Documentary director Jimmy Chin and ski mountaineer Jim Morrison rappelled down a 12-story West Hollywood building Friday evening, marking the theatrical release of “Everest: The Other Side.” The pair descended the side of a building on the Sunset Strip alongside a giant billboard for the film. Morrison carried his skis strapped to his back, though the vertical wall offered nothing to ski. A local news helicopter circled, and tourists and passersby watched from the street.
Morrison said the scale of the billboard surprised him. “Repelling down was a ‘pinch me’ moment, but not one I was really afraid of,” he said. Looking over the edge reminded him of Everest, he added, this time with Chin beside him rather than filming from a distance.
The comparison favors the building. Morrison’s ski descent of Everest’s north side, the feat at the heart of the film, took four hours and had never been completed before. The route is steep and unforgiving. Thousands of climbers have reached the summit by Nepal’s southeast ridge, but only a handful have topped out via the north face.
Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the Oscar-winning team behind “Free Solo,” directed the National Geographic production, which Disney distributes. The film opened Friday in 551 theaters, including IMAX screens. It follows Morrison’s attempt to climb and ski the mountain with his partner, the elite ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson. Nelson died in September 2022 during an expedition to Manaslu in Nepal, and the film traces how Morrison pressed on through that loss and other tragedies.
Critics have been less unanimous than the stunt’s cheering onlookers. One review described the film as a mournful and increasingly solitary march, a portrait in which Morrison’s compulsion pulls him away from the audience. Another called it the weakest of the directors’ collaborations while praising the cinematography. A third reviewer found it an inspiring story of ambition. After the descent, the filmmakers attended a screening at the Academy Museum’s Ted Mann Theater with members of the creative team.
