Another great mountaineering documentary, this time about the true victors of Everest, the Sherpa. Jennifer Peedom does a great job revealing the Sherpa spirit and how they've been exploited by Westerners since Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered Everest in 1953. These soft-spoken, good-natured workhorses of the Himalaya are finally using some of that Westernized education to speak truth to power and refuse to kowtow to expedition clients and go against their religious beliefs just to get these wealthy climbers to the summit of Everest. I believe the Sherpa are finally realizing their worth on the mountain and are unafraid to say "no" even when it means that their families may not eat the rest of the year. As much as I disdain some of their tactics, I'm glad to see that they're no longer afraid of these high priced expeditions and the Westerners who can afford to be at Base Camp. I've been reading mountaineering books for almost 2 decades and have been seeing a trend of total disregard and disrespect by Westerners for these 8000M peaks, and the people who live among them. If you have enough money, you can afford to pay to have a Sherpa haul your ass up the mountain to the summit. The amount of trash left behind is neglected by the clients who assume it's someone else's job to pick it up. Just as they expect the Sherpa to serve them tea in their sleeping bags and save their sorry asses if they get into trouble high up.
Towards the end of the film, I couldn't help but feel Russell Brice was just a tad disingenuous when he makes the decision to pull the plug on the 2014 expedition, blaming it on fear for the Sherpa -- both from other Sherpa threats of broken legs if his Sherpa go on with the climb, and fear of another tragedy. Phurba Tashi even says that he hadn't heard about any of these threats and that the decision was already made before he came back to camp to discuss what to do. Brice made his decision, but then blames it on the very people he says he's trying to protect.
Part of me is sad that Phurba retired from climbing. It would have been wonderful to see him snag the record of 23 Everest summits. Yet a larger part of me was happy that he listened to his family and retired for their happiness. Phurba Tashi has been such a large piece of the history of the Sherpa on Everest over the past couple of decades and I like to think that his spirit and nature have helped mold the Sherpa community on the mountain. He will be sorely missed.
If you want to understand mountaineering from the real workhorses of Everest, this film is a good primer. I'm hoping it will make folks think twice about the people who truly make the expeditions, and it's not the clients or the expedition leaders. As they demonstrated, without them, there is no climbing on Everest.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2016
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Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2022
Top reviews from other countries
Dan FM
Auf deutschen Geräten per se nicht abspielbar - erst durch Rücksetzen der Länderkennung
Reviewed in Germany on September 28, 2018Peter R Hicks
It is a great film and will have appeal to a wide audience ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2017Dave W
Formatting Issue? Will not play correctly
Reviewed in Canada on August 22, 2021