This review contains spoilers for “Everest: The Other Side”
One of the very first things you see in “Everest: The Other Side,” is a shot of the titular mountain. And in Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s film, every shot of Everest is as majestic as you might expect. It’s an incredible sight – something most people won’t ever get to see up close and personal.
Jim Morrison, a mountaineer and backcountry skier, is one of the people who has gotten the chance to experience Everest. He, along with his partner and fellow adventurer Hilaree Nelson, are the subjects of “Everest: The Other Side,” which documents the couple’s attempt to climb and then ski down the north side of the mountain – something that had never been done before.
It’s a little impossible to talk in depth about “Everest: The Other Side” without talking about its inciting incident, which is also its most shocking. Tragically, Morrison and Nelson’s journey to achieve this historic feat together ended in 2022 after Nelson died in an avalanche while skiing with Morrison from the summit of Mansalu in Nepal.
This tragedy happens early on in the film, and shifts “Everest: The Other Side” from a film about trying to achieve the impossible to one about grief – and still, trying to achieve the impossible. In the wake of Nelson’s death, Morrison becomes determined to finish what they started in her name – and we the audience are left to wonder if his resolve is admirable, or if he is too blinded by his own sadness to think straight. At its best, “Everest: The Other Side” attempts to understand with as much empathy as possible what could push someone to the extremes that Morrison goes to – what could make someone feel as though the only way to make sense of the world is to risk life and limb. It’s a remarkably emotional and riveting experience – but one that doesn’t always reckon with the ethical quandaries that it raises.
Right before Nelson’s death happens in the film (the moment where she goes down with the avalanche was captured on camera, and is included), she gives a candid interview about the fact that she could very easily die, leaving her two sons (who feature in the film) without their mom. This moment, paired with the shocking quickness of the avalanche footage, is one of the most jarring sequences in the movie – something I’ve never quite seen in a documentary before, but also something I feel quite queasy about now that I have seen it. The avalanche, in particular, is horrifying – the kind of shot that makes you think, “She must be alive, because there’s no way they would have shown me this if she died.”
In the immediate aftermath of Nelson’s death, Morrison’s grief is unbearable, and the combination of these two moments are just a few of the scenes in “Everest: The Other Side” that feel like an intrusion, like something we shouldn’t be seeing. Chin and Vasarhelyi were longtime friends with Morrison and Nelson, which might account for some of the intimacy and closeness in these moments – but even knowing that, there is a depth to the pain on screen that feels uncomfortable.
It’s at this moment that Chin in particular becomes a character in the film, taking on the role of Morrison’s partner for the Everest climb – something he still intends to do, despite Nelson’s death. It’s also here that you start to see Chin and various members of the crew reckon with the dilemma that Nelson put forward earlier in the film – how do you put your life on the line when that could easily mean leaving your loved ones behind? Chin’s daughter voices her displeasure at her father missing her birthday, unaware that there’s a possibility he might not come home at all. Later, he calls her on her first day of school, moments after he and the rest of the climbing crew learn that someone has suffered a terrible injury. As he tries to keep the conversation light, you can hear the tightness in his voice, see the lack of sleep and fear on his face.
It’s reckoning with this question – the “why?” of it all – where “Everest: The Other Side” is at its strongest. Morrison is a fascinating guy, amiable but intense, and someone who, even before Nelson’s death, had suffered an unimaginable amount of tragedy. When talking about that tragedy in the film, Morrison recalls a moment where he was curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor, unable to see the point of going on with life. Eventually, he forced himself to walk outside and up the hill of his driveway – a miraculous physical feat, considering the state of him.
Climbing Mount Everest represents the driveway story on a much larger, more dangerous scale. Watching “Everest: The Other Side,” you’re watching a man process his grief through the very thing that led him toward it. On some level, he knows the dangers of his career, just as Nelson did. And yet, despite how close a mountaineer is to death at any given moment, he cannot make sense of the fact that she is gone. And the only way he knows to try and make sense of it is to throw himself back into chaos – to try and tame the thing that took her away, to try and control something fundamentally uncontrollable in order to feel closer to her.
Morrison – and many of the other crew members who share their stories – are stuck in this cycle. And, despite the fact that almost none of you reading this will ever attempt to climb and then ski Mount Everest, there is something undeniably relatable about that. And watching Morrison wrestle with that while he attempts this inconceivable physical feat is undeniably riveting. And yet, there was a nagging itch at the back of my mind that I’m not sure the film quite knows how to reckon with – the fact that this particular coping mechanism is one that requires multiple people to put their lives on the line. He can’t do this by himself.
The majority of the climbing team are Sherpas, who are tasked with the more difficult and dangerous parts of the trek (there is a moment where the group talks about how often these guys have made the climb up Everest, which really makes you think about who we choose to celebrate for that achievement and who we ignore). This is a livelihood for these men, and I appreciate the time the film spends on them and their families, particularly Yutka, who becomes a key member of the summit team.
But, the movie doesn’t seem to really want to confront the more exploitative aspects of this practice. What Morrison is asking them to do is far more dangerous than taking the more traveled path up to Everest’s peak. After an injury rattles the crew, many of the Sherpas grow concerned about Morrison’s unwavering determination in the face of great risk, and some of them leave. This attempt to climb Everest (it takes Morrison a few tries) is framed as a failure, rather than the right, safe choice.
While I’m glad the filmmakers decided to leave this moment in, as “Everest: The Other Side” goes on, the film seems less interested in reckoning with the thorny ethical and societal concerns it raises, preferring to focus on Morrison’s personal journey. While that’s certainly affecting, it’s hard to forget everything in the background.
