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A legless Nepalese soldier has made history by becoming the first double amputee to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain.
Hari Budha Magar (43) climbed Mount Everest on 17 April – exactly 13 years after he lost his legs in a bomb attack – and reached the summit of the 8 849m mountain at 3pm last Friday.
Hari lost his legs fighting for the UK in Afghanistan.
He and his team spent 18 days waiting for the weather to clear before they could journey to the peak.
“All of my jackets were completely frozen. It was all frozen. Even our warm water, we put hot water in the Thermos and that was also frozen, and we were not able to drink,” Hari said.
Hari and the team didn't only have bad weather to contend with.
Their other challenges included Hari's oxygen tank running out, and having to watch the grisly sight of the bodies of two dead climbers being carried down the mountain.
"When I came down we ran out of oxygen. The guys came up with oxygen . . . I was bumping down on my bum and we had 30, 40 minutes of oxygen, and we still had about two, three hours to get down.
“This was the first time I experienced what it is to be deprived of oxygen. I had the tingling sensation, my hands and feet were cold, and I was gasping for breath,” he told the Hindustan Times.
Although he considered giving up, thoughts of his son kept him going.
Once they reached the summit, they stayed for only a few minutes before beginning their descent, due to the bad weather, but Hari was thrilled at having achieved his goal.
“I hugged all the Sherpas and cried like a baby. I was so happy,” he said in a video clip.
Hari wanted to climb the mountain in 2018 but back then the Nepalese government didn't allow disabled people to do so. That ban was overturned after a court challenge which Hari was part of.
Two below-the-knee amputees have reached the peak in the past – New Zealander Mark Inglis in 2006 and China's Xia Boyu in 2018.
Growing up in Nepal, Hari saw how differently-abled people were treated.
“Many people still think that disability is a sin of previous life, and you are the burden of the earth. I believed this myself because that is what I saw. That is how I grew up.”
Hari was a soldier in the Gurkha regiment in the British Army from 1999 until 2010, when he lost his legs after stepping on an IED (improvised explosive device).
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“It was pretty hard and at one point I was just drinking too much, to just control my pain and emotions and all the things, and I tried to kill myself a couple of times.”
Nearly a year after losing his legs, he began taking part in Paralympic sports. Over the past decade he has climbed Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, Nepal's Mera Peak, Morocco's Mount Toubkal and Australia's Mount Black.
Last year he skydived from a helicopter in the Khumbu region of Cameroon and climbed to Everest base camp on his prosthetic legs.
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Hari says he wants to change people's perceptions of the disabled.
“My life changed in a blink of an eye. But whatever happens you can still lead a fulfilling life. If a double-above-knee amputee can climb Everest, you can climb whatever mountain you face, as long as you are disciplined, work hard and put everything into it.”
SOURCES: THE GUARDIAN.COM, HINDUSTANTIMES.COM, MANILATIMES.COM, GOODNEWSNETWORK.COM, ALJAZEERA.COM
