A few years ago, National Geographic set out to document Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson’s ambitious plan to climb and ski Mt. Everest’s foreboding direct North Face. But during the production, tragedy struck the climbing and life partners when Nelson was killed in a 2022 avalanche on the flanks of the Himalayan peak, Manaslu.
Morrison decided to honor their plans and still ski the North Face, a feat he completed last year, linking up the Hornbein and Japanese Couloirs. National Geographic, which reported on the descent, called it the “most audacious ski run in history.”
Now, Morrison’s journey—one that’s not only about towering peaks but also grief—is coming to the screen with Everest: The Other Side. You can watch the trailer below.
The film was directed and produced by names you may recognize: Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. The filmmakers are known, in part, for Free Solo, another story about pushing to the edge that chronicled Alex Honnold’s successful attempt to climb a route on Yosemite’s famed El Capitan without ropes. It won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
For those of us sitting at home, footage from Morrison’s climb should, then, induce the same stomach-flips as Free Solo. Everest’s a busy place, but only a small number of people have ascended the foreboding route Morrison did, and no one has made it down on skis in one piece. French Snowboarder Marco Siffredi famously disappeared when he attempted to ride the Hornbein in 2002. Vasarhelyi and Chin know how to fully capture gorgeous and terrifying places like this where risk and awe commingle at the same time.
While the story of Everest: The Other Side has already been written—we know that Morrison did it—we haven’t yet gotten an inside look at the years and the decisions that led up to the descent. And, if Free Solo is anything to go by, we’ll all still be gnawing our fingernails in the theater as Morrison hop turns down the side of Mt. Everest, each bite of his ski edges holding him back from the limitless void below.
Everest: The Other Side hits theaters and IMAX® on October 30.
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