Lhakpa Sherpa has been climbing seemingly impossible mountains all her life. Growing up the daughter of yak farmers in rural Nepal, she was denied an education and work because of her gender. Eventually, she immigrated to the United States, where she survived intimate partner violence and had to scrape by to provide for her two daughters, Sunny and Shiny. Despite her circumstances, Sherpa persisted in her goal in doing yet another impossible climb: In 2000, she became the first Nepali woman to summit and survive Mount Everest, and today she holds the record for most Everest summits by a woman at 10 climbs. Sherpa’s exceptional life is chronicled in Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, director Lucy Walker’s new documentary.
“One guiding principle of this film was to take a wider view of what it means to climb,” Walker, whose previous films include The Crash Reel and Waste Land, told Netflix. The mountainous metaphor became part of our visual storytelling — not just the literal mountain, but the emotional mountain, the mountains of the mind and heart.”
At the beginning of the film, it’s 2022, and Sherpa is living in a tiny apartment in West Hartford, Connecticut. She’s working long hours at Whole Foods to support her daughters, and she hasn’t summited a mountain in years. Catching Sherpa at this moment in time, it would be nearly impossible to connect her to the superhuman, odds-defying accomplishments she’s made — but the story that unfolds throughout the film reminds audiences that heroism and resilience exists in life’s most unassuming places.
“We are so proud to be bringing Lhakpa’s incredibly inspiring story of determination and resilience to the screen,” producer and Vice President of Development and Production at OBB Media Miranda Sherman told Netflix. “Working hand-in-hand with Lhakpa and her family, our wonderful partners at Netflix, SK Global, Avocados and Coconuts, and of course the immensely talented Lucy Walker, to tell this deeply moving and honest story has been an unforgettable experience. Michael, Scott, our entire OBB team and I are thrilled to be recognizing Lhakpa and stories like hers in this way, and extremely excited to be sharing it with the world.”
“It has been an honor to tell Lhakpa’s breathtaking story,” producer Dalia Burde, founder of Avocados and Coconuts tells Tudum. “It reminds us that there are heroes living amongst us, the person next to you on the subway, driving the Uber, or cleaning the dishes at a local Whole Foods. I have been inspired by her every day since this project began and I cannot wait for the world to meet Lhakpa and see what resilience truly means."
Executive vice president of SK Global Mark O’Connor adds that, in addition to a story about navigating life’s most tremendous peaks and dark valleys, it’s also a moving portrait of a woman who lived in the shadow of the world’s most famous mountain all her life, in more ways than one.
“Her incredible feats on Mount Everest have transformed the world of mountaineering forever,” O’Connor says. “She’s an endearing icon for Nepalese women, and explorers around the world, and it’s been an honor to bring her story to life.”
And for Sherpa, bringing her story to the Netflix audience is just another way she hopes to inspire others.
“Never give up,” she writes on her website. “Keep going and follow your dreams no matter what. We make our own world. Don’t try to do everything, but do what you love. And someday you might climb your Everest.”
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa premieres on Netflix on July 31.
