Ali Sadpara


Muhammad Ali Sadpara was a Pakistani mountaineer. He was part of the team that completed the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat in 2016. Throughout his career, Sadpara successfully climbed a total of eight eight-thousanders, four of which he ascended in a single calendar year.

Early life

Sadpara was born on 2 February 1976 in the village of Sadpara, located near Skardu in Gilgit−Baltistan, Pakistan. He was the youngest of eleven children, and eight of his siblings did not survive childhood. He married his wife, Fatima, when he was 19 and had his first son, Sajid, shortly afterwards; he had a total of three children. He completed his FA from a government college in Skardu and was a member of his college football team. He began his career as a high-altitude porter, serving as an assistant in mountain-climbing expeditions. Like most other porters, Sadpara traversed the Baltoro Glacier in flip-flops and castoff gear.

Mountaineering career

In 2006, Sadpara climbed his first eight-thousander, Gasherbrum II, located in the Karakoram range.
In 2015, Sadpara's team attempted to scale Nanga Parbat during wintertime and were unsuccessful. The team attempted another winter ascent in 2016 and successfully summited its peak, resulting in the first-ever winter ascent of the mountain. Sadpara would successfully summit Nanga Parbat four times in his mountaineering career.
In January 2018, Sadpara joined Basque mountaineer, in an unsuccessful attempt on Mount Everest during winter without supplemental oxygen.
In June 2018, he joined French speed climber to undertake a five-year program known as "Beyond Mount Everest". The pair planned to summit Nanga Parbat, K2 and Mount Everest in 2019, 2021, and 2022, respectively.
Mountain NameRangeCountryYear of AscentNotes
Gasherbrum IIKarakoramPakistan / China2006
Golden PeakKarakoramPakistan2006
Nanga ParbatHimalayasPakistan2008
Muztagh AtaPamirChina2008
Nanga ParbatHimalayasPakistan2009
Gasherbrum IKarakoramPakistan / China2010
Nanga ParbatHimalayasPakistan2016First winter ascent
Broad PeakKarakoramPakistan / China2017
Nanga ParbatHimalayasPakistan2017First autumn ascent
PumoriHimalayasNepal / China2017
K2KarakoramPakistan / China2018
LhotseHimalayasNepal / China2019
MakaluHimalayasNepal / China2019
ManasluHimalayasNepal2019

Final climb

During the winter season of 2020–2021, Sadpara, along with his 21-year-old son Sajid, teamed up with Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri Sigurjónsson and Chilean mountaineer Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto for a joint ascent of K2. After acclimatising, the team left the highest camp on the evening of 4 February 2021. Sajid was later forced to descend due to an oxygen regulator malfunction, leaving the other members of the team at the K2 Bottleneck, close to the summit. Sadpara, Sigurjónsson, and Prieto continued their ascent to K2's summit, but did not return by night as planned, and were declared missing on 5 February 2021. A rescue mission with two Pakistan Army helicopters was organised on 6 February 2021 to search for the team.
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. On 26 July 2021, three bodies believed to be of the missing mountaineers were found on the slopes above Camp 4. Sadpara's body was found around below the K2 Bottleneck. The bodies were found by a Madison Mountaineering Sherpa Team that was fixing ropes above the camp. Sajid then retrieved the bodies of the three missing climbers including his father.

Tributes