On February 5, Mohammad Ali Sadpara from Pakistan, John Snorri from Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile went missing while climbing K2, which is said to be the deadliest mountain. Despite special rescue and search efforts, they have not been found yet and are presumed to be dead. It is a huge loss for Pakistan as we have lost our unsung hero, Ali Sadpara. He was a man who was known to be a versatile climber and mountaineer.
All national and international media outlets that have profiled him have been nothing but full of praise for Sadpara. Anyone who had ever met him speaks highly of him. A man with not enough resources but with a lot of talent, hard work and an adventurous streak, Sadpara went on to become one of Pakistan’s greatest mountaineers. What others say about Ali Sadpara also shows that the man was genuinely a lovely and humble human being.
Sadpara hailed from Gilgit-Baltistan. Born to a poor family in 1976, he started climbing in 2003 or 2004. He is the only Pakistani mountaineer to have climbed eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world. Sadpara also successfully made the winter summit of Nanga Parbat, which is known as a killer mountain, back in 2016.
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Sadpara’s son Sajid says his father was like a snow leopard, who moved extremely fast in the mountains. K2 winter summit was his dream, which took his life. Sajid says that he did see the three men climb over the bottleneck at the top, so they probably did make the summit but met an accident during the descent. The entire country was praying for Sadpara’s success when he had started K2 winter summit.
When the news came that he may have succeeded, everyone was overjoyed. When he went missing, the entire country was shocked but we were all waiting for a miracle. That he has not been found for almost 10 days now means he may not have survived, a heartbreaking truth. Sadpara will be remembered for his songs and dances on the mountains, his willpower, his humbleness and his heroic nature — a man who wanted to do so much for Pakistan even though we did not give him the recognition that he deserved.
