Mountain Queen isn’t just a movie about a professional mountain climber, although Lhakpa Sherpa is certainly impressive as she trudges through the deathly terrain of Everest (and at 50 years old at that!). It’s also the heartbreaking story of a broken family in repair. Sherpa reveals shocking details about her abusive husband, fellow climber Gheorghe Dijmărescu, and we see how it’s affected her two daughters, one of which is so hurt, she can’t bring herself to speak to her mother. The main thread of the movie is her 10th attempt to scale the tallest peak in the world, but Director Lucy Walker smartly intercuts this with tales of Sherpa’s own life—a laborious obstacle on its own—rightfully framing Sherpa as the strong woman that she is.

How do you climb the highest peak and come back to washing dishes in Conneticut? If Sherpa were any other person in America, she’d be celebrated, not smacked. Something she says that I can’t shake off goes, “Everest is my doctor, it fixes my soul. When I go down, I’m a mouse. I’m a small mouse.” But no one comes close to her height when she’s up there.