I find movies about climbers strangely fascinating, since I don't have a clue about what pushes them to do crazy stuff that very often ends with death by hypothermia.

Based on real events, the main character of this story is Maciej Berbeka, a Polish climber who attempted to reach Broad Peak in 1988, almost dying in the proceedings, only to be told that he stopped some 20 metres from the peak. To be noted, he stopped because he was exhausted and lost in a blizzard in terrible weather conditions.

On the way down he almost died and he talked about his near death experience as awful, since he spent almost 24 hours in a hole in the snow at -40° at over 8000 mt. A reasonable person would probably not be willing to repeat such an experience, but 25 years later Maciej is contacted by the guy who organized the first expedition and asked to go again, with three much younger guys.

After a short hesitation Maciej decides to go, stating that he needs "to finish what he started". It looked pretty much finished 25 years earlier to me, but the inevitable ensues, with a much older Maciej attempting another winter expedition with the younger guys just to prove... what exactly?

The story is told in a rather boring way, with sparse dialogue and little to no insight into any characters minds. Makes you feel cold and despairing about human nature. Still, some interesting photography.

I did not know the history of this man or his expeditions before hand. So I was curious to see what happened. Now I'm still curious. The writer/director chose to spend the first hour on his unsuccessful attempt up the mountain. Then 45 minutes of him promising his wife that he will never return to the mountain. And then 10 minutes of him returning anyway and making it to the top. And then, as a "oh by the way" moment that I almost missed because everyone skips past the end credits, they put a written blurb on the screen to tell you he died on the way down.

Not making it up. The most important scene in the film isn't even there. They just toss a sentence onto the screen to tell you.

The breathtaking mountain climbing shots - especially when they pan out and show you where the climbers are in relation to the size of the mountain - is terrifying - how they get up these sheer ice faces is just amazing. I found most of the film very gripping and my only issue is that the time lag between the first attempt to climb Broad Peak and the second attempt is supposed to be 25 years later. This length of time seems more like a few years as all you see the main character doing is some joinery and giving some school talks etc. Plus he and his wife look no different 25 years later. I had to go and check that it really was 25 years later. Just a quibble though.