Sher­pa

Next time you’re sat doing a pub quiz and the ques­tion ​‘Who was the first per­son to reach the sum­mit of Mount Ever­est?’ comes up, you might want to think twice before scrib­bling down the name ​‘Edmund Hillary’. True, the New Zealand explor­er stood atop the world on 29 May, 1953, but he wasn’t alone.

By Hillary’s side that day was Ten­z­ing Nor­gay, an influ­en­tial Sher­pa moun­taineer who has been a foot­note of one of the defin­ing moments of the 20^th cen­tu­ry for over 60 years. Thanks to the per­sist­ing igno­rance of West­ern media, Norgay’s lega­cy sur­vives almost exclu­sive­ly through Himalayan folk­lore. This fas­ci­nat­ing doc­u­men­tary from Aus­tralian direc­tor Jen­nifer Peedom sets the record straight by acknowl­edg­ing Norgay’s achieve­ments, unpack­ing var­i­ous myths sur­round­ing the Sher­pa peo­ple before attempt­ing to under­stand their chang­ing role in what is now a major tourism industry.

Ever­est was once the ulti­mate sym­bol of human endurance which only an elite, expe­ri­enced few were able to con­quer. Today it’s a play­ground for wealthy thrill-seek­ers who assem­ble en masse at one of two per­ma­nent base camps each sum­mer hop­ing to scale not-so-new heights (the search term ​‘Ever­est self­ie’ speaks vol­umes). Over the past decade or so this influx of casu­al climbers has turned this once noble activ­i­ty into a cir­cus, putting a huge strain on the Sher­pa com­mu­ni­ty in the process.

Peedom was com­pelled to inves­ti­gate upon learn­ing of a seri­ous alter­ca­tion that occurred in 2013 when a Euro­pean climber was accused of insult­ing a Sher­pa. Ten­sions run high through­out this insight­ful, sen­si­tive (and cru­cial­ly apo­lit­i­cal) por­trait of Everest’s long-exploit­ed indige­nous pop­u­la­tion, as sev­er­al sea­soned white expe­di­tion lead­ers are made to defend their lucra­tive posi­tion as inter­me­di­aries between the for­eign­ers (who pay upwards of $90,000 for the expe­ri­ence) and locals (some of whom can earn up to $5,000 in a good sea­son). It all comes to a head when Peedom’s lens oppor­tune­ly cap­tures a trag­ic inci­dent involv­ing a group of guides on the Mountain’s most treach­er­ous stage, the shock­waves of which ele­vate Sher­pa​’s emo­tive mes­sage to anoth­er level.