A double-amputee ex-British Gurkha soldier from Nepal Hari Budha Magar scripted history by conquering the world’s highest Mount Everest with artificial legs. On Tuesday, Magar received a heroic welcome from his relatives and family members as he arrived back in Kathmandu.
Addressing the people gathered at the Kathmandu airport, the former Nepalese soldier said, “This achievement is the result of collective effort, there’s a team who have betted their lives to make my dream come true- ascend the Everest. I have been supported by the Government of Nepal and people from various nooks and corners of the world. Without your support, always being side by side, and blessings it wouldn’t have been possible.”
Here’s all about Nepal’s Hari Budha Magar, a double-amputee climber who conquered Mount Everest:
- Born in 1979, Hari Budha Magar was brought up in Nepal’s mountainous district of Rolpa- the mainland of the Maoist insurgency. At the age of 19, Magar began his career in the British Gurkhas in 1999 and gave the prime of his life to the English government.
- In 2010, the British Army veteran lost his legs in 2010 during a mission in Afghanistan when he stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) laid by the Taliban.
- Over a year after the incident, Magar started taking part in all the sports activities that were listed in the Paralympics. During an interview with the news agency ANI in 2022, Magar had said, “In the near future, I look forward more to climbing mountains and doing more adventure to raise awareness about disability in Nepal and around the world.”
- Within the last decade after the tragedy, Magar summited Ben Nevis (1345 meters) in 23 hours and 20 minutes, Mount Blanc (4,808.72 meters), Kilimanjaro (5895 meters), Mera Peak (6,476 meters), and Mount Toubkal (4,167 meters).
- In 2022, he also skydived from a helicopter in the Khumbu region and trekked up to the Everest Base Camp on his prosthetic legs.
(With inputs from ANI)
