Matt
Matt is a big documentary fan generally, and this one tells the story of the 2021 winter K2 summit attempts, essentially three competing groups chasing the same first: an Icelandic climber and his Pakistani partner, Nims's Nepalese team, and a larger, less experienced group organized by Seven Summit Trek that got swept up in the permit frenzy of the COVID years. He read it as a study in knowing when to push your limits and when to turn back, in the vein of Into Thin Air. He came away torn on Nims specifically: the documentary highlights his ruthlessness in wanting Nepal to get credit for the summit, but also dispels some of the rumors about him blocking other climbers or cutting ropes. He thought the film did a good job showing both the dangers of K2 and the good and bad decisions these climbers made under pressure. Four out of five.
Jeff
Jeff went in with a casual awareness of K2's deadly reputation and came out of it fascinated. Two details stuck with him: thirteen of the mountain's last fourteen deaths happened at a single stretch called the bottleneck, and at the start of each season someone, usually a Sherpa, has to free-climb that stretch to lay fresh ropes before anyone else can cross. He also dug into the complexity of Nims, who he'd followed on Instagram for years: an incredible mountaineer who took real risks for fame and glory, while the Sherpas who did the hardest, least visible work of laying ropes got a fraction of the recognition. He also pointed out that the inexperienced climbers in the Seven Summit Trek group weren't even carrying their own gear, which became part of what went wrong. Four out of five, an enjoyable watch.