To be a Woman in the Himalaya

To be a Woman in the Himalaya (2018)

UK/Poland, Documentary, 40 min

Women climbers from two different parts of the globe challenge the traditional order of the male orientated climbing world and influence the younger generation of alpinists in Poland and Nepal. In 1992, Wanda Rutkiewicz, a Polish climber, after her conquest of the K2 mountain as the first woman in history, set to climb the next eight-thousand-meter peak – Kanchenjunga. She never returned from that expedition.  At the same time in Nepal,  another woman climber Pasang Lhamu Sherpa set up on the expedition to Everest, the mountain she climbed as the first Nepali woman in history. This was her third assent but just like Wanda, she did not return home this year. 25 years Wanda and Pasang’s successors appeared on the world arena: Kinga Baranowska and Maya Sherpa. Inspired by the courageous heroines of the last century, they continue the tradition of female himalaism raising the bar for others. The film features Anna Okopińska, a Polish climber, the first woman on an 8000 peak (Gasherbrum II), and a unique interview with Elizabeth Hawley, a month before her death. Elizabeth was a chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering expeditions and creator of the Himalayan Database, the unofficial record for climbs in the Nepalese Himalaya.

Director Eliza Kubarska

Producer Monika Braid

Cinematographers Piotr Rosołowski and Radosław Ładczuk

Production Companies
Braidmade Films

Funding Braidmade Films, TVP S.A.