In 1924 mountaineer George Mallory was torn between love for his wife Ruth, and his obsession with the last great adventure left to man: becoming the first person to reach the summit of the untouched Mount Everest. Dressed in gabardine and wearing hobnailed boots, Mallory risked everything in pursuit of his dream, but was last seen alive 800 feet below the summit. Then the clouds rolled in and he disappeared. After discovering Mallory’s body on Everest in 1999, modern climber Conrad Anker’s life became intertwined with Mallory’s story. Mallory’s frozen body was found with his belongings intact; the only thing missing was a photograph of Ruth, which Mallory had promised to place on the summit. Haunted by Mallory's story, Anker returns to Everest with British climbing prodigy Leo Houlding to discover the truth about Mallory and to unravel the mysteries surrounding his disappearance. Anker and his climbing partner take on the Second Step without the use of the fixed ladder; free climbing it with the use of some modern safety precautions, to evaluate if indeed Mallory was capable of climbing the Second Step himself in 1924.
The film won the award for Best Adventure Film at the Boulder International Film Festival. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 77% approval rating, based on 35 reviews with an average score of 6.87/10. The film received numerous positive reviews from critics when it was released in the US. Andrew Barker in Variety described the film as "gorgeous looking", writing that "the film contains a number of awe-inspiring shots and a wonderful, computer-generated guided illustration of the entire path the explorers took up the mountain". Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the film "adroitly mixes a variety of material" while "narrator Liam Neeson and reading voices Natasha Richardson, Hugh Dancy and Alan Rickman do exceptionally strong work". Pam Grady of Boxoffice raved about the film and wrote "It is a moving tale and a breathtaking sight." The film also got a strong critical reaction in the UK. Anna Smith in Empire commented that "the tale of Mallory’s fatal ascent is well told, the mountain photography is spectacular and rare archive film recalls a time when the world still had peaks to conquer". Carmen Gray described it as "captivating and seductive" in Sight & Sound although she felt that "the equivalence of the journeys often seems forced".
