Eight-thousanders, frozen big walls and century-old expedition footage share this list, where harrowing survival tales sit next to quiet portraits of the guides who carry everyone else up.
1MeruThe 2015 film following Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk up the Shark's Fin of Meru in India.1000pts
2Cerro TorreThe 2013 film of David Lama's quest to free-climb Patagonia's Cerro Torre via its Compressor Route.622pts
3Beyond the EdgeA 2013 New Zealand docudrama re-creating the 1953 Hillary and Tenzing summit in 3D.551pts
414 Peaks: Nothing Is ImpossibleNetflix's 2021 film on Nirmal Purja climbing all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks in about seven months.466pts
5The Conquest of EverestThe Oscar-nominated 1953 record of Hillary and Tenzing's first ascent of Everest.466pts
6Everest (1998)The IMAX documentary filmed during the 1996 Everest season, among the highest-grossing documentaries ever.466pts
7Mountain QueenNetflix's 2024 portrait of Lhakpa Sherpa, the woman with the most Everest summits.466pts
8The Wildest DreamA 2010 film in which Conrad Anker retraces George Mallory's 1924 route on Everest.466pts
9The SummitNick Ryan's 2012 investigation of the 2008 K2 disaster in which eleven climbers died.466pts
10TornMax Lowe's 2021 film about his father Alex Lowe, killed in a 1999 avalanche on Shishapangma.466pts
11The AlpinistThe 2021 portrait of Canadian free-soloist Marc-Andre Leclerc and his remote alpine ascents.363pts
12Touching the VoidKevin Macdonald's 2003 film on Joe Simpson's near-fatal 1985 descent of Siula Grande in Peru.0pts
13SherpaJennifer Peedom's 2015 documentary on the Sherpa guides of Everest, shot during the deadly 2014 avalanche.0pts
14The Epic of EverestCaptain John Noel's official film of the 1924 British Everest expedition on which Mallory and Irvine vanished.0pts
15MountainJennifer Peedom's 2017 essay film on humanity's obsession with peaks, narrated by Willem Dafoe.0pts
16The Beckoning SilenceJoe Simpson's 2007 film revisiting the 1936 Eiger North Face tragedy.0pts
