“TRANGO” follows Christina ‘Lusti’ Lustenberger and Jim Morrison, joined by Nick McNutt and Chantel Astorga, as they prepare for and ski the first descent of the Great Trango Glacier. They navigate risk, grapple with grief, and face physical danger. At 6,000 meters, constant exposure to the elements tests their resolve, but it’s the unspoken trust and support within their expedition team that allows them to face the unimaginable together.
Athlete tested, expedition proven, the film isn’t just about mountaineering — it’s about courage, perseverance, pushing limits, overcoming challenges, achieving the impossible, and ultimately, the life-changing power of exploration.
Cinema Femme had the honor of screening “TRANGO” and following the inspirational and moving Q&A, interviewing Lusti at this year’s Sundance.
How did you get involved in this project?
I actually pitched the project to North Face. After an all-women ski expedition to Bath, I pitched it in summer 2022, and we went in the springtime of ‘23.
That’s fantastic! How did you come up with the idea?
I mean, I think as a skier or a climber, you hear about the great ranges and the Himalayas are definitely that. And I had always been curious about Pakistan and the mountains there and had heard stories, had read stories, and so there was just this like pull deep inside me to go there and experience them for myself. And I feel like I was in this place in my career where I had mastered a lot of skills to go there and do an incredible thing. And so, yeah, I just felt extremely ready to take on that challenge — to take on one of the world’s great ranges and one of the world’s great peaks with my own vision for what, you know, could be possible.
After you pitched it, were they on board right away?
Yeah, I mean, there’s always like this massaging, you know? Like, yeah, they’re on board, but it’s ‘Who’s the team you want to go with?’ And, well, we’re only going to send one photographer and originally they were like, ‘Yeah, we’ll send you and we’ll send a photographer,’ and I was like, no, I’m gonna film this trip. So there’s like a lot of pushing for what you believe in, in knowing that you’ve been doing this a long time and if you accomplish what you set out to do, you’re gonna want to film, you’re gonna want to photograph, and you’re going to want to be really sure that story will be TV more. So it was like the North Face believing in me and what I, you know, envisioned for our team to go and deal and giving us that you know, that Leeeway to go being good, yeah.
One thing that I related to was how fear can just take over and how you bring yourself back into the moment. I feel like on an everyday basis, people deal with this crippling fear for just anything, right? But you’re doing something so incredible — how do you control it up there? What goes through your mind?
I think and I sometimes feel like the fear comes before the actual motion, you know, and there’s so many things that I think are scary, and it’s these places where we feel extremely vulnerable. And going up on that mountain with that exposure underneath you, you are probably in the most vulnerable place you can be in your life, but you break it down into these smaller things of like, you know: the snow, the stability, and the weather patterns; and your team, and a rope, and crampons. And so there’s all of these things you can do and use to your advantage to protect yourself in this like wildly inhospitable terrain, and I think that, and I’ve been skiing my entire life.
I have devoted my life to mastering all of these skills. And I think that I am quite intentional with what I’m doing up there and quite calculated with my decision making. And so by being certain when I go, that kind of eliminates that fear; but, you know, by saying that, that’s everything I can do to eliminate it, but I’m also not naive to the rest and how dangerous what I do is. And that we are in this, like, extremely exposed situation. I think it’s this cushion full of, like, you do need to push yourself extremely hard and the conditions to go and find these things. But, you know, you see us pull back in the first year because the conditions weren’t right. There was some sickness, there was some terrain that we couldn’t pass.
And I think that’s also one of the most important things is knowing when it just doesn’t feel right and not making these emotional decisions. It’s trusting your intuition, and your process, and what you believe in, and kind of standing strong with that. Because I think if I didn’t turn around time, time and again, well, I wouldn’t succeed at these things, but I also probably wouldn’t be here to tell this story because I would have pushed too hard. Turning around is a huge, huge part of what I do. But you learn from that, you learn from that process, and then if it’s something you believe in and strong; if you’re gonna go and do it again and you are gonna adjust these subtle changes to, you know, hopefully have a safe passing, then that’s great.
That’s so nice to hear that. There are so many ways to think about failure, but when you look at it as part of the process, that’s brilliant.
Yeah, I think all failure is just another opportunity to learn, and to adapt, and to change; and I also think that fear is the most limited emotion that we have. And it’s not how doing these things without fear there, it’s about doing it with fear. And trusting the process of coexisting with it. Because we didn’t do the things we were afraid of, we just stayed on our couch.
What do you hope that females, non-binary people or transgender persons get from this film?
I think that for me, I go into the mountains because it’s where I feel, like, the most beautiful, strong, and sexy, but I also feel like the mountains surmount gender, and we are equal. We just show up as our strongest self — the person who we show up as that day, and that’s all I want to do is show up as my strongest self — and by doing that, by pushing my sport, I think that that will inspire the next generation of females to push and to be curious with what’s possible. And I think that, yeah, I’ve always wanted just like my actions to kind of speak for me. And I think that Hillary was also like an incredible inspiration to me. And so I really hoped that Americans will be an incredible inspiration to the next generation for strong females who want to explore their wildest dreams.
Would you mind if I go into the consequences, if something goes sideways? I’ve lost a lot of friends, mentors, and people that have done this sport for a long time and think at some point, they’ve mastered it. But it’s kind of just like this, you know, it becomes your purpose, and your life; like something that, yeah, just brings this vibrancy to your life. But it’s hard to explain, really. I don’t know. But there is this frequency that is like going through your body when you’re up there.
When you got to the top, was it different?
The crazy thing is when you’re at the top, you’re only halfway there, right? So it’s the switch in mindset. It feels like victory, but you also are like, okay, well, we need to focus still — it’s not over. We, you know, we still had two repels, a lot of skiing to be done. There’s crevasses, we’re skiing over wild exposure, so it’s like, yeah, you’re halfway there. And and I think, you know, when we came back to base camp that night and we were sitting in the tent and — that’s when it starts to sink in and you you feel this, like, just extreme gratitude for the riches and for the amount of effort and perseverance and trust that you put in yourself.
And I do think that, I mentioned it in the answers, but like the harder you just grind away at something and work at something, really the richer the accomplishment feels at the end. Like, if it came easy, it wouldn’t be an accomplishment. Like, right? And so that really was what transcended from Trango; it was hard to change my life in many ways. To feel really, truly proud of what you’ve done is, I think — something that females do is we’re our hardest critic and we don’t give ourselves enough grace to be proud of ourselves and we’re always just, like, what’s next? I need to do this or that and be stronger, be faster, be skinnier, whatever. It’s just like, no, be proud of where you are and what you’re doing.
