Apr 30: 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible (2021) dir. Torquil Jones

This Netflix documentary followed Nims Purja on his climbing challenge during 2020.

There are 14 Peaks in the world above 8000m.

This puts climbers into the "death zone".

Sherpa and members of the Nepalese climbing community were always the pioneers of high altitude climbing, but they weren't always given the credit they deserved.

Nims' plan was to climb the peaks in 3 phases:

Phase 1 in Nepal - 6 in the Spring season

Phase 2 in Pakistan

Phase 3 Nepal / China - he needed special permission to climb in Tibet - there's something to be said there about the status of a number of locations with respect to China.

Seven years was the previous fastest time to climb the peaks. He wanted to do them in seven months "if he could stay alive". He was described as a "crazy guy from Nepal".

Nothing is Impossible.The first mountain was Annapurna - one in three people who attempt to reach the summit die in the attempt. After successfully summiting, he then went back up again to attempt to rescue some climbers who had got stuck on the mountain and faced dying as darkness fell.

There was a lot of interest in his challenge, particularly after the publicity of the photograph that he took showing the queue of climbers waiting in the Death Zone to have their chance to cross the Hillary Step and reach the summit.

The photo went viral and also earned him some money.

Image copyright: Nims Purja

Here's the trailer from the film which gives a flavour for the tremendous filming challenges faced by the film makers as well as the magnitude of his achievement.

I supported the project by buying one of the t-shirts that Nims had printed during the earlier phases of the project, and ahead of the picture that Nims took close to the summit of Everest that went viral and helped to provide an impetus to get further funding.

Since the movie, Nims has continued to work to show that the Sherpa people are the real heroes whenever anyone reaches one of the major summits in the region.

The pandemic meant there was a moratorium on climbing Everest, which led to a loss of income.

I use some of the materials from Matt Podbury's website when teaching a unit about Everest.