Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Race to the Summit’ on Netflix, A Documentary About A Death-Defying Race Between Alpine Climbers

For most people, climbing a mountain face is unthinkable. For Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold, that wasn’t enough–they had to do it fast. In Race to the Summit, a new feature-length documentary that just dropped on Netflix, we follow the two daredevil climbers’ chase to set speed-climbing records while free-climbing some of the Alps’ most imposing north faces.

RACE TO THE SUMMIT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s quite a race. Up until 2011, Ueli Steck was considered the “fastest climber in the world”, until upstart Dani Arnold broke onto the scene and started breaking his records. Soon, the two were off across the Swiss and French Alps, working to set new speed marks in an incredibly dangerous sport. Race to the Summit puts this race in context for the uninitiated viewer–explaining the nature and specific challenges of Alpinism, and the history of the sport–but this isn’t a dry, staid documentary–it’s a thrill ride, and you’re probably going to be glad you’re only riding along from a distance.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Did Free Solo thrill you, or at least make you queasy in a way you enjoyed? Then this is the film for you!

Performance Worth Watching: Interviews with Steck and Arnold–many archival, given that Steck died on a daring 2017 ascent of Mount Everest–form the narrative backbone of the documentary, but it’s great to see Alex Honnold–familiar to viewers from Free Solo–show up as a familiar face. It’d be weird not to have him around, given the widespread attention that film received.

Memorable Dialogue: “He climbs faster than anyone else, usually alone without any safety equipment. No ropes, no safety gear–as for his life insurance? The tips of his fingers and toes,” a TV host intones before introducing Steck on talk show.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: “Once the games begin, this duel between Arnold and Steck… it’s only a matter of time until the pressure is so great that you make a mistake, then… it’s over.” This description comes in a voiceover from Dani Arnold himself, proving that at least one of the two climbers that Race to the Summit focuses on knew how crazy their challenge seems to any mortal.

Not that that stopped them.

Free-climbing is one of the world’s terrifying sports, a concept introduced to mass audiences in the award-winning 2018 documentary Free Solo, which focused on American climber Alex Honnold’s daring ascent of the El Capitan rock formation in California’s Yosemite National Park. Honnold himself makes an appearance early in Race to the Summit, offering up his thoughts on the race between Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold to set speed records on routes in the Swiss Alps.
“The appeal of speed climbing is that it’s so quantifiable,” Honnold explains. “It’s just an easy way to rank yourself against other climbers. But normally, speed climbing isn’t actually that fast–speed climbing normally refers to very efficient climbing. When I climbed with Ueli for the first time, I was like, ‘oh, he actually puts the speed in speed climbing, he’s actually moving really, really fast.”

So, there’s your premise: this movie is about people that the guy from Free Solo–a fantastic movie that makes my palms sweat to even think about–thinks are a little bit nuts.

Sold!

Like other documentaries about extreme climbing, Race to the Summit succeeds not just on the daring of its subjects, but on the sheer majesty of its locations. From the very start, the film features huge, sweeping aerial shots of dramatic vistas in the Alps and other places that climbers flock. It’s underpinned by a throbbing electronic soundtrack reminiscent of the Stranger Things theme music that really works, and makes the whole thing one of those experiences where your Apple Watch might ask if you’re working out when you’re sitting frozen in terror on the couch.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Race to the Summit offers plenty of thrills and a lot of pretty pictures to look at while you’re white-knuckling your armrests.

Scott Hines, publisher of the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter, is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky.