Best Alpine and Mountaineering Films

Renan Ozturk on Everest in 2019 during the search for Sandy Irvine's body, shooting the expedition and questioning why he is there. It shows the traffic on the Northeast Ridge, the ladder on the Second Step, and a summit push made while barely able to breathe, with the 1924 mystery underneath all of it. Watch it if you want Everest as it is now, from a cinematographer who doubts the whole enterprise. It opens the list because it is the film I would pick if you only watch one.

Jeff Lowe's solo winter line on the Eiger north face, nine days in early 1991, and the life that led to it, in seventy-eight minutes. It shows the route unrepeated for 25 years, the ideas about style that made it, and the illness that took Lowe's abilities afterward, with Conrad Anker and Catherine Destivelle for context. Watch it if you want to understand where modern alpinism's idea of commitment came from. After Everest's crowds this is one man alone on the most serious face in the Alps.

Six weeks in eastern Greenland: an ice cap traverse, a glaciologist's fieldwork, and the first ascent of a 4,000-foot sea wall by Honnold and Hazel Findlay on August 16, 2022. It shows loose lower rock, runout 5.11, and Heidi Sevestre's measurements on the ice around them. Watch it if you want the whole expedition rather than the wall. It follows Metanoia as the second long film here, and the one where the mountain is a platform for something besides climbing.

The middle episode on its own, with the ice fall and the first traverse of the Renland Ice Cap. It shows the part of a big expedition that films usually cut, straight polar travel with objective hazard arriving without warning. Watch it only if you have seen the full run and want to sit with the walking. It sits right after the Mega Episode as its own slowest hour, and it is the least climbing on the list.

Tobias Suter and Cédric Lachat on Odyssee, 1,400 meters of 8a+ on the Eiger north face, in an eleven-minute raw edit from Guillaume Broust. It shows the water-streaked crux pitch on the Rote Fluh and the rope work of a roped team repeating Roger Schäli's 2015 line. Watch it if you want the Eiger as hard rock rather than as history. After two Greenland episodes it brings the list back to the Alps and to pure climbing.

Lachat across the Eiger, Gastlosen, Wendenstöcke, Lauterbrunnen and the Rätikon, with the people who opened the routes: Kammerlander, Remy, Schaeli, Siegrist. It shows how Swiss climbing moved from mountaineering to hard multi-pitch, with the first ascensionists explaining the change. Watch it if the Odyssee raw edit left you wanting the story around it. This is the feature that edit was cut from, and the two belong together.

Edu Marín with his brother and father on Nameless Tower above the Baltoro Glacier, making the second free ascent of Eternal Flame, in a compact Karakoram field report from Broust. It shows hauling, bivies on the tower and fixed lines, with Alexander and Thomas Huber on the route's history. Watch it if you want a high-altitude big wall done as a family. After Switzerland it is the first film here at real altitude, and the only one in the Karakoram.

Jesse Huey, Matt Segal and Quentin Roberts return over several winters to one mixed line on the Diamond of Longs Peak in Colorado. It shows ice tools and rock moves in alpine winter, approach storms, bivies, and repeated physical collapse before the free ascent. Watch it if you want the cold version of commitment, with no grade published for the line. It follows Trango as the second film about a multi-season objective, and the one closest to home for American climbers.

Marc-Andre Leclerc and Brette Harrington make two first ascents on Great Sail Peak, Baffin Island, in August 2016, in sixteen minutes. It shows granite rising out of empty country, ice, and a partnership of equals, with a dedication to Leclerc, who died in 2018. Watch it if you know Leclerc from The Alpinist and want him with a partner. After the Diamond it is the first Arctic film in the second half of the list, and the tightest.

Emily Harrington, Brette Harrington, Christina Lusti and Hilaree Nelson climb and ski first descents in the Canadian Arctic in spring 2022, in a film that became a memorial to Nelson in the edit. It shows big Baffin walls and untouched ski lines, with the friendship between the four as the weight. Watch it if you want an expedition film about a group rather than a summit. It follows Baffin as Brette Harrington's return to the island, and the two losses sit side by side.

A 4,000-foot wall in a remote valley in western China, found and climbed by the Belgian crew in September 2013 over fourteen days on Kyzyl Asker, a mountain above 19,000 feet. It shows the crew's formula pushed into real alpine terrain, with weather that makes them pay and humor that keeps it watchable. Watch it if you like Villanueva and Favresse and want to see them scared. After Earthside's grief it is the funniest film on the list, and still a serious ascent.

Mount Asgard on Baffin Island with Sean Villanueva, the Favresse brothers, Stephane Hanssens and Silvia Vidal: 45 days out, 600 kilometers on foot, eleven days on the wall. It shows the approach as the subject, walking that far to climb one wall, with instruments along. Watch it if you want to understand what an expedition costs in days rather than pitches. It follows China Jam as the same crew's other alpine film, and the one about moving rather than waiting.

Magnus Midtbø's single-day solo alpine push, honest about being out of his element, with the peak unnamed in the video. It shows a strong rock climber assessing conditions, adapting on exposed ground, and deciding when to continue with no partner. Watch it if you have wondered what it feels like to try alpine soloing as a visitor. It closes the list because it is the least expert film here, and the most candid about that.