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It’s basically spring but still feels like winter. There’s a land war in Europe. There’s been a pandemic for two years, and most experts believe it’s still going on. If you’re anything like us, a certain amount of distraction is in order.
So if you’re looking for a way to hide while also enriching your knowledge of climbing lore or perpetuating your psyche or just watching Hollywood get climbing incredibly wrong, consider some of these climbing movies available on popular streaming services.
Note: This list will be updated as new films are added and removed. Each of these services requires its own paid subscription.
This article is free. Please support us with a membership and you’ll receive Climbing in print, plus our annual special edition of Ascent and unlimited online access to thousands of ad-free stories.
Prime Video has the largest selection of climbing movies listed here—though it’s closely rivaled by Outside Watch when ranked by free-for-members content. This 14-film list is not conclusive.
Description: Three 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. Meru is the story of that journey, an expedition through nature’s harshest elements and one’s complicated inner demons, and ultimately on to impossible new heights.
Editor’s Note: Meru is a recent classic. It’s not to be missed.
Watch Meru on Amazon Prime
Description: In the shady campgrounds of Yosemite valley, climbers carved out a counterculture lifestyle of dumpster-diving and wild parties that clashed with the conservative values of the National Park Service. And up on the walls, generation after generation has pushed the limits of climbing, vying amongst each other for supremacy on Yosemite’s cliffs. Valley Uprising is the riveting, unforgettable tale of this bold rock climbing tradition in Yosemite National Park: half a century of struggle against the laws of gravity and society.
Watch Valley Uprising on Amazon Prime
Description: Hailed as one of the most prolific, influential climbers of all time, Fred Beckey’s adventures began in Washington’s North Cascade range with his brother Helmy in the 1930s. In 1942, the Beckey brothers cemented their place in alpine lore when the teenagers survived an incredible second ascent of Mount Waddington—considered the most difficult climb in North America at the time. This success marked the beginning of Fred’s epic tear of first ascents around the world, during which he became the consummate “Dirtbag” climber: defined as one who forgoes material comforts and defies societal norms in pursuit of a nomadic mountaineering lifestyle. Director Dave O’Leske spent the past decade filming Fred Beckey with unprecedented access, getting to know the mythical man in the mountains of China, across North America and in his Pacific Northwest home.
Watch Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey on Amazon Prime
Description: In January 2015, American rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson captivated the world with their effort to climb The Dawn Wall, a seemingly impossible 3,000-foot rock face in Yosemite National Park, California.
The pair lived on the sheer vertical cliff for weeks, igniting a frenzy of global media attention.
But for Tommy Caldwell, The Dawn Wall was much more than just a climb. It was the culmination of a lifetime defined by overcoming obstacles. At the age of 22, the climbing prodigy was taken hostage by rebels in Kyrgyzstan. Shortly after, he lost his index finger in an accident but resolved to come back stronger. When his marriage fell apart, he escaped the pain by fixating on the extraordinary goal of free climbing The Dawn Wall.
Blurring the line between dedication and obsession, Caldwell and his partner Jorgeson spend six years meticulously plotting and practicing their route. On the final attempt, with the world watching, Caldwell is faced with a moment of truth. Should he abandon his partner to fulfill his ultimate dream, or risk his own success for the sake of their friendship?
Editor’s note: The Dawn Wall ascent was likely the biggest mainstream climbing news story until Alex Honnold’s free solo of El Capitan. We loved the film for portraying Caldwell and Jorgeson’s story honestly and accurately, and without sensationalizing the climbing for a mainstream audience. Want more Dawn Wall coverage? Read our feature about Adam Ondra’s repeat of the route.
Price: Free with a premium subscription. $2.99 for mere mortals.
Watch The Dawn Wall on Amazon Prime
Description: It’s not about adrenaline or thrill seeking. There is something far deeper that drives the world’s most elite group of mountain adventurers to take life threatening risks. For nearly three years, director Dina Khreino interviewed these world-class athletes, listening to what compels them to leave behind families, friends, and everyday comforts, to risk everything for a fleeting glimpse into the unknown.
Editor’s note: While Fine Lines does not contain new climbing footage, it’s an interesting look into the philosophies of some of the top names in our sport.
Watch Fine Lines (with ads) on Amazon Prime
Description: Bret takes an inexperienced climber, Rose, on a big route in the High Sierras, but then Bret falls and gets injured. With no way to retreat off the wall, the only way down is up and their fate is in Rose’s hands. It’s climb or die.
Editor’s note: Gripped garnered attention from the climbing community for it’s so-bad-it’s-good trailer prior to release. It’s best enjoyed in a watch party or with a group of friends who are looking to laugh.
Watch Gripped: Climbing the Killer Pillar on Amazon Prime
Description: Shivaay, the father of a young girl who went missing from the streets of Bulgaria, defies all odds and exposes the child trafficking mafia. But will his efforts help him find his own daughter who is being forced into the horrific trade? How will a mountaineer from the foothills of the Himalayas fight against the powerful Russian mafia, in the quest to rescue his beloved daughter?
Editor’s note: Shivaay’s opening scene, in which the protagonist jumps off a cliff, only to catch himself on a pair of ice tools—in jeans, no less—went viral among the climbing community in 2017, joining the pantheon of Vertical Limit and Cliffhanger in the pantheon of ridiculous climbing movies.
(English subtitles)
Watch Shivaay on Amazon Prime
Description: The climber Joe Simpson was 25 when he had an accident that nearly killed him. He wrote a book—Touching the Void—about his extraordinary battle to survive. Now he is going back to the mountain that first inspired him to climb. To tell a story that has haunted him since he was a boy.
Watch The Beckoning Silence on Amazon Prime
Description: Sir Edmund Hillary was a bee-keeper, mountaineer, war veteran, explorer, philanthropist, husband, father, and the first person to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest. From his childhood in South Auckland, New Zealand, to the plane crash that killed his wife and daughter, this intriguing drama portrays the life, loves, and losses of one of the most famous explorers of all time. (Note: This is a multi-part drama series, not a documentary.)
Watch Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond on Amazon Prime
Description: When mountaineer, Mark Whetu, summited Mt. Everest with climbing partner and friend Mike Reinberger it was late in the day and after a freezing night camping on the summit of the worlds highest mountain, Whetu was faced with a terrible decision: to leave Reinberger or stay with him on the mountain forever.
Watch The Fatal Game on Amazon Prime
Published: 1971
Description: In the past five decades, nearly 10,000 men and women have tried to climb Mount Everest. Less than 500 have succeeded. Those that do are granted new views of the world and of themselves. But for every 60 climbers that leave base camp in an average season, only four will reach the summit… and two will die. Why is it that so few make it to the top? The answer lies in a struggle with the elements.
Watch The Dark Side of Everest (free with ads) on Amazon Prime
Description: The real-life tragic story of a Mount Everest climbing expedition in which eight people lost their lives. Based on the #1 best-selling book Into Thin Air by John Krakauer.
Watch Into Thin Air: Death on Everest on Amazon Prime
Description: The true story of the youngest girl in history to climb Mt Everest: a 13 year old tribal girl and her astonishing journey from a village in Telangana to the top of the world
Watch Poorna on Amazon Prime
Description: The Climbers is a cinematic retelling of the first Chinese climbers to summit Mount Everest. The perilous journey takes its toll on the mountaineers forcing them to make life or death decisions at every turn.
(English subtitles)
Watch The Climbers on Amazon Prime
Outside Watch is a new player in the outdoor film game and (so exciting) they’ve got a ton of re-edited and extended-cut Reel Rock content… 39 episodes of it, to be precise, plus a few more climbing films. We’re not going to list all the content (it would take too long and this page would never load) but we’ll list some of our favorites, even if it means overlooking the classics of our youth (King Lines, we’re looking at you).
Editor’s Note: Access to Outside Watch is free for all Outside+ members.
Description: Part 1: Follow Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright on an ambitious human-powered adventure to summit all of California’s 14,000-foot peaks via technical climbing routes, with no ropes! New to the sport of biking, and having underestimated the scope of the challenge, Alex and Cedar soon spiral down a rabbit hole of sunburn, suffering, and a seemingly endless test of their mental and physical endurance.
Part 2: Any terrible idea is worth repeating… especially if like Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright you have a terrible memory and seem to remember your last “Sufferfest” as not that bad! Follow Cedar and Alex up a hilarious and endearing journey to climb 45 of the most iconic towers in the four corners of the U.S. by bike.
Editor’s Note: Absolutely hysterical, must watch, lore.
Watch Sufferfest on Outside Watch
Description: Presented by Moon Climbing: Climber David Fitzgerald is on a mission to climb two V15 boulder problems, Bügeleisen Sit Start and Big Paw, in Blocbuster, from Puzzleglass films.
Editor’s note: An aesthetic and contemplative film about the process of working limit projects.
Watch Blocbuster on Outside watch
Description: Reel Rock has done something interesting here: they’ve taken their original profile of Daniel Wood’s long journey toward The Process (V16) and made it a profile of a whole type of climbing: Highball bouldering. The film features everyone from John Sherman to Jason Kehl, Jimmy Webb to Nalle Hukketaival to Daniel Woods
Watch High and Mighty on Outside Watch
Description: Rising star Brette Harrington is on a global journey to push the limits of women’s climbing. Her quest takes her from Canada down to the big-wall proving-ground of El Capitan, Yosemite, USA and on to a free solo in the wild peaks of Patagonia.
Watch Brette on Outside Watch
Description: Follow American climber Margo Hayes on her quest to make history and become the first woman to ascend two of the most revered climbs in the world La Rambla in Spain and Biographie in France. Both 5.15a.
Watch Break on Through on Outside Watch
Description: Will Stanhope and Matt Segal are elite-level crack climbers and world-class goofballs on a mission to climb the hardest alpine crack climb in the world. Their epic, four-year battle in the Canadian alpine wilderness of the Bugaboos is filled with bloody fingers, belly laughs and a little too much whiskey.
Watch Boys in the Bugs on Outside Watch
Description: Every so often an athlete comes along who redefines their sport. Adam Ondra, the 25-year-old Czech crusher, is exploring a new realm of human potential in climbing. Since he was a pre-teen prodigy, Adam has broken rock climbing records across nearly all of its disciplines. Watch him as he tries to establish the world’s first 5.15d and make the world’s first ever flash of a 5.15a.
Watch Age of Ondra on Outside Watch
Netflix has come up in the world of climbing films. When we first started composing this list, they had only Dawn Wall. Now, they don’t have that, but they’ve got three of the best climbing films released in the last year.
Description: In The Alpinist, directors Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen tell the life story of Leclerc, the late Canadian alpinist hailed by just about everyone as the one pushing the sport’s razor edge. Which he did. It wasn’t lost on the producers that this film, which will go big, is arguably the opening and closing of Leclerc’s entrance into the limelight. That’s undeniably a heavy burden. In 2018 Leclerc died in an avalanche alongside Ryan Johnson, after making the first ascent of a new route in Alaska’s Mendenhall Towers. Leclerc was 25 years old.
From our review: “If Free Solo was about obsession, the Dawn Wall about depression and triumph, then The Alpinist is about falling in love… with mountains.” Read our full review here
Watch The Alpinist on Netflix
Description: Before Nirmal “Nims” Purja came along, the fastest known completion of all 14 8,000-meter peaks was seven years, 10 months, and six days—a record established by South Korea’s Kim Chang-ho without supplemental oxygen in 2013. After Nims Purja, the record is six months and six days—a time that even with oxygen (which Purja used) is going to be hard to beat. 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible, directed by Torquil Jones and executive produced by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (of Free Solo fame), chronicles Purja’s blitz across the Himalaya, which he called “Project Possible 14/7,” while also contextualizing his accomplishments in the wider story of his life.
Read our interview with Nims Purja here.
Watch 14 Peaks on Netflix
Description: Based on Jiro Taniguchi’s popular manga, which was in turn based on a novel by Baku Yumemakura, The Summit of the Gods is somewhat unique for an anime. While all its characters are Japanese, the animation was a French production and the dialogue is in French. The frame narrative, set in the early 1990s, follows the journalist Fukamachi Makoto’s hunt for George Mallory’s camera. The camera could prove whether the English mountaineer reached Everest’s summit on his ill-fated 1924 climb before dying, meaning the highest point on earth was reached nearly 30 years earlier than previously believed. (Note: The events in the film occur before Mallory’s body was discovered, without his camera, in 1999.)
Our reviewer: The Summit of the Gods also showcases the struggles of a modern climbing journalist who searches for meaningful stories in a world full of contrived “firsts.” It covers the classic climbing relationship: a driven, skilled (and somewhat reckless) climber paired with a slightly less motivated, more risk-conscious one. It depicts the lengths (and risks) that competition and rivalry can catalyze in climbers. I couldn’t help but look at the subtle rivalry between Habu and his contemporary, Hase Tsuneo, another soloist, and see figures like Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold, or Alex Honnold and Dean Potter.
Watch The Summit of the Gods on Netflix
Description: (Comedy/adventure) A young Senegalese-French man from humble roots sets out to climb Mount Everest to impress the woman he loves—and slowly becomes a media sensation. This film is based on the real-life story of Nadir Dendoune.
(English subtitles)
Watch The Climb on Netflix
Disney’s new relationship with National Geographic has breathed some high altitude air into the platform’s formerly meager climbing inventory. Now, in addition to Free Solo, the platform hosts some of the most acclaimed climbing films of recent memory, including Max Lowe’s Torn.
Description: Free solo climber Alex Honnold prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: scaling the 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without a rope.
Editor’s note: It’s certainly the most famous climbing film ever made… and, despite crusty detractors, some of our editorial staff still thinks it might be the best.
Watch Free Solo on Disney Plus
Description: When Alex Lowe, one of America’s most celebrated alpinists, died with fellow climber and cameraman David Bridges in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999, he left a wife and three kids behind. In the weeks and months following Lowe’s death, his friend and climbing partner, Conrad Anker, who had narrowly survived the very avalanche in which Lowe disappeared, gradually stepped into Lowe’s shoes, marrying his widow, Jennifer, adopting his sons, Max, Isaac, and Sam, and striving to strike that balance between family and climbing that Alex Lowe had, up to the day of his death, been struggling to achieve.
Directed by Alex Lowe’s oldest son, Max, a new National Geographic documentary tells the story of Alex’s absence. “Torn,” which won Best Feature Film at the 2021 Banff Film Festival, is at once an homage to Alex Lowe—the climber, the father, the husband, and the friend—and a celebration of the family that survives him.
Editor’s note: Torn is less of a climbing film than a film about the things most climbers prefer not to think about: the strange and haunted space that a death in the mountains leaves behind. As our reviewer put it: “It’s a powerful meditation on what Conrad Anker calls ‘the value proposition of risk,’ yet it’s also an honest portrait of how death in the mountains ends up defining the people who live on in that death’s shadows.”
Read our interview with Max Lowe and Conrad Anchor
Watch Torn on Disney+
Description: Lost on Everest shines light on what happened to Sandy Irvine and George Mallory on their fateful Everest bid in 1924. Led by climbing author and journalist Mark Synott (author of a really great book called The Impossible Climb) and National Geographic photographer Renan Ozturk, the team tries to retrace Mallory and Irvine’s steps and, if possible, get ahold of Mallory’s lost camera.
Watch Lost on Everest on Disney+
Hulu, alas, only has only one (quasi-real) climbing film at the moment. So if you just picked up a Hulu account so that you can watch, well, whatever you picked it up to watch, be sure to check out Fine Lines while you’re there.
Description: It’s not about adrenaline or thrill seeking. There is something far deeper that drives the world’s most elite group of mountain adventurers to take life threatening risks. For nearly three years, director Dina Khreino interviewed these world-class athletes, listening to what compels them to leave behind families, friends, and everyday comforts, to risk everything for a fleeting glimpse into the unknown.
Editor’s note: While Fine Lines does not contain new climbing footage, it’s an interesting look into the philosophies of some of the top names in our sport.
Watch Fine Lines on Hulu
Description: When British alpinist Alison Hargreaves died on K2 (8,611 meters) in 1995, her son Tom was only 6 years old. A quarter of a century later, Tom perished during an attempt on Nanga Parbat (8,126 meters), scarcely more than a hundred miles away. It was a twisted coincidence that only the inscrutable machinations of nature could whip up. Their deaths left behind a father/husband (Jim Ballard) and a daughter/sister (Kate Ballard). The Last Mountain, a new BBC documentary from director Chris Terrill, examines the void the two climbers formed in their wake.
Our Reviewer: Current and archival footage is wielded without chronology, creating a sense of intimacy and timelessness that isn’t often found in similar climbing documentaries. This isn’t a film that was made at one point in time, it’s a tome of footage compiled over a lifetime. Watching The Last Mountain truly feels like following every step of the Hargreaves-Ballard journey in real-time, and that makes it worth a viewing.
Unfortunately, where the film falls short is covering Ballard’s relationship with his late climbing partner, Daniele Nardi, who perished alongside him on the Spur.
Read our full review
Price: $5.99
Watch The Last Mountain on Amazon Prime
Description: Based on a true story, North Face is a suspenseful adventure film about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps: the Eiger North Face. Set in 1936, as Nazi propaganda urges the nation’s Alpinists to conquer the unclimbed north face of the Eiger, the film follows two reluctant German climbers, Toni Kurz and Andi Hinterstoisser on their fateful climb.
(English subtitles)
Editor’s note: This film is amazing: climbing fiction at its finest. Watch it.
Price: $2.99
Watch North Face on Amazon Prime
Description: A former CIA assassin, now a college professor, (played by Clint Eastwood) comes out of retirement to avenge the death of a colleague and recover stolen chemical warfare secrets. He does this on the North Face of the Eiger, of all place.
Editor’s note: Another classic, if mostly because it got so much wrong and because a young John Krakauer criticizes the film in his great collection Eiger Dreams.
Price: $3.99
Description: In July of 2011 42 year old Ammon and Kait his 22 year old his girlfriend set out to climb the never repeated route of Wings of Steel on Yosemite s El Capitan Wings sat unclimbed since the first ascent in 1982 Shrouded in controversy and with a bounty waiting for the second ascent team there seemed to be no better person to climb it than Ammon But was Kait the best choice for a partner This climb would test of their ability and their relationship The story of Wings of Steel is part legend and part myth The first ascent team spent 39 days climbing the controversial route The result death threats physical assaults and a slander campaign that polarized the Yosemite climbing community for over 30 years Combined with footage shot during their ascent and told through interviews with the first ascent team their detractors climbing historians and Ammon and Kait the truth about the most controversial climb in Yosemite history is finally told.
Editor’s note: The story behind the first ascent of Wings of Steel is crazy, and the story of Ammon McNeely’s repeat of the route is crazy for completely different reasons. This film, covering a lesser known—and even shameful—piece of Yosemite climbing history is well worth a watch.
Price: $0.99
Watch Assault on El Capitan on Amazon Prime
Description: This film follows the legendary climbing photographer and Stone Master, Dean Fidelman. Fidelman was at the forefront of the free climbing revolution in Yosemite Valley and Joshua Tree during the 1970s, making photographs with John Bachar, Lynn Hill, Ron Kauk, John Long, and many other talented climbers. Over the past four decades, Fidelman has continued to document the evolution of rock climbing as a sport and culture. This documentary takes a look at his impact and influence as a photographer and climber.
Watch The Rapture of Free Soloing on Acid on Amazon Prime
Description: In 1970s America, the legends of free climbing start out as young outcasts who didn’t want any part of a respectable American dream. They wanted to create a world for themselves where the ultimate self-expression was a climb to nowhere. Up was down, poor was rich, and what everyone else found meaningless was worth dying for.
Watch Wild New Brave on Amazon Prime
Description: Four young climbers dream of climbing the Lotus Flower Tower, a legendary big wall in the Cirque of the Unclimbables in the furthest outreaches of Northern Canada. To reach their 800-meter wall, however, they first have to raft 550 km of the Nahanni river.
(English subtitles)
Price: $2.99
Rent The Nahanni Whisperer on Amazon Prime
Description: What does it mean to “see?” Shapes and shadows? Lines and color? When his friend dies in an avalanche, artist, rock-climber and dad Jeremy Collins goes to the ends of the earth to find closure and “see” his way up four new climbs. Drawn follows the journey from death to life while Collins goes North, South, East and West enduring challenge after challenge told in his trademark hybrid style of hand crafted animation meets on the fly live action.
Watch Drawn on Amazon Prime
Description: Straight talk from Batso. His ascent of the Wall of the Early Morning Light in 1970 was doubtless the high water mark of his rock climbing career. The notoriety surrounding this climb originated partly from the 27 days Warren and his partner, Dean Caldwell, spent completing the climb. At the time it was the longest period anyone had ever spent on a rock wall.
Watch Warren Harding: Recollections of the Wall of the Early Morning Light-1970 on Amazon Prime
Description: Ice climbing in Kentucky?! This adventure documentary takes the audience for a bourbon-fueled ride deep into the bushy hollers of Appalachia with a crew of harmless misfits as they race to search out and climb new ice routes before they’re gone, with a few surprises along the way. When most folks think of Kentucky. horses and bourbon are probably the first two things that come to mind.
Watch Gone Tomorrow: The Story of Kentucky Ice Climbing on Amazon Prime
Description: The character-driven history of the art, the sport and the philosophy of rock climbing in Yosemite.
Watch Vertical Frontier on Amazon Prime
Description: In the mountains behind the sleepy coastal town of Powell River, BC, a small group of rock climbers has spent decades quietly pioneering routes on some of the largest granite walls in Canada. As the last stands of old-growth trees harbored in these valleys come under threat of logging, the climbing community faces the uncertain future of a place that has come to define their lives and legacies.
Watch On the Verge on Amazon Prime
Description: In June 2011, free-climbing legends Alexander and Thomas Huber set their sights on a treacherously steep route in the Tyrolean Alps: the south wall of the Loferer Alm on the fabled Karma route. A new project was born.
Watch The Huber Brothers: Life On The Edge on Amazon Prime
Description: Stephen J. Wampler scales El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Stephen has a severe form of Cerebral Palsy and overcomes adversity and physical challenges by doing 20,000 pull ups over 6 days to summit El Capitan.
Watch Wampler’s Ascent on Amazon Prime
Description: When he was a child Kilian Jornet, the world’s greatest ever mountain runner, made a list of all the races he wanted to win and all the mountains he dreamt of climbing. The documentary tells the story of how Kilian Jornet, the world’s greatest ever mountain runner, succeeded in completing the historic double ascent of Everest in one week, alone and without oxygen in May 2017.
(English subtitles)
Watch Kilian Jornet: Path to Everest on Amazon Prime
Description: Inspiring stories of the men and women who climb El Cap in Yosemite National Park.
Editor’s note: Read an article in Climbing by the filmmakers, What Two Filmmakers Learned Documenting Climbers on El Cap.
Watch El Cap Report on Amazon Prime
Description: High and Hallowed is the story of the greatest American Himalayan climb, Everest’s West Ridge in 1963; the film examines the lasting impact of this climb and asks if anything can, or will, ever compare in terms of sheer boldness, commitment, and adventure.
Watch High and Hallowed on Amazon Prime
Description: Leo Houlding, Jason Pickles, and Sean “Stanley” Leary go deep into the Amazon to attempt a first ascent on the magnificent Cerro Autana.
Watch Autana on Amazon Prime
Description: Jim Ewing is a veteran rock climber and senior rope engineer at a rock climbing rope company. On Christmas Day in 2014, Jim fell over 50 feet to the ground in a climbing accident, a near-death experience that led to the subsequent below-the-knee amputation of his left leg. Before walking on a prosthetic, Jim was already climbing again, and before long, he began dreaming about his bucket list.
Watch Adaptive on Amazon Prime
Description: Never before have there been so many indoor walls; so many climbers obsessed with training; so many beasts of superhuman strength. That talent is not going to waste. We follow the fearsomely strong “Blocheads” as they quest for new lines and push the limits of human ability. It’s a story of adventure, rocky passions and mutant fingers. It’s the story of a search for bouldering gold.
Watch Blocheads on Amazon Prime
Description: Shifting Dreams is the story of Caroline Ciavaldini’s move from world class competition climber to trad climber and alpinist. The film takes a look at Caroline’s early years and her intense commitment to competition climbing, her all consuming focus on winning and how the death of her mother led to her seeking changes in her life.
Watch Shifting Dreams on Amazon Prime
Description: Majlis al Jinn is a huge cave located in Oman and it’s an epic challenge for the climbers Stefan Glowacz and Chris Sharma. After a 170-meter, free-hanging descent, they climb back into the light together from the deepest point of the cave.
Price: $4.99 (Free with Ecoboom trial)
Watch Into the Light on Amazon Prime
Description: Follows Robbie Phillips, Calum Cunningham, and Alan Carne as they attempt to open a new climb, ground up, on a 700-meter big wall called Tsaranoro Atsimo in Madagascar. The walls of Tsaranoro are as wild and bold as the country, the rock beautifully carved as if by providential hand, and the story is that of a real adventure—friends taking the risks that come hand in hand with pushing boundaries.
Watch Blood Moon on Amazon Prime
Description: Set in the expansive landscape of Jordan’s distinctive national park, Wadi Rum documents the unlikely story of two Israeli climbers, an affable Bedouin Muslim, and a professional American climber as they work together to complete a climbing route up Wadi Rums’ largest rock formation.
Watch Wadi Rum on Amazon Prime
Description: Michel Piola discovered rock climbing at the Salève, a huge cliff outside Geneva that has been a training ground for a number of leading mountaineers. After 30 years of route development, he is without doubt one of the great new routers and has left a lasting impression on the world of climbing. The choice and style of his lines has made his routes extremely popular among large numbers of climbers.
Watch A Passion for New Routing on Amazon Prime
Description: Among the last unclimbed peaks on earth there stands a little-known mountain in a remote region of China. A climbing expedition makes three attempts over the span of three years to summit the 6060-meter Yangmolong Mountain. Threatened by local villagers and challenged by unpredictable weather and dangerous rock and ice falls, the climbers must decide whether to give up or commit fully to the quest.
Watch To Be First: The Quest for Yangmolong on Amazon Prime
Description: Tales of the Tatras Peaks. An extreme climbing adventure on the ridge of the Slovakian Tatra Mountains. Western, High, and Belianske Tatras. They are connected by a gorgeous, logical and long ridge line formed by more than 130 peaks and towers.
(English subtitles)
Watch Footprints on the Ridge on Amazon Prime
Description: Nine of the outstanding climbers come together in this striking documentary about the ethics, values and the very nature of climbing. The brothers Ravier, Christian Ravier, Ekaitz Maiz, Mikel Zabalza, Arkaitz Yurrita, Eneko César, and Unai Mendia will show the unknown side of climbing in the Pyrenees.
(English subtitles)
Watch The Other End of the Rope on Amazon Prime
Description: This climbing documentary analyzes the concepts of fear, death, and life. Jordi Salas (Pelón) is a free solo climber. He performs alone without using any ropes, harnesses or other protective equipment, relying entirely on his ability instead. His mind controls everything. He continues to learn throughout his progression while getting up close with life, even though it may seem paradoxical. Featuring Chris Sharma and Dani Andrada.
(English subtitles)
Watch Solo: Climbing to Live on Amazon Prime
Description: Solo BASE Follows the path of David Fusté along with his friend Turko. The pair are not just BASE Jumpers. Instead they climb without ropes, using the parachutes in their backpacks as their only form of protection. David also has much respect for nature and the animals, being vegan and living his life as part of the environment itself.
(English subtitles)
Watch Solo BASE on Amazon Prime
Description: This Oscar-winning documentary tells the story behind Japanese daredevil Yuichiro Miura’s 1970 effort to ski down the world’s tallest mountain.
Watch The Man Who Skied Down Everest on Amazon Prime
Description: Jerzy Kukuczka was the first Pole to conquer the crown of the Himalayas—all the 8,000-meter peaks. Reinhold Messner beat him only by a few days by climbing the jewels of Himalayan mountains. Poles reigned the highest mountaintops of the world for more than 20 years. Watch the legendary climbers in this fascinating feature about extreme winter climbing during the early ’80s.
(English subtitles)
Watch Art of Freedom: The Himalayas on Amazon Prime
Description: Two men. Two goals. On mountain. Hotshot mountain climbers forge an uneasy friendship. A daring rescue just earned flamboyant Derrick Williams (Jason George) the climb of a lifetime, but safety man Michael Harris (Ned Vaughn) doesn’t blaze trails and rarely takes life to the edge. The climb in the Chilean Andes escalates into a test of wills, character and sacrifice that pushes both men beyond limits.
Editor’s note: This is a Christian movie aimed at teenagers. If you’re looking for a great climbing movie, this is absolutely, positively, verifiably not it. If you’re looking for a climbing movie that isn’t great and is didactic, it might be for you.
Watch The Climb on Amazon Prime
Description: Skiing Everest (2020) is the first documentary about the small elite fraternity of high-Altitude skiers who climb the highest peaks in the world in pure Alpine Style, carrying their skis and declining to use supplemental oxygen.
Price: $3.99
Rent Skiing Everest on Amazon Prime
Description: In the late 20th century, Slovak Himalaya mountaineering experienced world successes, but also failures. Through the eyes of one generation of climbers, the two-part Addicted to Altitude documentary shows the evolution of Slovak Himalaya mountaineering from the very first expeditions to the brave attempts on the highest mountain in the world.
Price: $2.99
Rent Addicted to Altitude on Amazon Prime
Description: Follow Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and her husband Ralf Dujmovits as they try to summit the K2, Gerlinde’s last remaining peak for completion of the “Crown of the Himalayas” and see what love means above 8000 meters.
Price: $2.99
Rent Two on K2 on Amazon Prime
Description: The Summit (2013) tells the story of the deadliest day (in 2008) on the world’s most dangerous mountain, when 11 climbers mysteriously perished on K2.
Price: $3.99
Watch The Summit on Amazon Prime
Description: In 1985, two young climbers, Joe Simpson (Brendan Mackey) and Simon Yates (Nicholas Aaron), set out to be the first to reach the summit of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They succeed, and the two embark on the treacherous descent down the mountain, only to meet with disaster when Simpson breaks his leg in a fall, leaving Yates to lower him the rest of the way with ropes. When a storm threatens both their lives, Yates must decide whether to cut the rope and risk Simpson’s likely death.
Editor’s note: A classic… but read the book.
Price: $3.99
Watch Touching the Void on Amazon Prime
Description: Released in 2001. Mountaineers are dying to reach the summit of the world’s highest ‘serial killer’ – and for some climbers, no price is too high. When double amputee Mark Inglis reached the summit of Mt Everest he was plunged into a storm of controversy after it was learned he had passed an incapacitated climber, Englishman David Sharp, leaving him to a lonely death high in the death zone.
Price: $1.99
Watch Dying for Everest on Amazon Prime
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