The Last First: Winter K2 review, race up second highest mountain reveals fatal cost of regrettable traits

Amir Bar-Lev’s doc covering competing climbers trying to achieve something that has not been done before uncovers a fascinating tapestry of ambition and folly

D uring the Covid pandemic in 2021, a “last first” in mountaineering was achieved: the forbidding K2 mountain was scaled in winter for the first time. Amir Bar-Lev’s mountain-climbing doc tells the story of the competing climbers simultaneously hoping to reach the summit, several of whom do not survive the attempt. Far from being the straightforward survival-against-the-odds account that you might expect, this is a microcosm of some of humanity’s more regrettable traits, which rub up alongside each other in fascinatingly thorny ways.

To take just one example: the Nepalese push for the summit comes at the cost of sacrificing the chummy camaraderie among the international climbers; but then again, Nepal is a nation rich in indigenous mountaineering expertise that has been relegated for decades to the role of humble assistant in a series of records set by foreigners. On the other hand, did all the climbers in the Nepalese team get equal credit, or was the lion’s share of the glory allotted to Nirmal Purja, AKA Nims , the Nepalese social media rock star who spoke fluent English and knew how to craft a headline-worthy soundbite? (In a further strange twist, Nims was killed in an avalanche this year in between the film’s world premiere at Sundance and wider release.) Did Nims’ record disrupt old patterns of privilege, subtly reinforce them in new ways, or both?

This is just one thread in a tapestry of human ambition and folly. The starkly indifferent environment of the mountain makes for a sharp counterpoint to such concerns. K2 doesn’t know or care about national pride, commercial imperatives, underdog narratives, or what a person’s life might mean to those they leave behind. Even at base camp, temperatures on K2 in the winter can fall to -40C. Tents are torn from the ground like wings from a fly by gale-force winds. Bar-Lev’s film balances compassion for the surviving relatives of those who lose their lives with a clear-eyed view of the realities of nature. It’s a salutary lesson in the climate-change era, when a small percentage of humanity is taking a risky gamble, betting that human ingenuity will win out against physics.