Mountain Queen: The SUmmits of Lhkapa Sherpa

In 2022, I was fortunate enough to jump on this project as the high altitude DP. Not only did I get the opportunity to summit Mt. Everest for a second time, I was able to share the summit with Lhkapa on her 10th ascent.

My job started when Lhkapa left base camp heading for the summit. I filmed handheld and drone through the icefall, and continued on with her, resting at Camp 2 for a week or so before heading to the summit. On our summit push, we thought we had a weather window that didn’t materialize and had to stay the night at camp 4, which was easily one of the worst nights of my life.

I can safely say that while the 2nd summit was substantially better than the first, it was still a difficult project to pull off, and I came away with an even deeper respect for the Sherpa community that make projects like this possible.