THE LAST FIRST: WINTER K2****

High mountain fanatics know that there has long been controversy surrounding the commercialisation of the sport AND how far the Nepalese sherpas who assist in Westerners summiting get proper credit and pay. Both of those issues coalesce in this provocative and incredible new film from documentarian Amir Bar-Lev (THE TILLMAN STORY). It tells the tragic story of the 2021 attempt to summit the world's second highest and most dangerous mountain, K2, in the most punishing of weather conditions, during winter. And because these days high mountaineering is obsessively filmed and instagrammed, there is a wealth of footage through which to unpack what really happened.

We begin in the joyful camp of Icelander John Snorri and his friend, the Pakistani guide Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid. They are attempting to be the first to summit in winter. But a crucial flaw in this doc is that it does not make clear that they are adding an extra challenge - they want to summit without using supplemental oxygen. This means that their trek is going to be far slower and involve far longer periods of acclimatisation so that they can survive in the Death Zone.  

Snorri and the Sadparas have literally spent a month setting up the fixed ropes up to Camp 2 when their first climbing window is gazzumped by the mountaineering world's self-proclaimed superstar, the British-Napelese climber Nims Purja and his team.  They are attempting to summit all 8000-ers in record time, with helicopter assists to the various base camps. But as they are climbing with oxygen they can do so fast.  

They decide to use Snorri's fixed ropes but will lay them further up, and will let Snorri and the Sadparas climb with them. Or will they?  Nope!  Instead we get a racially-motivated double-cross where the Nepalese decide to make the first summit alone.  Now, I know that there's a lot of resentment that Sherpa achievements have been under-played for decades, but this is still a nasty and morally shocking move, made all the worse from the fact their racist motivation is captured on film.

Then, to add insult to injury, Snorri and the Sadparas lose their second window to a commercial mountaineering expedition organised by Seven Summits Trekking.  This seems to exemplify everything wrong with modern mountaineering.  Pay to play mountaineers with scant experience and respect for the mountain coupled with a (perhaps literally) criminally poor logistical operation.  One of the many haunting moments in this doc is when mountaineers reach Camp 3 expecting to find tents and radio back to base camp when there are none, only to have the Dutch SST representative tell them that he thought tents would have been left behind by Nims' team.  Right. Like they would still be on the mountain after weeks of 150 mph gales. 

So Snorri and the Sadparas finally use a very tight window to make their attempt. It ends in tragedy with Snorri and Ali Sadpara dead on the mountain, alongside two other victims in that season.  The final 20 minutes of this film, where we hear the son coolly describe why there is no hope for his dad, and then go on to recover and bury his body, and when we see the two widows forgive their husbands, is just the most devastating thing.

This is a tremendous doc for clearly laying all the things that went wrong and will go wrong when you combine vengeful ambition, avarice and incompetence in the high mountains. But it's also a testament to genuine friendship and familial love.  Do watch it.

THE LAST FIRST: WINTER K2 is rated 15 and has a running time of 1hr 38m. It played Sundance 2026 and is now on release on Apple TV.