The Ghosts Above

Renan Ozturk climbs Everest as cameraman on an expedition searching for the body of Sandy Irvine, whose 1924 disappearance with George Mallory left mountaineering's greatest mystery: did they summit 29 years before Hillary and Norgay? Sony released Ozturk's personal film of the search free online.

This is Everest without the usual triumphalism. Ozturk turns his lens on the traffic jams of the Northeast Ridge, the economics of guiding, and the strangeness of hunting for a dead man at 8,400 meters, all shot with the painterly eye that made him the most distinctive cinematographer in the mountains. The summit push, filmed while barely able to breathe, is astonishing.