A documentary about the 2021 winter expedition to K2 in which Pakistani mountaineering legend Muhammad Ali Sadpara lost his life has been released to audiences around the world.
The Last First: Winter K2 is now streaming on Apple TV, having opened on October 2, Sadpara’s son Sajid Ali Sadpara told a press conference in Skardu on Sunday, Dawn reported. He said the film had won international recognition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in the US and elsewhere.
The story it tells
In February 2021, Ali Sadpara, Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto disappeared while attempting to climb K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, in winter. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, the documentary looks at one of K2’s deadliest seasons and the race to claim mountaineering’s “last great prize”.
The Sundance Film Festival said the film “looks beyond the pursuit of adventure to the people, power, and ambition behind it”, from the icy heights of K2 to the economic forces shaping modern climbing.
It also tells the story of the first-ever winter ascent of K2 by a 10-member Nepali team that season, which included Nirmal Purja.
“It is also my story”
For Sajid, the film is deeply personal. He was on the mountain with his father and survived.
“The main character in the documentary is my father, late Mohammad Ali Sadpara, and also my story. I survived the incident. Then, five months after the tragedy, I searched for the bodies above 8,000 metres on K2 and found them and buried them at the peak,” he said.
“The film has real footage and was shot on location. It is the first time in history that Pakistani climbers’ achievements have been acknowledged internationally. This will also help promote mountaineering in Pakistan internationally.”
Beyond the tragedy
The film examines deeper issues in modern mountaineering:
- Commercialisation: how expedition companies, notably Seven Summit Treks, sold places on winter attempts at one of the world’s most dangerous mountains
- Social media: the pressure of influencer culture and public attention
- Inequality: long-standing imbalances in the climbing world, including how the work of local high-altitude climbers is recognised
Early reactions
US-based social media influencer Stephanie Jensen wrote after watching it: “What an absolutely insane story. As a race to the top of K2 unfolds in the middle of winter, Seven Summit Treks commercialises the attempt, selling places on an expedition to one of the world’s most dangerous mountains.”
A national hero
Ali Sadpara, from Sadpara village near Skardu, was one of Pakistan’s most celebrated climbers, admired at home and abroad for his skill and courage on the world’s highest peaks. His disappearance on K2 in the winter of 2021 brought an outpouring of grief across Pakistan.
Why it matters
For years, Pakistani porters and climbers have done much of the hardest work on the country’s great mountains, often with little recognition. A major international documentary that puts Ali Sadpara at its heart brings his story, and that of Pakistan’s mountain communities, to a global audience, and could draw more climbers and tourists to Gilgit-Baltistan. Read our report on the threat facing Deosai’s brown bears.
This article draws on reporting by Dawn.
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