Climb Mount Everest with “Mountain Queen”

“The Mountain Queen” is a wonderful documentary that premiered on Netflix, about a woman with a tough life, a kind heart, and an amazing goal. The Mountain Queen, or better known as Lhakpa Sherpa, has summited Mount Everest a total of ten times, making her the first Nepali woman to survive a summit to Everest and the world record holder for most summits on Everest for a woman. Lhakpa’s first summit of Everest was when she was 22 in 2002. As of May 12, 2022, Lhakpa’s last summit of Everest was at age 48.

In the documentary, when Lhakpa was climbing Everest for the tenth time Lhakpa tells her team,“I almost want to go down. I fight because it’s almost there.” Lhakpa is so exhausted and wants to give up. 

Just like mountains, Lhakpa’s life had many ups and downs. Lhakpa was born in a country called Nepal on June 23, 1967. In Nepal, men did many of the difficult jobs while women would cook and take care of others. But Lhakpa wanted to carry all the heavy rocks that all the other men couldn’t, so Lhakpa cut her hair and traveled with tourists.

Lhakpa joined the tourists on their travels. These trips started Lhakpa’s love for hiking and mountain climbing. “Every single day I wake up my eye, I see beautiful mountain around me.” Lhakpa used this opportunity to learn English and other tasks like cooking and putting up tents.

“I’ll give my life to the mountains, keep climbing until the day I die,” Lhakpa said in Nepali.

Lhakpa married a man named George Dijmarescu. George and Lhakpa had two daughters, Sunny and Shiny. Lhakpa and George met each other during a summit to Everest. They had summited Everest together a total of four times. 

However, Lhakpa and George’s marriage was not terrific. George would drink and would get mad. He even knocked out Lhakpa during a climb of Everest. Sunny talked about a memory of Lhakpa and George fighting. George had grabbed Lhakpa by her hair and smashed her head into the table. “No child should see anyone do that,” Sunny told the interviewer, “No child should have that exposed to them that early.”

Lhakpa and George separated after 12 years of marriage and abuse. Lhakpa kept her daughters. At the age of 47, George got cancer and in 2020 at the age of 59, George died. As a single mother, Lhakpa struggled but she always fought for her kids safety.

Now, Lhakpa is an inspiration for many people. She works in Whole Foods. She doesn’t like being trapped indoors working and would much rather hike the mountains and hills around her city. But she will do anything to keep her kids safe. 

At the top of Lhakpa’s tenth summit to Everest, Lhakpa was able to see the blue sky and smaller mountains below them. You could see the relief and happiness they felt. When they got back to the bottom of Everest, Lhakpa shared a cake with her hikers, family, friends, and supporters. She hand-fed them the first bite and it was amazing to see how close they all were.