Legendary mountaineer Little Karim passes away

ISLAMABAD: World-famous legendary mountaineer Muhammad Karim formally known as “Little Karim” breathed his last at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi on Monday.

He was 72 and under treatment at the army hospital for the past two months due to liver disease. The funeral prayer of Karim was offered at Sofia Masjid in Rawalpindi on Monday.

Karim, who hailed from the Hushe valley of Ghanche district of Gilgit Baltistan, was suffering from a liver disease but, as per doctors, due to his age, a transplant could not be possible. He holds the world record for climbing the 8,035 meters high Gasherbrum 2, without supplementary oxygen.

Abdul Karim was known as “Little Karim”, a name given to him by the leader of a French expedition in 1979. In 1985, French documentary maker Laurent Chevallier shot a documentary based on Karim. In 1997, the same filmmaker shot another documentary based on the mountaineering legend, this time titled ‘Mister Karim’.

As per reports, initially, he was rejected as porter by a team by looking at his stature that he would not be able to carry 25 Kg of weight up to the base camp of K-2. Though he was in his teens, he looked like a 10-year-old boy due to his appearance.

A Swiss team ran out of porters and took him along. In the same trip he managed to summit a 7000-meter peak. The Spanish team wrote a book about the life of little Karim and also made a film in 2000 the film was seen on the big screen in Spanish Cinema.