The incomprehensibly daunting, almost mythical, power of Mount Everest has lured many climbers to attempt to conquer it and reach the top of the world. It’s easy to trivialise its effect by reading the statistic that over 7,000 people have summited Everest and by seeing the photos of queues at the summit, suggesting a semi-transformation into a tourist attraction. But almost everyone goes up the (dare I say it, easier) South Face. Fewer people venture to the far more difficult and treacherous North Face, and only a handful have successfully ascended it. Cue the daredevil dream of Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson: to be the first to climb the direct North Face of Everest AND ski back down.
Interrogating what drives individuals to the edge of what’s possible, to undertake extremely dangerous feats like this, is familiar territory for director duo and married couple Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi, who followed climber Alex Honnold up El Capitan to Oscar-winning heights in Free Solo, and covered similar, respectfully insane figures achieving the unachievable in Meru, The Rescue and NYAD. Chin and Vasarhelyi have perfected their formula across these films, exhibiting a deep fascination with the mindsets and personalities of their subjects as well as their death-defying exploits, balancing the personal with spectacle. But it is a formula, and one that follows predictable beats.
Everest: The Other Side introduces us to mountaineers Morrison and Nelson, who have fallen in love and, where some couples have gardening or pickleball, they have a shared interest in skiing down the world’s tallest mountains. We learn about their lives, how they got into this atypical activity and what makes them tick in a fairly procedural manner. This doesn’t last long, however, as the film is thrust into distressing, emotionally rocky terrain, beyond what these filmmakers are used to.
Documentaries can be at their most formally interesting, or shocking, when they transform and shapeshift during the filmmaking process. The film takes an upsetting turn when an accident on another Himalayan peak, intended to be preparation for the big climb, results in Hilaree Nelson’s tragic death. In the wake of the devastation, the filmmakers rightly question whether to continue. When Chin expresses a desire to take over as Morrison’s climbing partner, Vasarhelyi checks him by asking him to name each person who has sat at their dining table and is now dead. It’s a soberingly long list.
Morrison chooses to persevere and fulfil the dream he shared with Nelson, in her honour. Putting your life on the line to ski down Everest is not a normal way to grieve, but the film spins bafflement into admiration, serving as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, to overcome tragedy and strive for greatness. At the same time, the film shines a light on every role in this enterprise, including the climbers (mostly Sherpas from the local community) who go ahead and set up camps along the route, questioning whether it’s justifiable to put other people’s lives in danger in the quest to satisfy the ego of one man.
Everything is photographed beautifully, clearly owing to a deep understanding of this landscape. Technological advancements have made IMAX-specification cameras lighter than ever, so they can be carried up and down the mountain while capturing jaw-dropping images. What Chin and Vasarhelyi do so well is capture awe – of individuals pushing the boundaries of what’s physically possible, of the terrifying power of nature, of overcoming the lowest of lows to reach the highest of highs.
