Renowned Pakistani mountaineer Hassan Sadpara passes away

RAWALPINDI: Famous Pakistani mountaineer Hassan Sadpara died on Monday. He was 53. Hassan Sadpara was a well known Pakistani mountaineer and an adventurer from the small village of Sadpara, 7 kilometres from Skardu in Gilgit Baltistan.

He was the first Pakistani to have climbed highest peak Mount Everest (8848m) K2( 8611m), Gasherbrum I( 8080m), Gasherbrum II( 8034m), Nanga Parbat( 8126 m), Broad Peak (8051m).

He belonged to a remote area of Sadpara Baltistan, some 7 miles from Skardu city. He had four children including three sons and a daughter .

He started as a high altitude porter and owned a small shop of used mountaineering equipment in Skardu city.

 He was the second Baltistani to have summited 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  few resources and has climbed with whatever gear he could manage.

 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.

 His other dream was 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.

 The world famed mountaineer had been suffering from blood cancer and admitted to a hospital of Rawalpindi .