The poster of Captain Qomolangma, a documentary recording Chinese climbers summiting the mountain in 2019 (COURTESY PHOTO)

The best time for scaling the colossus usually occurs between April and May. The 2019 climbing season of Qomolangma made global headlines. It was the deadliest since 2015 and received the largest number of climbers, in turn triggering the “traffic jam” at Hillary Step, the vertical rock and bottleneck a few hundred meters below the summit.

That year, Sula Wangping and his team of 14 also headed to the mountain. Eight of them were amateur climbers. Sula taught them everything he knows about the sport and together they had already conquered mountains sitting at heights ranging from 5,000 meters to 7,000 meters. It was high time to up the stakes and aim for the (8,848-meter) pinnacle of mountaineering.

Mountaineering puts to the test physical endurance, climbing skills, and persistence. All of these can be found in the recently released documentary Captain Qomolangma. Postponed for two months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it finally arrived in cinemas on July 2, telling the stories of amateur climbers scaling its peak.

Sula Wangping's team embarked on their journey from Southeast Ridge via Nepal. Through the lens, audiences get an up-close view at how the mountaineers overcame obstacles, including physical exhaustion, injuries and hypoxemia.

A still of Captain Qomolangma (COURTESY PHOTO)

On May 15, 2019, they were among the first climbers to set out from base camp this climbing season. Their bold decision may not have saved them from turbulent weather conditions, but it did allow them to avoid the nightmarish traffic jam— leading them to become the first group of climbers to reach the summit in that climbing season.

The documentary can bring mountaineering to more people, Sula Wangping told Beijing Review. "I think the movie can also influence younger generations of climbers hoping to summit Qomolangma, and help them adjust their training and better prepare for the journey."

"Set off only when knowing the score," the 39-year-old captain from Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province stressed.

For Sula Wangping, the documentary's significance has expanded from "recording the experience of a lifetime" to "the one and only work for the next decades to come" because of the danger and difficulties facing production. It is said to be the first domestic documentary made using drones at such a high altitude with the approval of Nepal Government.

Due to the severe weather conditions on the mountain, it was impossible to find a professional film crew to join the undertaking. The other six team members, who were herdsmen in Sula Wangping’s hometown and became mountain guides with his support, served as cameramen.

Eight years ago, when the captain decided to work on the project, he selected these members to learn how to shoot films from scratch. Before the documentary, they accumulated rich experience and worked on many movies, such as The Captain in 2019. The latter was based on the safe emergency landing of a Sichuan Airlines flight in 2018 and required lots of shot at high altitudes.

Ascending Qomolangma, each of them was carrying some 40 kg worth of equipment, four times the weight carried by ordinary climbers. Whenever an emergency occurred, they would stop shooting and act as mountain guides again to ensure the safety of the team, another premium guarantee for Sula Wangping and his climbers making their way up.

"I have two dreams: leading my team members to the 'Roof of the World,' and turning the story into a movie," the captain said. The project cost him nearly 10 years and over 10 million yuan ($1.49 million) without any sponsors. "It was more challenging than ascending Qomolangma."

"The documentary is a tribute to people's persistence in the face of hardship, which resonates with people living under a pandemic cloud for more than two years," Qin Xiaoyu, the documentary’s producer, said following a preview in Beijing in June.

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