My top 12 favorite mountaineering documentaries and movies
The best movies and documentaries about climbing tall and snowy mountains. Sorted by my personal rating. Also, Seven Years in Tibet is rated low on this list because it doesn't have that much climbing in it.
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- DirectorKevin MacdonaldStarsSimon YatesJoe SimpsonBrendan MackeyThe true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
- DirectorBaltasar KormákurStarsJason ClarkeAng Phula SherpaThomas M. WrightOn May 10, 1996, mountain guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer combine their expedition teams for a final ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. With little warning, a storm strikes the mountain and the climbers must now battle to survive.
- DirectorJimmy ChinElizabeth Chai VasarhelyiStarsConrad AnkerGrace ChinJimmy ChinThree elite climbers struggle to find their way through obsession and loss as they attempt to climb Mount Meru, one of the most coveted prizes in the high stakes game of Himalayan big wall climbing.
- DirectorNick RyanStarsChristine BarnesHoselito BiteWalter BonattiThe story of the deadliest day on the world's most dangerous mountain, when 11 climbers mysteriously perished on K2.
- DirectorLeanne PooleyStarsChad MoffittSonam SherpaJohn WraightTenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary's monumental and historical ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953 - an event that stunned the world and defined a nation.
- DirectorFranc RoddamStarsMichael BiehnMatt CravenAnnie GrindlayA U.S. climbing team, funded by millionaire Clairborne is determined to conquer K2.
- DirectorMartin CampbellStarsScott GlennChris O'DonnellBill PaxtonA climber must rescue his sister on the peak of K2, the second highest mountain in the world .
- DirectorRenny HarlinStarsSylvester StalloneJohn LithgowMichael RookerA botched mid-air heist results in suitcases full of cash being searched for by various groups throughout the Rocky Mountains.
- DirectorJennifer PeedomStarsWayne AlexanderJohno CarrDaz CaultonThe legendary story of Australian climber Lincoln Hall, who was pronounced dead close to the summit of Mount Everest and lived to tell the tale.
- DirectorLouise OsmondStarsRoger SchäliSimon AnthamattenAndreas AbegglenAfter a mountain climber's severe injuries and near-death accident, he's told he'll never climb again. His recovery left him to confront the question: why, after coming so close to death, did he feel compelled to continue climbing?
- DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsBrad PittDavid ThewlisBD WongHeinrich Harrer, an Austrian climber, breaks out of prison and travels to the holy city of Lhasa. He is employed as an instructor to the 14th Dalai Lama and soon becomes his close confidante.
- DirectorRichard DennisonStarsWayne AlexanderClemens GerhardVolker HanischOn 15 May, 2006, double amputee Mark Inglis reached the summit of Mt Everest. It was a remarkable achievement and Inglis was feted by press and public alike. But only a few days later he was plunged into a storm of controversy when it was learned that he had passed an incapacitated climber, Englishman David Sharp, leaving him to a lonely end high in the Death Zone.
- DirectorDavid BreashearsLiesl ClarkStarsJodie FosterBecause it is there is the reason so many men and women have risked death to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on earth. NOVA follows a scientific investigation of high-altitude physiology in Everest: The Death Zone.
- StarsBob BatesFred BeckeyGeorge BellThe story of the explorers who climbed four of the world's tallest mountains, the Matterhorn, Mount McKinley (now called Denali), Mount Everest, and K2, first.
- StarsJim ConradPemba Gyalje SherpaShaunna BurkeThis critically acclaimed six-part mini-series... Shot between March and June 2004, Ultimate Survival: Everest chronicles the Everest efforts of Team Discovery, which included two Canadian climbers - producer and experienced adventure guide Ben Webster, and his girlfriend, rookie climber and PhD candidate in Sports Psychology, Shauna Burke - plus Australian Andrew Lock and Hector Ponce De Leon from Mexico, both veterans of Everest and the world's most intimidating peaks. The series also follows the treks of Annabelle Bond, a London socialite; and diabetic American climber Will Cross. The expedition's members, including the team's Nepalese Sherpa guides, were trained to act as the production team, filming the extreme physical demands, physiological changes and emotional hazards. Soaring 8,848 meters above sea level - equal to the height of 16 CN Towers placed end to end - Everest's summit is the ultimate challenge for climbers around the world.
- DirectorPhilipp StölzlStarsBenno FürmannFlorian LukasJohanna WokalekA secretary at a Berlin newspaper in 1936 gets to write about two Alpinists, as she knows them well. She later gets to report on and photograph her friends' and other Alpinists' climbs of the dangerous Swiss Eiger north face.