"Sherpa" - the movie

russell brice the kiwi who runs Himalayan expeditions on everest and employs a lot of sherpas and porters never had any issues of violence from those he employed. seems it was a minority group that had a run in with simone moro, an italian who spoke his mind impulsively when he clashed with one of the sherpas high on the mountain... and the rest is history..

so you're a high altitude sherpa. you are literally putting your life on the line a significant number of times for the future of your family, to guide someone to the top of the world. but it pays a lot better than any other job you're going to get, so you can raise your kids to get a decent education and get out of the poverty trap so they dont have to work in those conditions

Nice thought except that a large portion of the travel companies that employ these guides pay them slave wages. Ive heard of Himalayan Expeditions and they are one of the good guys but still they reward the Sherpas at a level which wouldnt stand here. The problem is not that they dont want to pay more. Its that they have to have costs comparable to the other cowboys or they dont have customers. Only way wages go up for these Sherpas is when the government dictates they must but then they would have to put the wages up for everyone else not working in tourism as well. Its like here so many tourism jobs only pay minimum wage or just above. Some jobs pay the minimum hourly rate but only when there is work. Ski lift operators get a little over min wage but if the snows no good they aint being paid. You can take it as a fair bet that if the operators were allowed to pay less they would

yes its still low wages with the sherpas being the best paid.

on demand streaming http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/feature-documentaries/S01E001/sherpa

I've just seen it for the first time. Did I miss something or did the narrative show the guide telling his clients that his sherpa team had been threatened to have their legs broken if they continued, right after they'd told him that no such threat existed?

@izogi - At 1.15.00 the expedition Team Leader briefs his climbers that the Sherpa crew have been threatened (including legs broken). At 1.14.00 the head Sherpa tells camera there were no threats 1.12.00 At the meeting with the Sherpa Crew the TL asks if they've heard talk of violent retribution from other Sherpa. Head Sherpa says "no". At 1.07.15 the TL tells the climbers he's heard that the rebel Sherpa have threatened to beat up working Sherpa that go through the ice field. I get the impression the Team Leader had heard of threats to his Sherpa crew that his Sherpas had not. Here is a movie link, tho you may have to swat a few pop-ups - http://sharemovies.net/watch/EdBAgkGj-sherpa.html EDIT - My time markers are for the Sharemovie site. Add 3 or 4 min if using Maori TV On Demand.

Thanks for that. I appreciate there might be context that's not shown, and perhaps wasn't available to the filmmakers. I just thought that the fact they showed it that way, with no explanation, made it seem like the filmmakers were trying to make some kind of point to say that the guide was lying for some reason. The obvious explanation seemed that he didn't want to face his clients without an explanation that they'd accept, and so he (allegedly) lied. I've no idea if it's a true or justifiable claim, but it's the message I took from the film.

Yeah. The film doesn't explain that disjoint. Tho, it does continue with precis by other climbers who develop their own spin on what & why. Maybe that's an illustration of people creating their own versions of reality (as we are too)?. A loose end from a doco.

Then again, it showcases a range of human dynamics centred on an icy rock. Humans, huh ?.