The Summit
In August 2008, 22 climbers from several international expeditions gathered at the K2 high camp. Forty-eight hours later, 11 climbers have been killed or gone missing.
K2 is the second highest mountain in the world, located in an extension of the Himalayas in a remote region of Pakistan on the border with China. With a 25% mortality rate among climbers, it has earned its title as the world's deadliest mountain.
With all high-risk sports comes the love of the challenge, and in August 2008, 22 climbers from several international expeditions gathered at K2 high camp, the last camp before making their summit attempts. Forty-eight hours later, 11 climbers have been killed or gone missing.
The Summit, released in 2012, is a documentary film that tells the story of one of the biggest climbing accidents in recent times with documentary footage, interviews and reconstructions. Participants include Swedish climber Fredrik Sträng and some of his Norwegian colleagues.
Director Nick Ryan and writer Mark Monroe tell a harrowing tale of endurance, heroism and human psychology. Doing this at a complex and fast pace for a sport defined by very slow but steady progress leads to some confusion, probably not unlike that which the survivors may still feel about the event.
The movie is at its best when it tries to get to the bottom of what went wrong on the mountain without special effects and rather by philosophical and psychological means. This then leads to the question of why people climb such massive and beautiful mountains in the first place.
