Mount Everest is no fairy tale: it has become the highest graveyard on the planet. Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first summited Everest in 1953, more than 6,000 people have reached the peak with over 300 climbers dying in the attempt. To this day, around 200 bodies remain abandoned on the mountain, frozen in ice and snow. Tragically, one-third of those bodies are Sherpa.
Mingma Tsiri Sherpa, revered in Nepal as a national hero, stands among the best high-altitude climbers of all time. Over the years, he has led numerous rescue missions on Everest, sadly witnessing many climbers' final moments while surviving through many close calls himself.After the 2015 earthquake killed 21 people at Base Camp and nearly 9,000 others across Nepal, God visited Mingma in a haunting dream stating if he tried to summit Everest again, he would die there. Despite being two summits away from a world record, Mingma swore off climbing forever.
When 15 more climbers perish in traffic jams high on the mountain in 2019, Mingma makes a fateful decision. The mountain has been desecrated. The mountain gods are angry. And the only way to appease them is to embark on a life-threatening mission with a small team of elite Sherpa climbers and attempt to recover abody from Everest’s unpredictable and hostile Death Zone.
Oscar-nominated executive producer Ina Fichman (Fire of Love) teams up with veteran producer Merit Jensen Carr and writer/director Jereme Watt and partner writer/producer Michael Bodnarchuk to tell the extraordinary story of Mingma Tsiri Sherpa in Everest Dark. The film pulls no punches as it explores the profound impacts of the climbing industry on both Mount Everest and the Sherpa people – examining their culture, lives, and future.
Mingma’s mission is to expose the dark side ofEverest, where increasing crowds and deaths highlight the life-threatening risks Sherpa guides face. Through his story, Mingma hopes viewers will come to respect the mountain and better understand the true cost of its commercialization
2025
