A haunting new documentary revisiting one of mountaineering’s most devastating tragedies — the fatal 2021 winter climb of K2 that claimed the lives of legendary climbers Muhammad Ali Sadpara and John Snorri — has captured international attention after premiering at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in the United States.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, the film offers a stark and deeply personal account of one of the most dangerous seasons ever recorded on K2, the world’s second-highest mountain. The documentary explores the high-stakes race to conquer what mountaineers long considered the sport’s final unclaimed achievement — the first winter ascent of K2.
The film centres on the expedition involving Snorri and the father-son duo of Ali Sadpara and Sajid Sadpara, who set out to summit K2 during winter, when extreme cold, violent winds, and technical challenges make survival uncertain. That season proved deadly, claiming multiple lives and exposing fractures within modern mountaineering culture.
The Last First: Winter K2 chronicles the climbers’ final push toward the summit and the tragic events that followed, including the disappearance of Ali Sadpara and Snorri during their descent. Their deaths sent shockwaves through the global climbing community and reignited debate about risk, responsibility, and ethics in extreme alpinism.
Beyond the tragedy itself, the documentary examines deeper issues shaping the sport today — including the pressures of commercial expeditions, the influence of social media and influencer culture, and long-standing inequalities between climbers from the Global South and those who have traditionally dominated mountaineering narratives.
Sajid Sadpara, who survived the climb after being forced to turn back and later took part in search operations for his father, attended the film’s premiere in Park City, Utah. Addressing the audience, he shared emotional details about the expedition’s strategy and the moment his father and Snorri went missing during their descent.
Festival organisers described the film as a powerful exploration of the immense dangers of winter climbing on K2 and a meditation on the evolving identity of high-altitude mountaineering.
Bar-Lev, whose previous work includes The Tillman Story and Long Strange Trip, uses the tragedy as a lens to examine how extreme climbing has changed over time. In an interview with Deadline, he reflected on the historical context behind the expedition.
“By January 2005, all the world’s tallest mountains — the 14 peaks above 8,000 metres — had been climbed in winter, all except one,” Bar-Lev said. “That mountain was K2, in Pakistan.”
“Becoming the first to summit K2 in winter stood as mountaineering’s last great unachieved feat — ‘the last first,’” he added.
The film also documents how the original expedition was unexpectedly joined by rival climbers, film crews, and commercial clients, transforming a singular quest into a crowded and high-pressure race — with fatal consequences.
