MOUNTAIN QUEEN: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa

MOUNTAIN QUEEN: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa

Mountain Queen uniquely combines breathtaking footage of the danger,damage and majesty of an Everest climb with the heartbreaking and eventually heartwarming story of an indefatigable single mother’s spirit. This Everest summit, Lhakpa Sherpa’s record 10th, is the one Lhakpa hopes will raise the spirits of her family, healing the wounds from an abusive, traumatic past.

No one is better suited to tell this story than director Lucy Walker, who specializes in documenting people overcoming tremendous odds. Her previous works include Blindsight, the story of six blind Tibetan teenagers led to the summit of Lhakpa Ri, a 23,000 ft peak on the north side of Everest by legendary blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer. Blind children in Nepal are often seen as cursed so this climb transforms their self image and their horizons. Lucy also directed the Academy Award-nominated and Sundance-winning The Tsunami and The Cherry Blossom, which follows those devastated by the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in Japan as they recover, repair and prepare for The Cherry Blossom Festival.

Lhakpa’s story of trials and triumphs begins in patriarchal Nepal, where as a woman she was tasked with carrying her brother 2 miles to a school where only boys were allowed to attend. “I was a very good yellow bus, ” Lhakpa remarked.”  A pregnancy by her unfaithful first love, causes her to be cast out by her family. She then cuts off her hair to disguise herself as a boy becoming the first woman in Nepal to work as a porter on climbs. In 2000 she became the first Nepali woman to climb Everest and in the process goes from an outcast to an inspiration for all Nepali women to break the bonds of tradition. A panacea for the low and rocky points in her life Lhakpa explains, “Everest fixes my soul…It Is like magic.”  

This magic once included her husband, Romanian climber Gheorghe Dijmărescu, whom she fell in love with. “He was my Yeti,” Lhakpa said. While raising their two daughters in Connecticut, George became a serial abuser, notorious within the mountaineering community for knocking her unconscious during a 2004 expedition.

In a foreign country and at the mercy of an alcoholic’s habitual abuse, the fearless Lhakpa sought refuge in a shelter with her daughters. This trauma strained her relationship with her daughter Sunny, who, when the film opens, alternates between sitting mute in front of the camera and taking refuge in her bedroom. The raw and heartfelt emotions from daughters Shiny and Sunny are truly captivating. Director Lucy Walker deserves credit for respecting the family’s dynamics and allowing them to set the pace, resulting in a remarkable journey that offers a roadmap for anyone navigating the complexities of recovery from psychological trauma.

 “Movies are a long game and I just know enough about how humans work to know that. You have to be very patient and tender with people and not push them past where they want to be. So I never did, Lucy explained. “And actually with Lhakpa, it was a very long journey to her wanting to open up. She always wanted to do the movie with me, but, when I first would talk to her, her version was definitely the kind of polished press release. And there’d be years missing and it didn’t quite add up. So I asked, how did you get there? And she, in a way that people have been through trauma, would start laughing when describing something really painful. But it’s a very real sign you have to go at the pace of people.”

Though Sunny, still mute, refuses to join her mother on her record tenth climb, her other daughter Shiny does. 

“At the beginning of the movie she’s washing dishes at Whole Foods in Connecticut. They are really struggling,” Lucy Walker pointed out. “And one of them, as you mentioned,  Sunny is barely talking, and in need of inspiration. For Lhakpa, , who had devoted her life to inspiring women and girls it’s not going very well.with her own family. She’s going to go back to Everest. It does seem a little bit of a crazy plan and off we go with one of the daughters,cause the other one won’t and set out on this remarkable journey. And along the way we will discover the sort of metaphorical mountains that she’s been climbing as well as the actual summits that she’s become a legend of climbing for.”

Having climbed the 23,000 foot mountain during the filming of Blindsight Lucy knew enough about the Everest climb to entrust the filming of the 10th summit to an incredible film crew with Devin Whetstone (Director of Photography) as well as the sherpas on Lhakpa’s team.  “We spent a long time kind of empowering and equipping Dan with what we wanted. And shooting with me so that everyone knew what we were going for. So much so that they were given the freedom to make their own decisions because I couldn’t be there the whole time.” “I’m not that good of a climber. I at no point entertain the idea of going up through the icefall because it’s so dangerous. So many people die there every year. And if you’re not fast then you’re a danger to others.”

We see Lhakpa and Shiny bonding as she is coached on mastering a steep slope during the climb. Particularly riveting is Shiny nervously calling from a base below, asking how much oxygen her sick mother has as she nears the top of the mountain in her fragile state. “Only 14 hours “, a worried sherpa guide says. We see the effects of altitude sickness on even the most seasoned climbers and how the danger on Everest never ends.

It is upon return to Connecticut the most surprising and heartwarming twist comes. If your going to cry a happy tear it’s going to be here. I’m not going to spoil the ending but I will tell you that Lucy and the crew had wrapped for the day when it happened. Lucy dragged the reluctant cameraman back into the action, who said, “but we have no lights and no sound!” Lucy flipped on the room lights and grabbed a boom pole mic and helped capture this bit of magic. 

Director Lucy Walker reflects, “I think not all of us are mountain climbers, but all of us face extraordinary challenges in life. Life has its moments, and boy, is it difficult. Seeing Lhakpa with her two daughters climb out of those knockbacks and keep on climbing is, both physically and metaphorically, so inspiring and enlivening.”

MOUNTAIN QUEEN: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa premieres in select theaters on July 26th and Netflix on July 31st