Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa

Lhakpa Sherpa works in a supermarket in America; she washes dishes, raises two daughters alone and has no money. The same woman has climbed Everest more times than any other woman. The documentary follows her preparing for an eleventh ascent: trying to find money, going back to Nepal, meeting her family, and taking her daughters with her. Lucy Walker directs. It was released on Netflix. The matter at the centre is invisibility. The Sherpa community carries the whole weight of Everest and the records are usually credited to western climbers; Lhakpa's name is unknown despite her own record. The second matter is violence. Her marriage was violent for years and after the divorce she was left alone with two children; the documentary takes that on directly and tells it alongside the climb. The relationship with the daughters is the hardest part. The elder does not want her mother to climb and says plainly that it is dangerous; the documentary does not cut the objection. The climbing footage is real and shot in hard conditions; the camps and the summit push are covered in detail. Its limit is structure; the transitions between home life and the mountain are uneven and some passages repeat. Who it is for: viewers who like mountaineering documentaries and stories of solitary struggle. Who it is not for: the rhythm is uneven, the narrative gives information late, and the climbing takes up less room than expected.