‘Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa’ is the inspiring story of a record-setting mountaineer who’s scaled many personal obstacles to achieve her climbing goals.
Sports documentaries require more than just a high-stakes or monumental contest to keep audience’s attention. After all, people can go back and rewatch game coverage, reliving the thrill of the event without the need of a film to frame the result. What makes the chronicle worth viewing is the story that’s built around the affair, the real-life personalities that carry-out the extraordinary achievement, and the drama that extends beyond the “field.” Sports are assembled around legends and everyone loves a good underdog story. Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa tells the tale of one of the world’s most accomplished women mountain climbers.
Lhakpa always felt a connection to the mountains and the outdoors. Growing up in a culture that didn’t value female education, she instead masqueraded as a boy to work as a porter for Nepalese tourists, gradually working her way up to work alongside her brother as an Everest guide. She made her first summit in 2000, becoming the first Nepali woman to survive the journey. She’s since reached the top of the world’s highest peak nine times, holding the world record for most summits by a woman, and this film documents her tenth attempt at age 48.
The road to achieving such a mighty feat has not been an easy one for Lhakpa. She became an unwed mother in her teens, then married a Romanian Everest climber, Gheorghe Dijmărescu, and moved to the U.S. where she had two beautiful daughters. Unfortunately, their shared passion for summiting Everest was not enough to quell his violent temper, creating a life of fear and demoralization that lasted many years. Yet, Lhakpa has always maintained the mountains have a cleansing effect on her soul, so she once again returns to her home to make a final attempt. Archival footage and photos are used to trace her path from childhood to her present-day life in Connecticut, eventually integrating the voices of those whose lives she touched along the way.
Yet, the most stunning footage comes from the expedition. The first few days at base camp are spent showing Lhakpa’s and her brother, Mingma’s, daughters the basics, from climbing a rope to walking across a crevasse – still one of the most stressful feats to witness. Then Lhakpa, Mingma and the other Sherpas embark on their journey, which is plagued by an unplanned physical ailment and high winds. The cinematographer must be lauded for his efforts as he summited alongside Lhakpa, capturing every moment with a handheld camera, and drone footage that underlines the scope of the challenge, the size of the mountain and their insignificance upon it (though not seeing other climbers in a lot of the tape seems unusual).
The version of the documentary that is being shown at the festival is still unfinished (but doesn’t feel incomplete) as they work to incorporate Lhakpa’s latest accomplishment — summiting K2, the second highest peak on Earth and one of the worlds’ deadliest mountains. Yet, her Everest journey appears to have come full circle, receiving The Explorers Club’s Tenzing Norgay Award, named after the first Sherpa and one of the first two men to summit the mountain.
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa played in the TIFF Docs programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Director: Lucy Walker
