Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: August 24, 2023 | 
| 中文
(L to R) Sajid Ali Sadpara and late Muhammad Ali Sadpara
25-year-old Sajid Ali Sadpara considers the second highest peak of the world and the highest in Pakistan, the 8,611 meters high K-2, as his father’s resting place. Sajid Sadpara is one of the three young Pakistanis, besides Asad Ali Memon and Naila Kiani, who summited the highest peak of the world, 8,848.86 meters high Mount Everest in May 2023. With that Sajid became the first Pakistani to climb the Mount Everest without the help of oxygen cylinders or assistance from Sherpas.
Sajid, son of the world-renowned mountain climber of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, is continuing the legacy of his deceased father who lost his life in February 2021 while on an expedition to ascend K-2 along with the then 21-year-old Sajid, and Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri Sigurjónsson and Chilean mountaineer Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto. Sajid who had already summited K-2 once in 2019 at the age of 19, was forced to descend midway this time due to an oxygen regulator malfunction, leaving the other members of the team at the K-2 Bottleneck, close to the summit. The K-2 Bottleneck is a narrow couloir, which is overhung by seracs from the ice field east of the summit. The couloir is located only 400 m below the summit, and climbers have to traverse about 100 m exposed to the seracs to pass this stretch, considered the most dangerous part of the route. Sadpara, Sigurjónsson and Prieto continued their ascent to the summit but did not return by night as planned, and were declared missing on 5 February 2021.
Young Sajid (right) with his father, late Ali Sadpara
Sajid grew up in the Sadpara valley of Baltistan region, where most men either work as livestock farmers, porters or as guides to mountaineers. Sajid did his graduation and joined his father as a mountain climber from a young age. His father had successfully climbed eight of the 14 eight-thousand-meter-high peaks, including K-2 in 2018. The fatal expedition in which he lost his life was the second time he was ascending K-2, and his first attempt to scale the peak in winter. ‘K2 has embraced my father forever,’ Sajid said while addressing a press conference called by Gilgit Baltistan’s tourism ministry and the family of the climber to announce the loss of the three mountaineers. His father was the only Pakistani to climb eight of the world's 14 highest mountains. He made history with the first ever winter summit of Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest peak. Sajid promised to carry on his father’s dreams and mission and continue to walk in his footsteps at the same press conference.
‘The three climbers going missing was one of the biggest accidents of Pakistan’s mountaineering history. It completely changed the perception about winter climbing in Pakistan. The field of mountaineering and our contributions began to be noticed. People learned more about K2, the location of the K2 Bottleneck, topography of Pakistan’s mountains and who Ali Sadpara was.’ Sajid said in an interview at the time, ‘My father’s disappearance affected me and my family very deeply. Personally, I faced a lot of mental and emotional anguish. I was greatly disturbed, and my younger sister kept asking where Papa had gone,’ he added.
Sajid during one of his K2 expeditions
In July 2023, six-months after his father’s demise, Sajid again went on K-2 as part of a special mission to find the bodies of Muhammad Ali Sadpara, John Snorri and Juan Pablo Mohr. All three bodies were eventually found.
‘We found all three bodies with the help of a drone. John Snorri’s body was found above Camp 4 near the Bottleneck. We then found my father’s body above the Bottleneck. We also found the body of Juan Pablo Mohr,’ Sajid recalls. Since it was impossible to bring the bodies down, Sajid and his companions buried all three deceased mountaineers on K-2.
Sajid with Nadira (Oman) and Naili Mohammadi (Saudi resident from Lebanon), two Muslim female mountaineers
Sajid took another expedition to K-2 in August 2023, along with a team of 5 other fellow mountaineers from the region. The team cleared over 200 kilograms of spent oxygen canisters, mangled tents and snarled ropes discarded over many decades by climbers who were trying to surmount the summit. This was Sajid Sadpara’s ultimate homage to his father, who had won many laurels for his country. His father was the only climber in the world who had summited Nanga Parbat four times, including the first winter and autumn ascent.
Sajid is the eldest amongst his siblings, which includes two younger brothers Mazahir Hussain and Jawahir Hussain and a sister. Sajid Sadpara has kept training in order to take on more challenges, the ultimate conquest was his successful ascent of Mount Everest this year. ‘Every child in our Sadpara Valley grows up climbing mountains and it becomes our second nature. Our lives revolve around mountains and we earn our livelihoods from these mountains. Some become low or high-altitude porters, while a few actually make a name for themselves as mountaineers. My father was one such son of the mountains, but a highly successful and acclaimed mountaineer. I am committed to taking his passion for hoisting Pakistan’s flag on the highest most peaks of the world,’ Sajid declared. Following in the footsteps of his father, not even a month after his summit of Everest in June 2023, Sajid summited the 8126 meters high Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest peak in the world and the second highest in Pakistan, again without the aid of an oxygen cylinder.
Sajid dancing with his fellows during an expedition
‘I hope that one day mountain climbing is offered the kind of support and appreciation in Pakistan that it deserves. Our country has a lot of mountains that can draw international climbers to come here. They can be a steady source of income for the youth of our region, most of whom work as guides, porters and translators for international climbers. This can also be a good source of revenue for the country, as every international mountaineer has to pay a fee for permission to climb a high-altitude mountain. I run a professional service to guide international mountaineers in order to earn a living, besides following my own passion for mountain climbing. We need to improve the infrastructure, reduce red tape and market our mountains better internationally as a destination of choice for international climbers,’ Sajid opines.
Sajid with Samina Baig, the famous mountaineer from Hunza
Sajid is determined that in the coming years he will scale every one of the fourteen highest peaks on earth. His father’s tragic demise has caused Sajid immense grief, but his father’s legacy is a source of lifelong inspiration for him.
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