Mountaineer appeals for treatment

Rawalpindi

Hassan Sadpara who is a renowned Pakistani mountaineer and an adventurer from a small village Sadpara, from Skardu Gilgit-Baltistan is seriously ill and admitted in a local hospital. Bringing laurels for the country from all over the world now looks forward for government financial help to bear expensive treatment in the hospital.

He is the first Pakistani to have climbed six eight-thousanders including the world's highest peak Everest (8848m) besides K2 (8611m), Gasherbrum I (8080m), Gasherbrum II (8034m), Nanga Parbat (8126 m), Broad Peak (8051m). He is also credited for summiting five of the eight-thousanders without using supplemental oxygen.

Hassan Sadpara belongs to a remote area of Sadpara Baltistan, some seven miles from Skardu city. He has four children, three sons and a daughter. He started as a high altitude porter. It was his dedication and self-confidence that let him to the summit of world's highest peaks.

Sadpara was the second Baltistani to have climbed all five of the 8000m peaks of Pakistan, after Nisar Hussain of Sadpara village. Unlike most climbers from the West, who are equipped with state-of-the-art climbing gear (and sometimes sponsored by multinational corporations), Hassan Sadpara started his career from scratch, with very few resources, and has climbed with whatever gear he could manage. He has worked as a porter for expeditions, including ones led by Koreans and Poles. He runs a shop for used and new mountaineering equipment in the Skardu bazaar.

After his successful summit of Mount Everest, he told in an interview that he can summit all the top 14 mountain peaks if he is sponsored and has requested the Pakistan government or international corporations in his regard. His other dream is to open a mountaineering school in his city so that he and others like him can transfer their knowledge to the youth from around the world. He can be contacted on cell number 0346-5077620.