Nepali climber says Apple TV K2 film used his team's footage

Mingma David Sherpa, a member of the Nepali team that made the first winter ascent of K2 in January 2021 and now a member of parliament, has challenged the makers of an Apple TV documentary over their use of his team's images and video. He says the film, The Last First: Winter K2, used the material without permission and gives Nepali climbers too little credit.

The documentary deals with the winter attempt on K2 by Ali Sadpara and John Snorri, and with the Nepali expedition that completed the first winter climb of the world's second-highest peak in January 2021. That team included Nirmal Purja, known as Nimsdai. Mingma David Sherpa was part of the ascent.

According to the French mountaineering outlet Altitude, he disputes parts of the narration and the translation of the subtitles, and questions how footage and video sequences belonging to his team came to be in the film. He has asked the production company and Apple TV to state where the material came from, which permissions were obtained and on what terms it was used commercially.

The report said the documentary has also prompted discussion about expedition ethics, including the fixed ropes installed on the mountain by the different teams.

Mingma David Sherpa said Himalayan guides and Sherpas are poorly treated in international productions, that Nepali climbers have gone insufficiently recognised for decades and that foreign filmmakers have sometimes exploited them. He called for an end to an approach he described as colonial, and asked for more fairness, respect and transparency.

"Documenting the historic winter expedition of K2 is important. But respecting the rights and dignity of those who wrote that story is just as important," he said, according to Altitude.

He said the story of major ascents should not be told at the expense of the people who made them and recorded them. He said he expects answers from the production company and from Apple TV, including on the rights to the images and the consent of the climbers involved.