Summary
- Everest: The Other Side, by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, connects the first ski descent of Everest’s North Face with a personal story of love, grief and persistence.
Everest: The Other Side began as a film record of a seemingly impossible mountaineering objective and evolved into a story about love, loss and persistence. The documentary by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin made its world premiere out of competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.
A shared dream on the North Face
Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson set a goal no one had completed: to climb and ski Everest’s direct North Face through the exceptionally steep Hornbein Couloir. Unlike the more frequently used southeast-ridge route in Nepal, this line lies on the remote Tibetan side and has been climbed by very few mountaineers.
On October 15, 2025, Morrison completed the first ski descent of the North Face, linking the Hornbein and Japanese Couloirs. The expedition became the final act of a plan he had built with Nelson.
The tragedy that changed the film
The production changed direction after Hilaree Nelson died in 2022 while skiing down Manaslu in Nepal. The cameras had already followed the relationship, training and shared dream of the two athletes; from that point, the question became whether and how Morrison could continue alone.
The story carries additional weight because Morrison had lost his wife and their two young children in a 2011 plane crash. The filmmakers do not present the mountain as a cure, but as a place where movement, memory and the conscious choice to continue coexist with grief.
Filming above 8,000 metres
The technical challenge matched the mountaineering one. On Everest’s upper slopes, above 8,000 metres, the team could not operate like a conventional film crew. The people behind the cameras first had to be elite mountaineers, able to move, protect themselves and make decisions in extreme cold and thin air.
The North Face footage offers a rare view of Everest. The camera records not only spectacle, but also the practical decisions, fatigue, exposure and collaboration required by such a remote expedition.
The people behind the camera
The film is directed and produced by Academy Award winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the duo behind Free Solo. Directors of photography are Clair Popkin, Jimmy Chin and Christopher Murphy, while Bob Eisenhardt and Simona Ferrari edited the film.
National Geographic Documentary Films and Little Monster Films produced the project. The official Biennale listing gives a running time of 115 minutes, names the United States, China and Nepal as countries of production, and lists dialogue in English, Nepali, Sherpa, Spanish and Gurung.
The Sherpa role in the story
The directors emphasise that the Sherpa members of the expedition do not appear simply as support staff for Western mountaineers. The documentary follows a younger generation of Himalayan climbers developing their own ambitions, skills and place in the mountaineering story.
That perspective matters in a modern Everest film. The image of a historic descent is meaningful only when it also shows the collective work, local knowledge and relationships that make the expedition possible.
Venice and theatrical release
Everest: The Other Side screened in Venice Open, out of competition, on September 4, 2026. The film was also announced for the 51st Toronto International Film Festival.
National Geographic’s official trailer announces a worldwide theatrical and IMAX release on October 30, 2026. Exact cinemas and screening times will vary by market.
What we think
The mountaineering achievement is historic in its own right, but the documentary appears more interested in the cost of pursuit and in how a shared ambition changes when one person is absent. That moves the film beyond a simple record of extreme sport.
Vasarhelyi and Chin’s involvement, access to the North Face and filming by people who could genuinely operate at that altitude create strong conditions for a work in which technical imagery serves the human story.
Frequently asked questions
Which achievement does the documentary record?
The first ski descent of Everest’s North Face, completed by Jim Morrison on October 15, 2025.
Who directed Everest: The Other Side?
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the filmmakers behind the Academy Award-winning Free Solo.
How long is the film?
The official Biennale listing gives a running time of 115 minutes.
When does it open in cinemas?
National Geographic announces a worldwide theatrical and IMAX release on October 30, 2026.
