'I climbed Mount Everest when pregnant'
Very few TV programmes have moved me enough to cry. Netflix’s The Swimmers, which follows Syrian refugees Yusra and Sara Mardini and their journey to becoming Olympic swimmers, was the last to do so in 2022 – then Mountain Queen was released last month.
The docufilm’s protagonist Lhakpa Sherpa, 48, was raised as the daughter of yak farmers in rural Nepal. She told Women's Health that she was denied an education and the opportunity to work since women in her culture were ‘expected to stay home and care for the house and family’, something which ‘didn't change until the 80s and 90s’, but 'girls now go to school and college’. Growing up in such a patriarchal society meant that when Lhakpa gave birth to her son out of wedlock when she was 20, she was made an outcast in her village.
Eventually, she immigrated to America, where she married Romanian George Dijmarescu and the pair had two daughters Sunny and Shiny. But as George became an ‘aggressive alcoholic’, he became abusive to Lhakpa and she was forced to flee the family home and seek refuge in a women’s shelter. She now lives in Connecticut, working as a cleaner and crowdfunding her summits, and she still cannot read or write.
Her story is one of resilience in the face of sexism, poverty and abusive relationships, and Mountain Queen tells how climbing became her way of showing strength.
Despite her family and friends discouraging her from climbing – this was ‘only for men’, of course – she cut her hair in order to ‘look like a boy’ and become a mountain porter, carrying supplies for tourists. She succeeded, and in 2000, she became the first Nepali woman to summit and survive Mount Everest.
This made her a heroine in her home village, but even that became a segue to backhanded sexism: ‘[My father] told me I am a son. He put me on son level,’ Lhakpa says in the film. She is now the only woman to have summited Mount Everest ten times – one of which she did while pregnant – and in 2023, she summitted the world’s second highest peak, K2.
Upon interviewing Lhakpa, I’m even more fascinated by her unwavering determination than I was while watching the film. When I ask how she navigated climbing while pregnant, she simply replied: ‘There isn’t time to stop. I was definitely worried, but I didn’t do anything different. I just had to push through.’ And that was that.
One of the final scenes in the docufilm shows Lhakpa teaching her two daughters Sunny and Shiny how to climb. When I ask if she would like them to take climbing to her scale, she nonchalantly replies, ‘They can climb Everest if that is what they want to do.’ What’s stopping them, eh? It’s clear she holds the same resolute confidence in every woman as she does herself, so I caught up with her in the hope that she might inspire you, too.
Tell me about your childhood
I grew up in Makalu village in Nepal, with very beautiful mountains. The beautiful views. Hiking. Lots of animals. At my age at that time, reading and writing wasn’t allowed for women, so I would drop my brothers to school, travelling two hours each way, but I wasn’t allowed inside. Women could not go.
But things changed over the years, and my three younger sisters were able to go. And now women go to school, go to college. At the time of me growing up, it was expected that women stay home and take care of the house and family. That changed sometime during the eighties or nineties. Before, women were just expected to take care of children, clean, cook, and farm.
What made you want to climb?
My dad liked to hike. My dad would take me hiking. I was probably about 13 when he first brought me hiking, but climbing was not allowed, and I wasn’t allowed to be a porter like my brothers and cousins. I couldn’t do it looking like a woman, so I cut my hair and pretended I was a boy.
Being a porter was a man’s job. That’s just what was established in the culture. My family thought I was weird, that something is wrong with me. They were very judgemental about it.
How do you manage your monthly cycle while climbing?
That is very difficult, but women can do anything. Women are strong. If they want something, they can figure it out. I didn’t have a choice. There was a time I had severe period pain on Everest, but I just had to push through. There isn’t time to stop. There wasn’t any support for these periods. That’s my problem and I just had to push through.
Can you tell me about climbing while pregnant?
I was two and a half months pregnant with Shiny when I climbed Everest in 2006. I was definitely worried about going up, but I didn’t do anything different pregnant. It made me more determined. Stronger. The only thing I remember is craving canned peaches. I didn’t have the peaches with me, so I requested peaches over the walkie-talkie and my brother sent some to base camp. The cans were frozen, so we had to boil them to thaw them out. I felt strong at the time, I didn’t experience any pain or fatigue.
Lots of Sherpas have died as mountain porters, has this ever scared you?
Whatever you want to do, you have to do it. If you are scared in any job, maybe it’s not the right thing for you. You must love what you do. Washing dishes is not my job. This is what I do to pay my bills and take care of my children. When I go into the mountains, that is my job. I love it. So many jobs are dangerous - army, policeman, pilot. If we are scared, no one would do these jobs.
Can you talk me through the first time you climbed Everest?
The first time I climbed was in 2000 with a women’s team. I was young and worried about my son who was with my sister as I didn’t want anything to happen to me and him be left. But it was my long-time dream, so I wasn’t really very scared. I was focused.
2004 was the scariest climb. I was so worried I wouldn’t see my daughter Sunny again because my husband at the time George told me I wasn’t going to see Sunny again if I went away. But I knew I would. And I had to show him and my daughter I was strong.
Have you ever had a near death experience?
Oh yes. Many times. When I climbed K2 in 2023, I thought maybe I wouldn’t make it. The weather was terrible. We couldn’t see a thing. It was like walking with a sheet in front of you. The chance to summit was so slim. We were stuck at camp three for two nights. Luckily, we got one day that was good enough for summit.
How has experiencing an abusive relationship impacted your approach to climbing?
When people told me no, I wanted to show them that I am strong, and it gave me more power to do it. It has made me strong in my mind.
Will you ever stop climbing as you get older?
I will climb Everest again. I will be 80 years old and on the top of Mount Everest! I don’t feel like it is getting harder as I get older, I feel like it is getting easier since my children are now grown, and I have more freedom to climb as much as I like. My children don’t need me as much anymore. I work so hard and keep going. I know the mountains as well as a top doctor or lawyer knows medicine and the law.
Do you hope your children will climb, too?
They have already been climbing with me. Sunny has summited in New Hampshire with me and Shiny in Virginia with me. I’ve told them that hiking is a part time job. That they need to finish school. I am their coach when they climb but I am also their mother, so I always want them to be safe. We are working on summiting the 50 highest mountains in the US. Denali is a very technical mountain, and I feel that if they can summit Denali then they can summit Everest if that is what they would want to do.
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