Review: Everest Dark

Mingma Sherpa is looking to summit Everest one more time

British Columbia filmmaker Jereme Watt spent 10 years making Everest Dark.

He was at the screening of the documentary and said that at first he was looking for a foreigner who was climbing Mount Everest to allow him to film them on their journey and not post it on social media until his film came out.

They all said no. (Cue the laughs).

The Nepalese climber is also a devout Buddhist

Then he turned to the Nepalese sherpas and there Watt found his story.

Mingma Tsiri Sherpa is 51 years old in the film and has summited Mount Everest 19 times. He stopped climbing in 2015 after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal and caused avalanches on the base camp at Mount Everest, killing 22 people. There was also an avalanche the year before that killed 16 sherpas.

The Nepalese call the world's tallest peak Chomolungma, the "Mother Goddess of the World", and believe the gods were angry, causing so many people to lose their lives.

As a result Mingma did not climb for many years, his wife was terrified something would happen to him.

Every year some 800 people attempt to climb Mount Everest, and the film shows footage of a traffic jam of people one behind the other waiting for the person in front to move one step forward. But over the years, some 300 people have died on the mountain, and around 200 bodies are still there.

The climbers set out in the middle of the night

But Mingma was itching for one last climb -- not to fulfill his ego, but to try to clear the mountain of some bodies in a bid to appease the gods.

Watt follows him on the trek and the footage he captured via his own cameras, GoPros and drones were absolutely breathtaking. Just the sheer endurance to go up the mountain with equipment, not to mention the safety risks was astonishing to watch on the big screen.

From base camp, they had to begin the climb in the middle of the night because the ice was not firm enough during the day. Watt shows the climbers in the distance, tiny lights slowly going up the mountain. 

There is also the cultural aspect of Everest, or Chomolungma. Mingma is a devout Buddhist and when he was a child he was sent to a monastery where he was able to get some education. At base camp they build an altar out of white rocks and pray, throwing rice as an offering to the gods in the hopes of returning back safely. Their prayers are a constant refrain throughout the film, underlying how dangerous their mission is.

Watch your step! Dangerous climbing

Everest Dark clearly shows what is involved in preparing for a climb, from the food and oxygen tanks to how sherpas prepare the route ahead for foreign climbers, and how easy it is to make one wrong step and fall into a crevasse and die... 

Watt told us he had wanted to make a four-hour documentary, but was told it had to be chopped down to 90 minutes and it feels like it's just the right length.

After watching the film, there's no need to visit Mount Everest after having vicariously gone up with Mingma!

Everest Dark

Directed by Jereme Watt

90 minutes