The country’s climbing organization announced on Monday that a Pakistani mountain climber who took part in a risky rescue operation earlier this month and assisted in recovering a dead body passed away while on an adventure.
Over the weekend, while assisting an excursion with a Portuguese climber, Murad Sadpara was struck by a boulder on the head as he descended Broad Peak mountain, the 12th highest in the world at 8,051 meters (26,414 ft).
“His death is a sobering reminder of the extreme risks involved in high- altitude climbing, where the line between life and death is often perilously thin,” Karrar Haidri, the head of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told AFP.
His death was verified by a rescue team on Monday, following a difficult weekend due to bad weather and logistical issues that prevented them from reaching him.
Sadpara, who was in his early thirties, was from a mountain town that was well known for producing exceptionally talented porters who frequently assisted in trips that broke records.
The body of Muhammad Hassan Shigri was successfully collected by Sadpara and four other teammates from the high altitude of 8,200 meters on K2, a feat the Alpine Club hailed as the first of its type on the second-highest mountain in the world, a little over a week before he passed away.
Sadpara was a member of the team that removed an Afghan climber’s body from Camp 3 on the summit a year prior—the first body to be brought back from K2.
This summer climbing season, five foreign climbers have died in different incidents after falling to their deaths on Pakistani mountains.
