Free Solo directors call Everest: The Other Side their toughest shoot yet
It was the hardest film they have ever made. That was the message from directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi when they brought Everest: The Other Side to London on Saturday, 10 October.
The pair discussed the documentary at Deadline's Contenders London event, where Chin described it as the most difficult film he and Vasarhelyi have made, according to Deadline. They were joined on stage by Jim Morrison, the elite ski mountaineer who is one of the film's subjects.
Everest: The Other Side follows Morrison and Hilaree Nelson, both mountaineer-skiers, on their quest to climb Mount Everest's North Face and ski down it, according to Deadline. That climb-and-ski goal shapes the whole film. Morrison's presence in London put one half of that climbing pair in the room.
Chin and Vasarhelyi arrived with a familiar track record. The pair previously directed Free Solo, the 2018 documentary that won an Oscar and a BAFTA, according to Deadline. That history means their next mountain story arrives with attention already attached.
The festival programme lists Vasarhelyi as director and producer and Chin as director, producer and director of photography, according to Deadline. In plain terms, Chin also led the camera work on high rock and snow. Morrison was billed as elite ski mountaineer and film subject panellist.
The London session put the directors and their subject side by side. That matters for a documentary, a non-fiction film built from real people and real risk. Hearing from Morrison directly lets the audience connect the person on screen with the person in the room.
What makes this stand out is Chin's own verdict. To call this the most difficult film after Free Solo sets expectations without giving anything away. It tells a general audience that this was not a routine follow-up. It was a harder climb, in every sense.
The discussion took place on Saturday as part of Deadline's Contenders Film: London 2026 programme. No release dates or box-office numbers were part of this conversation. The news here was simpler: the team behind Free Solo is back with an Everest story, and by their own account its toughest one to tell.
For newcomers, those two prizes matter. An Oscar, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the United States, and a BAFTA, from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, are among the top honours for film. Winning both for Free Solo in 2018 put Chin and Vasarhelyi on the map far beyond climbing fans.
