As a gamer with a deep appreciation for documentaries that showcase extraordinary individuals, I was utterly captivated by “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa.” This film is not just about climbing Mount Everest; it’s about the indomitable spirit and resilience of a woman who defied all odds to become a record-breaking mountaineer.
Lhakpa Sherpa is known for being the woman with the most climbs of Mount Everest, having achieved this feat 10 times. However, her triumphs extend beyond the mountains. In “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa” by Lucy Walker, we witness Lhakpa’s courage and determination on the mountain amid harsh weather conditions. Yet, it is her inspiring life story that truly captivates us. From humble beginnings in a Nepalese village where she was uneducated and illiterate, Lhakpa overcame adversity to reach success on the mountain. Her journey is marked by resilience, as she persevered through years of physical abuse in her marriage before finally finding the strength to leave it behind.
Walker adopts a subtle method in exploring her subject, a technique she’s utilized in her past films such as the Oscar-nominated “Waste Land” (2010) which delves into creating art from a garbage dump, and “Blindsight” (2006) focusing on blind mountain climbers in Tibet. In Lhakpa, Walker discovers a captivating character radiating warmth, candor, introspection about the past, and unassuming yet confident about her achievements.
Despite having imperfect English grammar, Lhakpa possesses a vivid and at times poetic way of expressing herself. During her latest ascent in 2022, she reached the summit of Everest with a sun-scorched face. Feeling unclean and foul, she likened herself to an old raccoon rummaging through garbage in Hartford, Connecticut, where she has resided for more than two decades.
The movie opens in Connecticut in 2022, where the protagonist is getting ready for her 10th mountain climb. Her 15-year-old daughter, Shiny, will accompany her on this adventure in Nepal. However, her 19-year-old daughter Sunny appears deeply introspective and hardly communicates with the family. Instead, she decides to remain at home. Throughout the film, Lhakpa’s story unfolds, with interviews where she engages in conversation with an unseen interviewer.
In the interview, unexpectedly, she dons traditional Nepalese attire, a decision that appears staged and theatrical yet establishes her as a cultural symbol. Her journey is depicted through archived footage, featuring clips from past expeditions and interviews spanning years, showcasing her continuous achievement of setting new records for women’s climb counts. However, Walker and her team skillfully weave this material into an engaging tale, preventing the film from appearing fragmented despite its compiled nature.
In some parts, the footage showcases Lhakpa’s breathtaking climbs, captured through striking high-altitude images by Matthew Irving. At certain moments, Lhakpa braves crossing crevasses on narrow ladders and scaling mountains under the cover of night. (A behind-the-scenes documentary detailing the process of capturing these shots would be intriguing.) Simultaneously, Shiny remains at base camp, fretting over her mother’s well-being, who is stationed above, as the weather causes significant delays in her progress for extended periods.
Lhakpa’s journeys up mountains give the film a consistent theme, yet the intricacies of mountain climbing are barely explored as she shares her own tale. Growing up in a village dominated by the last name Sherpa, Lhakpa walked her younger brother to school for two hours each day but was denied the opportunity to join in. In order to follow her dream of ascending mountains herself, she disguised herself as a boy and began working as a porter on expeditions. It’s these deeply moving, authentic experiences that resonate most profoundly.
Back in the year 2000, I was in awe as I watched history being made by a woman who bravely climbed Mount Everest for the first time and safely returned. Yet, during an old interview unearthed from that era, she confessed to having a child with a man who had been unfaithful to her countless times. Her eyes welled up with tears as she hid her face in her hands, seemingly bearing the weight of society’s judgment all on her own.
In Walker’s documentary, we witness Lhakpa’s gradual realization of her personal power following her initial victory on Mount Everest. Shortly after this achievement, she encountered a Romanian mountaineer named George Dijmarescu and married him, subsequently relocating to Hartford where they started their family and operated as Everest guides. The depiction of their 2004 expedition is the most harrowing part of the movie.
Michael Kodas, a journalist from the Hartford Courant and one of the film’s commentators, accompanied the group they were leading, and he penned down columns about Dijmarescu’s rage and aggression from the mountain’s peak. In her expressive manner, Lhakpa described George as having an ominous appearance, resembling a storm, a thundercloud, or a bullet. She recounted how he mercilessly assaulted her until she lost consciousness. Kodas published a photograph of her bruised face in his 2009 book “High Crimes: The Everest Saga in an Era of Greed.” Lhakpa expressed her regret, saying, “I wish I had the power to remove this image. I feel ashamed.”
Despite having no financial resources or authority, she chose to remain married. According to her, “George had stripped me of my power.” Eventually, he inflicted such severe abuse in the presence of their children that she was hospitalized. With assistance from a social worker, they eventually left for a shelter and she ultimately divorced him. She then focused on raising her daughters and continued to persevere. “Everest is my healer,” she explains, “I need it to mend my spirit.”
Walker shows great regard for Lhakpa’s personal space, bordering on excessive discretion. While we catch a fleeting glimpse of her eldest son, George, at the beginning of his adult life, his background remains largely untold. A friend shares with Lhakpa and Shiny some vague recollections of George’s turbulent childhood, causing Shiny to weep. However, it’s uncertain how truthful George, who passed away from cancer in 2020, was about those experiences.
The absence of information in certain areas doesn’t diminish Lhakpa’s captivating on-screen persona or her intention to inspire other women. Even Sunny, who portrays a reluctant attitude, acknowledges at the end that she can transform her painful past in an abusive home into resilience, mirroring the very message Lhakpa conveys through this engaging documentary.
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2024-07-29 20:55