Chinese border guards didn’t expect dozens of international mountaineers to witness the shooting and killing of Kelsang Namtso, a 17-year-old nun, on the Nangpa Pass on Sept. 30, 2006.
But American mountain guide and climber Luis Benitez was one of the many on the 19,500-foot pass that day, which separates Tibet from Nepal, and is just 20 miles northwest of Mount Everest. He saw the young nun gunned down by Chinese border police and emailed the story of her murder. Other mountaineers filmed the death.
Based in the Vail Valley, Benitez will travel to Breckenridge to present the resulting documentary film, “Tibet: Murder in the Snow,” as part of CMC’s Speaker Series on Feb. 6, from 7-9 p.m. at the Eileen and Paul Finkel Auditorium at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge, 107 Denison Placer Rd. Tickets are $10; students are free. The film has screened at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, as well as in Australia, Poland, Switzerland and other countries.