The late mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara (1976-2021) was honored with a memorial at MP Chowk in Gilgit’s Sonikot. The round-about was renamed Sadpara Chowk, his son Sajid Ali Sadpara announced on Twitter.
The memorial depicts Sadpara in climbing gear, complete with oxygen equipment, leading some to say on Twitter that it should be removed as the climber wasn’t wearing one on his most recent ascent.
Sajid was part of Sadpara’s last expedition but was forced to return after becoming unwell and the mask’s regulator leaking.
According to Sajid’s interview with the BBC, Sadpara wanted Sajid to keep climbing since the Nepalese had climbed the mountain a week ago and wanted to do it too since it was “our mountain”.
Sadpara senior was a high-altitude climber who became the only team in the world to scale Nanga Parbat in the winter of 2016.
He has also climbed eight of the 14 highest mountains globally, four of which he climbed in the same anus.
Sadpara disappeared on February 5, 2021, while attempting to climb K2 in winter. Two other climbers, Icelander John Snorri and Chilean Juan Pablo Mohr were trying to climb K2, the second-highest peak in the world at 8,611 m or 28,251 feet.
He was officially pronounced dead on February 18, but his body was not found until the summer of 2021.
