There are two distinct paths to take if you want to summit Mount Everest. The mountain can be scaled from the north out of Tibet, but most people looking to stand on top of the world prefer to begin their arduous journey southeast in Nepal. Of course, climbing Everest is an extremely difficult feat to achieve not just physically but mentally, as well. However, it is also an expensive ambition, one that takes a lot of training and preparation alongside pricey gear and the possibility of hiring local Sherpas—a Tibetan ethnic group that often makes a living assisting mountaineers up Everest—to help you on your ascent. Because of this, many of the people that take on the mountain today have access to the funds needed to make the climb, and there is often a lack of diversity celebrating at the top.
In Nancy Svendsen’s documentary Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest, she chooses instead to focus on a local Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu, who made it her life goal to be the first Nepalese woman to summit Everest. She achieved this, but ultimately ended up losing her life during the descent. However, Lhamu’s triumph and her empowering story are still celebrated throughout the world today.
Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest begins with Lhamu’s daughter who explains that she is now starting to understand her mother’s obsession with climbing such a dangerous mountain. Lhamu attempted to summit Everest three times before she was eventually successful on the fourth climb, and every expedition meant that she left behind her young children. If she were to die on the mountain, she would be leaving them without a mother, but her passion for climbing and her desire to be an inspiration to all Nepalese women overpowered this fear. The documentary does an excellent job of depicting Lhamu as a passionate mountaineer, while still taking care to show her love and devotion to her family. Footage of Lhamu living her daily life is peppered throughout the film, and Lhamu herself even says at one point, “I wasn’t born a mountaineer. I’m just a housewife.” Yet, she comes across as graceful but fierce on the screen—a woman embodying multitudes inside of her.
The film is a captivating look into one woman’s obsession with an impossible task and how she pushed against society’s expectations of her to achieve her dream. “Even though I’m a mother, I’m attempting this to inspire other Nepali women,” she tells the camera. Lhamu reached the top in 1993, but even today, mothers still struggle with maintaining a sense of self outside of their mothering. To be passionate about anything aside from your children is often still thought of as selfish, and the struggle to resist reducing ourselves to mothers only is very real. In this way, Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest is an empowering story of maintaining a sense of agency in the world. However, the film runs slightly short of giving us a truly deep look into the complexities of what Lhamu was trying to achieve. Yes, Svendsen makes us aware of Lhamu’s goals and desires, but it would have been interesting to hear even more from her children about what they felt about their mother’s accomplishment and eventual death.
Ultimately though, Pasang glistens simply because it chooses to focus on an unlikely mountaineering subject. This is not Free Solo. This is not one man fighting against the odds of his own body. This is the story of a woman fighting against the odds of her body, yes. But also, the odds of an entire society that would rather prefer it if she had just kept her feet flat on the ground.
Photo courtesy of Slice of Pie Productions
The post Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest appeared first on Spectrum Culture.