Who is Ali Sadpara?

Muhammad Ali ‘Sadpara’ was born in the village of Sadpara near Skardu in Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan region in 1977 and has climbed four of Pakistan’s five mountains above 8,000 metres high.

Before his feat today — where he reached the summit of Nanga Parbat with Spaniard Alex Txikon and Italian Simone Moro — he had already climbed Nanga Parbat twice before, but not in the winter. He has also climbed Broad Peak, and Gasherbrum 1 (also known as Hidden Peak) and Gasherbrum 2.

According to details available on the blog of his fellow climber Alex Txikon, Sadpara in 2006 climbed 7,027 metres high Spantik all by himself.

Till around 2000 he used to live in Pakistan’s cities, in particular Karachi, where many people from Gilgit-Baltistan head for to make a living.

However, acting on a friend’s advice, he went back to his home region and began working for expeditions. According to an interview of Sadpara on Alex Txikon’s blog, he first worked for a Korean expedition to K2 as a high-altitude porter. To date, he has worked for 18 expeditions.

He had harsh words for the Alpine Club of Pakistan saying that its head could not even name Pakistan’s highest mountains above 8,000 metres and that he had no idea which Pakistani mountaineer had climbed which mountain. He also said that whatever he had learnt was on his own working on various expeditions and that the Alpine Club had played no role whatsoever in this.