Ali Sadpara

Ali Sadpara was a Pakistani mountaineer and adventurer from Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. He was the first Pakistani to have climbed six eight-thousanders including the world's highest peak Everest (8848m), K2 (8611m), Gasherbrum I (8080m), Gasherbrum II (8034m), Nanga Parbat (8126 m) and Broad Peak (8051m). He was also credited for summiting five of the eight-thousanders without using supplemental oxygen. He was born on 2 February 1976 in Sadpara, a small village in a remote area of Baltistan, some 7 miles away from Skardu. He did not receive any formal education and worked as a high-altitude porter in mountain-climbing expeditions. He earned worldwide fame in 2016 when a three-man team he was a member of became the first to summit Nanga Parbat in winter. On 5 February 2021, he went missing along with two others - Iceland's John Snorri and Chile's Juan Pablo Mohr - while trying to climb K2, the world's second highest peak and also reputedly the deadliest. His son Sajid was also a member of the team and the idea was for the father-and-son duo to summit K2 without oxygen, a feat never done before in winter. But Sajid had to turn back from a spot called the Bottleneck - also known as the "death zone", some 300 metres from the top - after he felt sick. Sadpara, Snorri, and Mohr continued their ascent to K2's summit, but did not return by night as planned, and were declared missing. A rescue mission with two Pakistan Army helicopters was organized to search for the team, but failed to find any trace of them. On 18 February 2021, Pakistani authorities announced that the three men were officially presumed dead, but the search for their remains would continue. Sadpara's family also declared him as presumably dead on the same day. He was one of the most popular and respected mountaineers of Pakistan.