In Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, director Lucy Walker charts the incredible life story of the Nepalese mountain climber Lhakpa Sherpa and her lifelong love affair with Mount Everest.
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa
Lucy Walker (director), Devin Whetstone (cinematography), Matthew Irving (cinematography), Tyler Temple Higgins (editor), Yaniv Elani (editor), Davon Ramos (editor)
Lhakpa Sherpa, Nima Sherpa, Sunny Dijmarescu, Shiny Dijmarescu (cast)
September 8, 2023
Content warning: intimate partner violence
I’ve always been fascinated by mountain climbing, although I’ve never been able to try it myself. So I live vicariously through films and documentaries and longreads about the joys and terrors of climbing mountains. Unsurprisingly, when I saw Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa on the TIFF 2023 list, I knew I had to see it.
I’d also managed to speak with Thom Powers, lead programmer of TIFF documentaries, about Mountain Queen, and he mentioned that this film was still a work in progress and will likely be changing a bit in the future. He reiterated this in the introduction for the film screening where director Lucy Walker also spoke, saying she rushed through the post-production because Powers was so keen for the film to debut at TIFF.
Powers had also mentioned that the film wouldn’t look unfinished due to Walker’s skill and I have to agree. Barring two sound editing moments, I can’t think of anything this film needs to change. It was a powerful, emotional, and uplifting documentary, and very well shot and edited.
Mountain Queen marries two genres I have begun to love—the amazing story of a remarkable woman who hasn’t received the recognition she deserves, and adventuring. We get a hint of what’s to come in the opening scenes when Lhakpa is attempting to summit Everest with her brother and other fellow sherpas. They’re caught in extremely high winds and unable to raise base camp on the radio. What led to this moment? Will the team find success after? That’s what Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa is all about.
I’ve still got a few TIFF films to go but Mountain Queen is already my favourite. The excellent storytelling is definitely a highlight—Walker interweaves the confident and happy-go-lucky Lhakpa of today with her life in Nepal decades ago as a young unmarried mother, her subsequent career as a Sherpa when only men could be sherpas, and her meeting of fellow climber and future ex-husband George Dijmarescu, and her summits since then.
Coupled with the storytelling are breathtaking scenes from Lhakpa’s climb, the camera sitting close to the sherpas as they huddle inside a tent dangerously close to flying off in the incredibly strong winds. There’s a particular shot I’m still trying to get my head around. We get a point of view perspective of Lhakpa walking across a ladder being used as a bridge over a crack in the mountain. As her spiked boots land unsteadily on each rung of the ladder, all you see below her is an unending well of darkness. One mistake, and what would happen is horrifying. You could hear the audience hold their breath.
But what I really loved about this documentary is how it captures the feeling of watching live coverage of a monumental event. Walker shows the lowlights of Lhakpa’s life, the intimate partner violence she faced, and how despite it she kept pushing to summit Everest. Her every accomplishment seemed impossible, especially considering the barriers in her way. And then the film would plaster yet another summit by Lhakpa or another achievement on the big screen to resounding applause from the audience. It was like watching the moon landing with a roomful of strangers!
However, Lhakpa’s story is not for the faint of heart. Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa goes into a lot of detail about the violence Lhakpa faced from Dijmarescu. I wondered if it was fair to make so much of the documentary focus on the abuse she suffered. I’ve thought about it and there are two reasons it was important. One, despite what Lhakpa achieved, physically and mentally, the patriarchy and gendered violence hindered her several times. Who knows what else she could have done if she wasn’t living in fear of being physically hurt? Imagine the number of women who haven’t been able to change the world because of the same reason. We also know at least one person who’s suffered IPV (maybe more).
Secondly, Lhakpa’s children, particularly her daughters, Sunny and Shiny, are a massive part of her story. They are her motivation for the climb in Mountain Queen and they’re her little protectors. Lhakpa stays in her dead-end job because she is desperate to provide for them and make sure they don’t suffer the way she did. As the documentary unfolds, the three of them begin to understand the shared trauma of living with Dijmarescu and how together they have come through the other side. But it’s still a long road ahead for this family and I can only wish them the very best.
The IPV aspect of the documentary was difficult to watch, and Lhakpa bares her soul about the fear and shame she felt. I wish I could tell her that there is no need for her to feel shame despite the world we live in with so little support for victims of IPV. Needless to say, the audience was affected. I saw grown men bawling—perhaps some viewers saw their own mothers in the strength of Lhakpa.
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa details the importance of perseverance and being allowed to love what you do. For Lhakpa, summiting Everest is healing, but it’s climbing itself which brings her great joy, no matter what mountain it is. The documentary is also about how easily the world forgets the accomplishments of people who aren’t straight white able-bodied men. Lhakpa should have been able to secure sponsorships for her climbs on her own in the 90s. But it’s taken till 2023 for her because of the systemic global disregard of large swathes of people like Lhakpa, no matter their talents. This is also a story about the patriarchy and how gender discrimination often causes and excuses violence. How it holds back women and queer people and trans communities from achieving their potential, but also how it harms the men. Dijmarescu himself was a victim of kidnapping and violence. However, he ensured he had nobody because of what he did to his wife and daughters.
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa is the story of a woman who faced every obstacle in her path by breaking down barriers even when she didn’t know she was destroying the glass ceiling. It has taken far too long for her to get recognition, for her to inspire new generations of adventurers. I hope as many people as possible will watch Lhakpa’s story at TIFF and well beyond because it’s a powerful story, it’s an uplifting story, and so many of us know someone just like Lhakpa in our lives. Maybe we can all bring recognition to them now.
