Sundance 2026 Review: THE LAST FIRST: WINTER K2 Documents an Avoidable Tragedy

Mountain climbing films thrive on disaster. Just like watching for trapeze artists to fail, we wait for the avalanches, the frayed ropes and equipment failures that presage catastrophes. The Last First: Winter K2 doesn't disappoint, offering accidents and deaths, heroes and villains.

Considered one of the most dangerous summits in the world, K2 had never been climbed in the winter before 2000. Director Amir Bar-Lev opens his documentary with footage of John Snorri Sigurjónsson, an extreme mountaineer from Iceland intent on capturing the climbing world's last signifcant "first ascent."

Snorri joins two of Pakistan's most famous climbers, the father and son team of Ali and Sajid Sadpara. They plan a months-long assault on K2, establishing a base camp and then five additional camps higher up on the mountain's shoulders.

They're in their third week, having spent a night on a camp at 6000 meters, when Himalayan climber Nims Purja arrives by helicopter. Supported by a large team of sherpas, Nims is determined to be the first ascender. Then Seven Summits Treks, a commercial hiking organization, brings in several more hikers, some not experienced in mountaineering.

Snorri and the Sadpara's have carried 700-meter ropes up to Camp 2 at 6700 meters. Snorri tentatively agrees to share the ropes with Nims. But as New Year's approaches, the Nepalese sherpas announce that they will prevent any "foreigners" from joining their ascent. (The footage of Nims and his team is shockingly indiscreet. It's amazing they agreed to be filmed.)

Snorri discovers on the day of the ascent that the Nepalese have left without him. Then a Polish cameraman shoots an accident that kills Spanish climber Sergi Mingote. Back at base camp, you can see hikers jostling each other aside to film Mingote's corpse.

Colin O'Brady, an experienced mountain cinematographer, tells Bar-Lev that was the moment everyone should have abandoned K2. But Elia Saikaly, another filmmaker, has received support from the Pakistani government to film a victorious climb by Ali Sadpara.

By now Snorri has spent two months at base camp. Weather conditions worsen by the day. Since the mountain has already been summitted, the decision to continue climbing is hard to justify.

There will be several more deaths in The Last First, as well as mind-boggling decisions from the Seven Summit Treks team, in particular European Co-Ordinator Arnold Coster. The film evokes the incredibly bad choices made in Jon Krakauer's Everest book Into Thin Air.

Thanks in part to the proliferation of cell phones, as well as the presence of several professional cinematographers, the footage in Last First is phenomenal. The majesty of the settings is ever present, as well as the danger of trying to survive in a deadly environment.

Bar-Lev directs with a steady hand, letting the participants speak for (and incriminate) themselves. Editor Joe Carey deserves special mention for tying together disparate story lines. This is not a film about triumph like Meru or Free Solo. You watch Last First with a growing sense of disbelief, trapped in a tragedy that shouldn't have happened.

The Last First: Winter K2 premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.