13 Outdoor Adventure Documentaries To Watch
I LOVE outdoor adventure documentaries and after asking for recommendations for good ones on my Instagram story, a lot of people were interested in hearing the results. So I decided to put together a list of some of the ones that I’ve watched and enjoyed! So in no particular order, here are some of my favourites:
1. Touching The Void (2003)
Let me start off by saying that this is definitely the wildest stories of surviving when an expedition goes wrong that I've ever seen! This docudrama tells the story of two British mountaineers who set out to summit a previously unclimbed face of a Peruvian mountain and run into trouble on the descent. A powerful storm hits, one of them breaks their leg, and they encounter a situation where one of the climbers makes the decision to cut the rope attaching him to his climbing partner who is dangling in mid-air over the edge of a cliff. This doc was listed in PBS’s “100 Greatest Documentaries of All Time” so it’s definitely worth the watch! You can watch it for free (but low quality) on YouTube.
2. Meru (2015)
This documentary follows a three man climbing team made up of Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk as they attempt a first ascent of a route on Meru Peak, which is one of the most dangerous and technically complicated peaks in the Himalayas, and encounter multiple serious setbacks along the way. You can watch it on Amazon Prime.
3. Free Solo (2018)
This is another Jimmy Chin documentary that follows Alex Honnold’s mind-blowingly dangerous feat of attempting to be the first person ever to free solo climb El Capitan. And if you’re not familiar with climbing terms, free solo climbing is when you climb alone without any ropes, harnesses, or other protective equipment, so basically if you make a mistake there is nothing to prevent you from falling! This awesome film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and you can watch it on Disney Plus.
4. Long Way Round (2004), Long Way Down (2007), Long Way Up (2020)
These 3 multi-episode series document Ewan MacGregor and his friend Charley Boorman’s epic motorcycle trips. Long Way Round follows them as they ride 31,000 km around the world from London to New York City through some pretty wild conditions. In Long Way Down, they ride from Scotland all the way down to the bottom of Africa with a final destination of Cape Town, South Africa. And to switch things up in their third trip, they journey from the southernmost city in the world of Ushuaia, Argentina to Los Angeles on electric motorcycles, which adds in a lot of additional challenges due to the limited charging stations along the way. You can watch it on Apple TV +, and if you don’t already have a subscription to that, it’s worth getting it just to watch this series!
5. Boreal to Barrenlands - Crossing Labrador (2020)
For a more local adventure, check out this epic 670 km canoe journey though the remote and wild interior of Labrador. The 4 person team crosses the province in 35 days and the film documents all the ups and downs of travelling through such an unforgiving area. You can rent/buy the documentary on Vimeo and there is also a more in-depth 13 episode series of the trip on YouTube. Also, if you’ve ever attended one of the Night of Adventure speaker events here in Nova Scotia, you’ll notice a familiar face amongst the team!
6. The Summit (2012)
K2 is the second highest mountain in the world and one of the deadliest - approximately one in four people who reach the summit end up dying on the mountain. This documentary outlines what happened during the 2008 K2 disaster, one of the worst catastrophes in climbing history, when 11 people died over the course of two days. You can watch it for free (in two parts) here.
7. A Line In The Sand (2020)
This short film by photographer Chris Burkard documents a 1000 km long bike packing trip across Iceland through the interior. The route had never been attempted on bicycle before and was considered impassable by most cyclists. You can watch the full film below and he also has a video on his YouTube channel that goes over all the gear that he brought with him for the trip if you’re interested in bike packing.
8. The Dawn Wall (2017)
The Dawn Wall is a sheer face on El Capitan that was seemingly impossible to climb until two climbers spent weeks living on the wall attempting to be the first to find a route up, which captured the attention of the media who closely followed their progress. The documentary starts off by giving the background of one of the climbers, Tommy Caldwell, and the obstacles he overcame to get to that point in his career, including how he was held hostage during a climbing trip in Kyrgyzstan. You can watch it on Netflix.
9. Chasing Ice (2012)
This documentary is a bit different from the others on the list as its goal is to show the effects that climate change is having on glacial ice. However, I included it because it also documents the filmmakers’ efforts to get to remote locations in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. You can rent it on YouTube for $1.99.
10. Breathtaking: K2 - The World’s Most Dangerous Mountain (2020)
Remember when I was talking about how K2 is one of the most deadly mountains to try and climb? Well, this documentary follows two climbers’ attempt to summit the mountain without the use of supplemental oxygen, which only a very small number of climbers attempt on peaks above 8000m. You can watch the full version for free on the Eddie Bauer YouTube channel.
11. Under An Arctic Sky (2017)
This is another Chris Burkard documentary that follows six surfers as they search for unsurfed swell in remote Icelandic fjords aboard a sailboat. But when the biggest winter storm to hit Iceland in 25 years approaches, they decide to continue the search for waves by road. You can rent it on YouTube for $4.99 or watch it on Amazon Prime Video.
12. Down To Nothing (2016)
This North Face/National Geographic short film follows a group of climbers who travel to Myanmar with the goal of summiting a mountain with a highly precise GPS to determine if it is the highest mountain in Southeast Asia. The peak is located in a very remote area and the group must trek through the jungle for 2 weeks just to reach the base of the mountain. You can watch it for free below.
13. Departures (2008)
So, this one also deviates from the outdoor adventure category but is a cool travel series made by two Canadian guys that follows their adventures through many different countries. It was my favourite show when it came out and since international travel isn’t really possible right now, this is probably the next best thing! If you enjoyed this series and are also interested in diving, Scott from the show created a diving series called Descending, where him and his friend go to cool dive sites around the world. You’d have to search around on the Internet in order to find that show (I remember it took me a while to find the episodes online when I watched it) and you can watch Departures on Amazon Prime Video.