: A Love Story*—which follows urban climbers scaling the world’s tallest, slenderest skyscrapers, a feat so perilous it rivals the ascent of natural peaks—rival the most vertigo-inducing action movies on the planet. Their appeal can be summed up like this: come for the heart-stopping vertigo, stay for the human drama... but stay, too, to explore the question: "What kind of person seeks out such an extreme sense of vertigo?" These films draw their allure from the "don't look down" premise—a sensation that is simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying.
Director: Amir Bar-Lev
Stars: Nirmal Purja, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, Sajid Sadpara
Naturally, then, I expected more of the same from *The Last First: Winter K2*, the mountaineering documentary that opened the Sundance Film Festival today. It chronicles an expedition—or rather, several simultaneous expeditions—to summit K2, the world’s second-highest peak (after Everest). The mere mention of K2’s danger and hostility is enough to make your blood run cold (and the cold is a literal factor: even at base camp, temperatures can plummet to minus 50 degrees). It is known as the "Savage Mountain" because American climber George Bell remarked in 1953: "It’s a savage mountain that tries to kill you." More people have died attempting to climb K2—nearly 100 in total—than on any other mountain. At 8,611 meters, it is 238 meters shorter than Everest, yet the climb is far more treacherous and difficult. Even its location is intimidating. According to Wikipedia, K2 "is located in the Karakoram range, partly in the Gilgit-Baltistan region—in the Pakistan-administered area of Kashmir—and partly in the Trans-Karakoram Tract—administered by China—within the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang."
K2 has been climbed many times (the first ascent to the summit was achieved by an Italian expedition in 1954), but *The Last First*, set in 2020 and 2021, chronicles the first successful winter summit attempt. There are 14 mountains on Earth exceeding 6,000 meters in height, and by the time the film begins, 13 of them had already been climbed in winter. However, the extreme difficulty of K2—with its sheer icy walls, freezing snowstorms, and winds capable of hurling large rocks at high speed—makes it, in winter, practically a different mountain than it is at any other time of year. The title *The Last First* signifies that this was the last great mountaineering challenge remaining on Earth. That is why so many wanted to attempt it: because it was there.
Director Amir Bar-Lev (*Long Strange Trip*, *The Tillman Story*) focuses on a charismatic Icelandic climber, John Snorri Sigurjónsson: an affable, sturdy man with a loving wife and six children. His wife, Lina, speaks of his addiction to the activity; When he arrives at K2 base camp—where he has organized the ascent alongside legendary Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara and Ali’s son, Sajid Sadpara—we are primed for another stunning mountain documentary: an intimate look at the clash between humanity and the elements.
But something has changed. Today, there is a vast number of mountaineers worldwide (we see footage of an endless line of them ascending Everest), and this is part of the story *The Last First* tells: the democratization of mountaineering. This shift has a commercial side (one of the groups attempting to climb K2 has hired a company called Seven Summit Treks) and, undoubtedly, a social media dimension (many climbers bring their own cameramen along). Before long, the situation on K2 becomes highly competitive, especially with the arrival of Nirmal "Nims" Purja. He is a Nepali mountaineer who is the closest thing the sport has to a Himalayan superstar. In 2019, Purja climbed all 14 of the world’s peaks over 8,000 meters in six months—a record at the time. He arrives with a team of Sherpas, and his ambition to be the first mountaineer to conquer K2 in winter is driven by a strong sense of national pride: he is doing it for the glory of Nepal.
It seems as valid a reason as any to scale an epic peak. Bar-Lev interviews Nims, who comes across as a sort of obsessive rock star of the mountaineering world; it is clear he will be a key player in the competition the film chronicles.
That doesn't stop other teams from trying to reach the summit, too. And the fact that the film is about much more than simply finishing first isn't, in itself, a problem. However, there is something odd—and, frankly, a bit condescending—about the way *The Last First* takes the Nepali team’s triumph and practically sidelines it, treating it almost as an afterthought. Rumors circulated that something shady had happened—that Nims had cut the ropes he’d used so no one could follow him. But those rumors turned out to be false. The Nepali climbers did nothing wrong; they proved themselves to be extraordinary. So why does *The Last First* show so little interest in them?
No cameras were present to record Nims and his team as they ascended. In fact, one of the defining characteristics of *The Last First* is that, despite the stunning footage captured on K2—the sheer rock faces, the avalanches, the clouds, the lunar grandeur of the landscape—the film isn't shot to convey that sense of actually being there—the firsthand adrenaline of the climb—that *Free Solo*, *The Dawn Wall*, and *Skywalkers* managed to capture. As a result, I suspect it will be a much less commercial film.
Instead of turning his film into a heart-pounding experience on the mountain slopes, Bar-Lev focuses on how the winter ascent of K2 devolves into a series of mishaps and disasters. One of the most experienced climbers, a Spaniard named Sergi Mingote, suffers a fatal fall. This event serves as a wake-up call—or at least, it should have. But far from heeding the danger, the remaining climbers begin to get in each other's way. The mountain is climbed in stages, moving from one camp to the next, and at one of them, there aren't enough tents for everyone to sleep. Climbers are forced to crowd into the available tents, preventing anyone from getting proper rest and—down the line—leading to further tragedies.
*The Last First* is not your typical documentary about the daredevil glory of mountain climbing; here, glory is intertwined with human folly. Five mountaineers lost their lives during the 2020–2021 K2 summit attempt. *The Last First* offers an eye-opening look at how they risked their lives for an ideal—or perhaps an addiction. It is a film that reveals the dark side of literally reaching great heights. It is fascinating up to a point, but not uplifting.
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