Mountaineer Sajid Ali Sadpara on Saturday became the first Pakistani to scale the 8,091-metre tall An-napurna mountain in Nepal — the world’s 10th highest peak — without the support of high-altitude porters and supplemental oxygen.
This type of ascent, where climbers are not sup-ported by high-altitude porters from base camp to the summit, is called Alpine style. During this summit, mountaineers manage everything — carrying food, tent, ropes and setting routes — themselves.
Following Sadpara’s latest feat, Kathmandu-based commercial adventure operator Seven Summit Treks congratulated him in an Instagram post.
“Confirmed by Chhang Dawa Sherpa (the en-terprise’s director), Sajid Ali Sadpara, a son of leg-end Ali Sadpara, successfully reached the top of mountain Annapurna this afternoon, unsupported and without using supplementary oxygen, as a part of Seven Summit Treks’ Annapurna Expedition 2023.
“Congratulations Sajid Ali Sadpara,” the post read. Separately, Alpine Club of Pakistan secretary Karar Haidri also congratulated Sadpara in a state-ment.
Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Khalid Khursheed Khan also congratulated the mountaineer on Twitter, saying: “Heartiest congratulations to Sajid Ali Sadpara for summiting Annapurna peak in Nepal without oxygen and sherpa. Indeed, a great, great achievement and a proud moment for Pakistan, es-pecially Gilgit-Baltistan. Best wishes and prayers for his future endeavours.”
Earlier, a tweet posted on Sadpara’s account on Friday said he was at Annapurna’s camp four at the time along with the rope fixing team of Seven Trek’s summit.
“Potentially they will make summit push tonight and if everything goes right, will summit on 15 April.
“PS: He is part of the fixing team and climbing without oxygen,” the post read. Sadpara had reached Nepal last month, with the mission to summit three of the world’s highest mountains Alpine style and without supplemental oxygen.
Before his departure, Sadpara said he was going to climb Kangchenjunga (8,586m), Dhaulagiri (8,167m) and Makalu (8,481m) peaks.
The climber said the mission would take three months to complete. In April 2021, climbers Sirbaz Khan and Muhammad Abdul Joshi had become the first Pakistanis to summit Annapurna, but with sup-plemental oxygen and not in Alpine style.
‘Fulfilling father’s dream’
He has already summited K2 (8,611m), Gasherbrum-I (8,080m) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035m), in Pakistan and Manaslu (8,163m) in Nepal without supplemental oxygen.
He now aims to climb all of the world’s 14 eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen.
In February 2021, his father, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr had gone missing while attempting to summit the K2 during the winter season.
Their bodies were found in July, over five months after they went missing.
Sadpara described the search for the bodies of his father and other missing climbers as “the most chal-lenging and extraordinary mission” of his life.
“First, the summit of K2 itself was a dangerous adventure and the burial of my father above eight thousand metres was heartbreaking,” he said.
“It was impossible to take the bodies back to base camp so we decided to bury them on the mountain.”
Sadpara said the completion of his mission to summit all 14 peaks above eight-thousand metres altitude without supplementary oxygen would be the fulfilment of “his father’s dream”.
“For him, climbing was something he was born to take up,” he added. Sadpara has made a name for himself in the Alpine community with his summits of the most daunting peaks at a young age. He climbed K2 — the world’s second-highest mountain — twice, one time without supplemental oxygen. In 2022, he summited the Manaslu peak without supplemental oxygen, becoming the first Pakistani to achieve the feat.
He set records when he summited both Gasher-brum-I and Gasherbrum-II peaks in three days and 18 hours without supplementary oxygen.—Agencies
