A new documentary that premiered on Netflix Wednesday tackles a unique subject that is long overdue for exploration. “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” follows the life of Nepalese mountain climber Lhakpa Sherpa, who was the first Nepali woman to successfully summit Everest, which she has now done 10 times, the most of any woman.
Directed by veteran documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker, the film chronicles Lhakpa’s incredible achievements alongside the turmoil of her private life. Now the mother of two grown daughters, she has taken her daughter Shiny to Everest base camp to impart her mountain wisdom, and find personal redemption as a pioneering outdoor adventurer.
Other documentaries and films about women mountaineers and climbers are few and far between, which is why Walker’s film is such an important one. There are several short documentaries about female rock climbers on ReelRock.com, a hub for rock climbing film, and there’s also the documentary “The Wall — Climb For Gold,” about the first female rock climbers to compete in sport climbing at the Olympics, an event that debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Games (available for rent on iTunes, Amazon, etc). But rock climbing and mountaineering are far different endeavors.
There are of course many films about male mountain climbers, like the 2021 Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible,” about Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja attempting to climb 14 eight-thousander peaks in seven months, and Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Vasarhelyi’s 2015 film “Meru,” streaming on Prime Video, Tubi and Kanopy. They won the Oscar for their film “Free Solo” (2018) about rock climber Alex Honnold, streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.