80 Meters Below the Summit

Sandwiched in-between China and India, Nepal's Taplejung District serves as home to three of the highest mountains on the Earth: the iconic Mt. Everest (29,029 ft.), K2 (28,251 ft.), and the less-well known Kanchenjunga, which checks in at 28,169 feet. Its name translates, literally, as "The Five Treasures of Snows," because it actually contains five separate peaks; it also (despite a relatively lower height than those other two devils) poses some of the direst and riskiest conditions to climbers, including sub-freezing temperatures, paralyzing winds, and outrageous rock-face angles - which fully explains why it has claimed untoward numbers of lives. Actually, Kanchenjunga holds sacred status among the Sikkimese people that has given many alpinists reason to delay their expeditions. Pavol Barabas's documentary 80 Meters Below the Summit documents one such expedition in eye-opening detail.