Everest: The Other Side review

Perseverance and an undying love for life and exploration.

Seen at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. Everest: The Other Side opens in US cinemas on 30 October 2026.

The call for thrill and exploration, no matter the stakes and consequences. Everest: The Other Side shows one of the many sides of what it means to be human: the constant search for living life to its beautiful extremes despite what it might bring. It is a story of resilience and determination to fulfill dreams, which at times makes you question whether it is all worth it.

Everest: The Other Side has the late Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison at its center: two elite extreme skiers who set out to climb up Everest and ski down, not from the Nepal side that climbers usually take, but straight up the north face, on the Tibetan (Chinese) side. The other side is substantially more difficult to climb; only five expeditions had ever climbed it, the last in 1991, and that line had never been skied. We watch their journey starting in 2019. The film is co-directed by their longtime friends Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who are the directors behind the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo. As they prepare for this journey, Nelson and Morrison talk about life outside of skiing and how they balance their passion with their family life, given Nelson has two sons. Well aware of how difficult it might be for her kids, she is determined to at least try.

As they go on with their quest, the Covid pandemic gets in the way of their first attempt to climb up Everest from its north face in China, so they decide to go to Nepal nevertheless to climb and ski down from Mount Manaslu. On September 26, 2022, upon their successful climb, while skiing down from Mount Manaslu, Nelson gets caught in an avalanche and is swept down the mountainside, which is followed by a two-day search for her in heavy weather conditions on Manaslu. The realization of her death follows and it leaves this feeling in the audience of how difficult it must have been for Morrison and the directors to document this while coping with the death of a loved one. Being close friends of the couple, Vasarhelyi and Chin stop being just the people behind the camera and become part of the story themselves. Her death, coming midway through the documentary, changes the whole atmosphere from an excited couple setting out to achieve their dream to Jim Morrison left with the loss of his partner and the decision of what follows after this. And this is unfortunately not the first time Morrison has lost family: his first wife, Katie, died in 2011 alongside their two young children when the plane she was piloting crashed.

The weight of the losses around Jim Morrison fills the theater, and Morrison’s story of resilience becomes even more fascinating. Rather than being scared of the idea of trying, he has a different perspective on all this, which is inspiring and beautiful. He wants to honor Nelson by finishing what they started. He believes that this is what she would have wanted; that he does this for both of them and their shared dream. Thus, he gathers a second team to start again.

His team (and surely the audience) has some serious doubts along the way, and they, on several occasions, try to talk him into reconsidering the consequences it might bring. Morrison stands firm nevertheless and makes the first attempt with people who have made the tough decision to climb up and help him. Tension increases and the first attempt ends in failure when one of the key team members, Nepali climber Yukta Gurung, breaks his leg, and the climb becomes impossible because of the weather conditions they are left with. Morrison does not back down and goes again. The support he has along this road, not only from his friends but also from the Nepali climbers who put everything into making this happen, makes it a breathtaking watch. The second attempt ends in a cathartic triumph, captured through a truly gripping sequence of Morrison’s descent, shot in IMAX and through helmet cameras that bring the experience to the theater. And immense relief follows. For the audience, the relief carries hints of admiration and pride, but maybe also some confusion about Morrison’s resolve to take on this dangerous mission.

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin capture a majestic, six-year-long story which starts as a two-person journey and ends with one. Their close friendship with the documentary subjects adds an intimate layer to the film, and makes it an even more moving watch. Jim Morrison’s grip on life and Hilaree Nelson’s legacy, along with the two children she left behind who are part of this story even after her death, leave a lasting mark on the audience. But surely the film also leaves some wondering whether any dream is worth the grief it can leave behind for loved ones. However, for Hilaree Nelson, Jim Morrison and those like them, life is perhaps too short and too precious to hold back from what is really calling you.