Double amputee veteran conquers Mount Everest

Nepalese veteran Hari Budha Magar becomes the first person with both legs amputated below the thigh to climb Mount Everest.

"He climbed Mount Everest at 3 p.m. on May 19. After conquering the mountain, he went down to the rest camp and will return to Kathmandu tomorrow, May 22," Him Bista, a member of Magar's team, said on May 21.

Magar, 43, lost both legs below the thighs after stepping on an improvised explosive device in 2010. He was on patrol in Afghanistan with the Gurkhas, a Nepalese ethnic minority who have fought in the British army for more than 200 years.

Hari Budha Magar in Kathmandu on April 3. Photo: AFP

The two amputees who have conquered Mount Everest below the knee are Mark Inglis from New Zealand in 2006 and Xia Boyu from China in 2018.

With a prosthetic leg, Magar rowed around the Isle of Wight, Britain's largest island, and climbed several peaks, including Toubkal in Morocco, Ben Nevis in Scotland, and Mont Blanc in Europe.

For years, he was prevented from climbing the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, at 8,849 metres (29,000 feet), because Nepali law prohibited amputees and blind people from climbing the mountain. The Nepalese court overturned the law in 2018 under pressure from climbers like Magar.

“As long as you can adjust your life according to time and circumstances, you can do anything you want. There are no limits, the sky is the limit,” Magar said last month on his way to the summit of Everest.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of trekkers each year in the spring, when temperatures are mild and Himalayan winds are less fierce.

Nearly 450 climbers have scaled Mount Everest this climbing season, said Bigyan Koirala, a Nepalese tourism official. Officials have issued permits to 478 people, at a cost of $11,000 each.

Most climbers need guides, so more than 900 people are expected to climb Everest during the climbing season that runs through June. Nine people have died during this year's expedition.

Hong Hanh (According to AFP )

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